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FrancoAngeli Journals

Geographies of Urban Financialization: Global Dynamics, Italian Scenarios

No. 3 (2025)

Towards a geography of urban financialization in Italy: A theoretical framework

  • Emanuele Sciuva
  • Caterina Ciarleglio
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/rgioa3-2025oa21174
Submitted
ottobre 2, 2025
Published
2025-10-24

Abstract

Towards a geography of urban financialization in Italy: A theoretical framework. Financialisation has gained centrality in academic and public debates, especially since the 2008 financial crisis, highlighting the increasing role of finance in urban processes. Through the emergence of financial markets, actors and narratives, real estate, infrastructure and urban development projects have been incrementally treated as financial assets, transforming cities into global capital markets. Although this phenomenon has been widely studied internationally, the literature in Italy remains limited. This monographic issue of Rivista Geografica Italiana intends to fill this gap, offering a critical review of the literature and proposing new perspectives for the study of financialisation in the Italian context. The authors analyse the global debate, investigating how the dynamics of financialisation find expression in the Italian case, focusing on issues such as housing, short-term rentals, urban development projects and infrastructures. The introductory article is divided into four sections: an introduction that sets out the objectives and methodology shared by the authors; a theoretical framework that examines the emergence of financialisation as an urban theme; a summary of the contributions to the volume; and finally, some proposals to further develop Italian geographical research, highlighting how a look ‘from Italy’ can enrich the international theoretical debate.

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