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Technology, Sovereignty, Globalisation

Cities in the Hands of Global Finance

Lecture by Raquel Rolnik presented by Joan Subirats

Debate

Is the advance of global finances in the cities a threat to democracy? Raquel Rolnik, chair professor of the University of São Paulo and ex-secretary of Urban Programmes of the first government of Lula da Silva in Brazil, analyses the transformation of cities in the age of financial capitalism and considers why fundamental political values such as dissent and heterogeneity are being left outside the urban space. The lecture is presented by Joan Subirats, chair professor of Political Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).

Cities and territories all over the world are increasingly colonized by the empire of global finance, and in this takeover of urban policy by finance, technologies such as big data and the concept of smart cities have a central role. The effects are not only economic and cultural, shaping new spaces and new ways of living in them, but mostly political, defining a post political era in each there is no space for dissention and heterogeneity.  

Presenters: Joan Subirats

Participants: Raquel Rolnik

This activity is part of Technology, Sovereignty, Globalisation

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Raquel Rolnik

Cities in the Hands of Global Finance

Raquel Rolnik analyses the transformation of cities in the age of financial capitalism and considers why fundamental political values such as dissent and heterogeneity are being left outside the urban space. Rolnik is a professor, architect and urban planner, with over 35 years of scholarship, ...

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