Land dispossession and real estate extraction A study of the Bosque Diamante megaproject in Jilotzingo, Mexico

Abstract

One of the strategies that the capitalist system has adopted after the recent overaccumulation crisis is to expand its investment scope by shifting its extractive models to primary sectors such as fishing, livestock, and agriculture. This expansion has also extended to other areas, including tourism and telecommunications. In this paper, we will focus on the real estate sector, where the extractive model has intensified its speculative and financialization mechanisms, creating a network of strategies that involve aggressive privatization of public spaces and exploitation of natural commons, a phenomenon known as real estate extractivism. The primary objective of this research is to examine how these mechanisms have been implemented in the large-scale real estate project known as Bosque Diamante in Jilotzingo, State of Mexico.

Theoretically, this research relies on the reflective approach to the concept of real estate extractivism developed by some Latin American thinkers, while also acknowledging its epistemic debt to perspectives like neoliberal urbanism and the right to the city. We will employ the analytical framework proposed by Patricia Pintos on the mechanisms of this extractive model and apply it to our case study. We conclude that making this process of territorial dispossession visible helps us better understand the profound impacts that real estate extractivism has caused, affecting both biocultural heritage and the increasingly broad socio-environmental consequences linked to these real estate megaprojects.