The captivity of Land and Labor: Neoextractivist policy and planning in São Luís, Maranhão

Abstract

After decades of repeated socio-environmental conflicts in the port region of São Luís, Maranhão, triggered by the appropriation of land from traditional communities, the State and capital have used planning for changes in land use and occupation, legitimizing the land expansion and unifying different business interests. Understanding the process as the result of neoextractivist strategies of the local economic enclave, this article analyzes the relations between port and municipal planning which, based on the developmentalist discourse, have incorporated the demands of real estate capital in a new movement of “accumulation by spoliation” for the submission of Land and Labor to the captivity of capitalist reproduction.