Spaces of wealth (re-)production: Conceptualizing the role of the super-rich in urbanization and circuits of extraction in Latin America

Abstract

Latin American countries are typically dominated by high degrees of economic and political concentration of power, which is orchestrated particularly by so-called ‘economic groups’, i.e., conglomerations of companies that are owned and governed by extremely rich individuals and families. While literature from political economy (i.e., the varieties of capitalism school) has provided interesting insights and explanations, there is only incipient discussion from urban theory and critical geography regarding this phenomenon. Our presentation addresses this gap by theorising the urban and territorial strategies of the ‘super-rich’ and the corresponding economic groups drawing on the concept of circuits of extraction (Arboleda 2020). It follows recent calls for paying more attention to the production strategies of the wealthy instead of their consumption, which is also key for compromising the future of the planet (Huber 2022).

We conceptualise the super-rich and their economic groups as operational centres of extractive systems, where control over the material and immaterial flows between urban centres and the hinterlands of resource extraction is used to secure the (re)production of wealth (Ye et al. 2020). In this sense, extractivism is a multidimensional project based on the functional integration of infrastructural networks of production, circulation and consumption, of natural resources and built environments, of urban space and non-urban territories as well as the imbrication of financial, logistic, and techno-scientific landscapes (Arboleda 2020).

To illustrate these theoretical claims, we draw on first insights of an ongoing comparative research in Latin America, which focuses on three circuits of extraction and reproduction of wealth and space: (i) the agri-urban nexus in the Brazilian Matopiba territories; (ii) the mining-urbanisation nexus in the Chilean regions of Antofagasta and Santiago, and (iii) the infrastructure-finance nexus in the Mexican area of Cancún. By paying special attention to the simultaneous stakes of powerful economic groups in different sectors (such as urban infrastructure, housing, agribusiness, water, mining, tourism), we examine how wealth accumulation is linked to uneven territorial development.