CRITICAL QUESTION:
“How can urban planning and architecture
actively resist the dominance of
speculative capital, and instead promote
equitable, community-driven development
that prioritizes social cohesion and public
life over the financialization of space?“
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The city is not just a physical construct of streets and buildings; it functions as a living entity, constantly shifting, shaped by the flows of CAPITAL and the fluctuating sentiments of FINANCIAL MARKETS. These
markets breathe life into urban spaces, influencing their form, rhythm, and social fabric. The bear and bull, symbols of MARKET CYCLES, govern urban expansion and contraction. The rat, a shadow of speculative capital, slips through unseen networks, transforming money into an intangible force that pervades the city. These ECONOMIC FORCES go beyond influencing skylines or property values—they penetrate the very essence of urban life, leaving scars of inequality, excess, and abandonment that reflect the impacts of financial systems.
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As capital becomes increasingly globalized, it fosters
a sense of “ONEWORLDEDNESS”—where economic
systems operate at a scale that seems too vast to grasp or
contest. The city, once a place where local communities
could assert influence, is increasingly subjected to
global finance, where investment knows no borders.
MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS, speculative
investments and international real estate firms transform
urban landscapes into sites for global accumulation,
distancing local populations from the forces shaping their
environments.
Film: The Wolf of Wall Street
(Scorsese, 2013)Douglas Spencer,
The Architecture of Neoliberalism
(2016) Reinhold Martin, The Urban
Apparatus (2016) Saskia Sassen,
Expulsions (2014) Film: High-
Rise (Wheatley, 2016) JG Ballard,
High-Rise Francesco Sebregondi,
The Avery Review 17 (2016) Film:
Cosmopolis (Cronenberg, 2012)
Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis (2003)
Maria Kaika, Society and Space
(2011)Alison Shonkwiler, The
Financial Imaginary (2017)Film:
Parasite (Bong, 2019)
Kim Stanley Robinson, Commune
Magazine (2018)
