The urban dynamics of financial services: centralities in the metropolis

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to develop arguments that compare the dynamics of financial capital and urban space. It is first argued that financial services follow a concentration-centralization logic, with highly specialized services being offered at central places in urban space, and less complex services with a more dispersed pattern. This characteristic simultaneously promotes a centralized-deconcentration effect on the urban structure: the dispersal of services and urban amenities reduces transport costs and improves urban balance in a few places, while complex services are usually highly centralized, therefore promoting unbalanced (centre-periphery) urban development. In order to understand the balance between these two effects, this paper proposes a preliminary investigation that examines the localization of banks, income and other socioeconomic features in the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte, in Brazil.

Can economic development policy trigger gentrification? Assessing and anatomising the mechanisms of state-led gentrification

“…Another key feature for understanding about this case study is the fact that the elites in Belo Horizonte are located in the centre-south region. They are moving southwards, where new land developments have led to a cluster of gated communities since the 1990s, as revealed in previous studies (Almeida et al, 2017;Cavalcante et al, 2016;Costa et al, 2006). Belo Horizonte's planned central city has always concentrated infrastructure and services in the metro region.…”

“…The historical class geography in Belo Horizonte is in exactly the opposite direction of policy makers’ gentrification intentions – as they explicitly told us. As we mentioned in the case study contextualisation section, the elites are moving southwards, where new land developments have led to a cluster of gated communities since the 1990s (Almeida et al, 2017; Cavalcante et al, 2016; Costa et al, 2006). The likelihood of them moving into low-income areas would increase if the area was located closer to their original homes and had been subject to a massive removal policy.…”

“…Gentrifiers are therefore hardly attracted to the study area, since they desire to remain close to the neighbourhoods in which they were born, even if they could save money with living and transportation costs. According to the representative of the real estate industry, as well as previous studies (Cavalcante et al, 2016; Costa et al, 2006), the policy studied here was on the opposite side of the urban expansion axis for local elites (Villaça, 2001). The few potential gentrifiers who the land developers have been attracting to the region have been picking homes in gated communities much further away from the study area.…”

An assessment of the impacts of large‐scale urban projects on land values: The case of Belo Horizonte, Brazil

“…In this panorama, this work explores the case of the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte (MRBH), Brazil, as a case study to investigate empirical evidence of the relationship between LSUPs and land value increments. The MRBH is the third‐largest urban agglomeration in Brazil, with more than five million inhabitants, and it has undergone rapid urbanization with high social polarization—a typical case of Global South metropolises (Angotti, 2013; Cavalcante, Almeida, & Baker, 2016; Ghertner, 2015). The LSUPs studied here took place in its northern part, a relatively poor and peripheral zone of the MRBH.…”