Geographies of Wealth. Platform for Critical Research on Territorial Power.
Geographies of Wealth. Platform for Critical Research on Territorial Power. is one of the key intentions of the research project “Wealth & Space”.
The interactive public education and communication tool builds on methods of corporate analysis, a transdisciplinary approach and the political commitment towards communities and local stakeholders, and aims to denaturalize and repoliticize the systems of wealth concentration in the region.
Mission:
- To foster an understanding of wealth concentration dynamics in Latin America, as well as to denaturalise and repoliticise these systems of wealth extraction and concentration from a socio-ecological, solidarity-based and internationalist perspective.
- Geographies of Wealth focuses on understanding systems of extraction and wealth concentration through corporate analysis, a transdisciplinary approach and engagement with local communities and actors. Through these perspectives, it examines the strategies of national and international economic groups to accumulate capital via investments, property holdings, mega-projects, financial flows and other forms of political and economic power.
- Particular attention is paid to how these dynamics produce distinctive characteristics of regions and territories in Latin America, and how this production of space has tangible effects on communities, people and ecosystems in these regions.
Vision:
- To contribute to just social and ecological transformations in Latin America, for which the concentration of wealth currently constitutes an essential barrier.
- To enable the identification of interconnections between extractivism, financialisation processes, wealth accumulation, and the consolidation of economic elites in Latin America, as well as the existing patterns across different territories, economic groups, and economic activities.
- To strengthen academic dialogue on Geographies of Wealth and Just Transitions in Latin America and Europe from academic and political perspectives.
Objectives
1. Observe
Analyse the strategies of national and international economic groups in Latin America through which these sectors participate in and benefit from systems of resource extraction and wealth concentration in the region.
Expose mechanisms of dispossession of local communities and ecosystem degradation that arise as a consequence of resource extraction and wealth concentration.
2. Build networks
Encourage public discussion across Latin America on these issues, particularly with sectors such as public bodies and governments, regional academic organisations, trade unions, social and environmental organisations, and human rights and social justice groups.
Make visible and amplify the academic and social impact of the work carried out by members of the Observatory to contribute to just socio-ecological transitions.
3. Transform
Promote dialogue and transdisciplinary scientific research on issues of extraction and wealth accumulation in Latin America.
Highlight, support and promote academic and community initiatives whose work focuses on understanding the geographies of wealth.