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The Geography of Profits and Politics – How Developers Shape Urban Development and Policy Making
Language: French and English
Throughout history, cities have not been built by politicians or planners but by the pursuit of private interests. While planning and their underlying policies may at best set out the broad spatial and functional vision of a city and its environs, the practical implementation is achieved through the activities of private entrepreneurs, developers, and construction companies. Driven by profits and intimately linked to politics, urbanization processes throughout the world have become more exclusive and more segregated since the promotion of the market enablement paradigm. Such trends represent greater challenges to societal peace and prosperity.
Given the importance in steering urbanization processes around the world, research on real estate supply actors remains very thin (Adams & Tiesdell, 2010; Coiacetto, 2009). There has been little effort to understand their influence (Coiacetto, 2007), even when considering Western countries and the most prominent supply actors of developers. One of the first books on development and developers was written by Guy and Henneberry (2002). While the state of the literature has broadened since then, the discourse remains fragmented with little dialogue among its many parts.
The panel aims at uniting scholars interested in the geography of profits and politics that underlies the creation of our built environment. We invite contributions that highlight the role of developers in urban development in the Global North as well South. The panel organizers are particularly interested in the different roles developers may play in the planning and building of cities and how insights may challenge the international enablement paradigm.