POLITICAL DISPUTES FOR THE USE OF TERRITORY: THE RISE OF INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS IN ROAD CONCESSIONS IN THE FACE OF MAJOR BRAZILIAN LARGE CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES DECAY

Abstract

In general terms, it is understood that the State emerges as the final horizon of political action, configuring itself as an arena of dispute between social classes and class fractions, each seeking to make the State take on its demands. As an empirical basis, it was investigated how the political disputes that took place between 2014 and 2016 Brazil had as a side effect a reorganization of the highway concessions segment in São Paulo. There was the introduction of new agents, institutional investors, to the detriment of the sector's traditional agents, the large Brazilian construction companies. It was argued that this change in the sector's framework is not without consequences for territorial dynamics: it reveals an intensification of the financialization of infrastructure, reinforcing the perception of territory as a resource for use by hegemonic agents. Finally, it was argued that, unlike large construction companies, institutional investors cannot be considered representatives of a fraction of a class directly linked to infrastructure works, even if they are the agents whose share increases the most in the segment.

Keywords: State; road concessions; institutional investors.