Class Meets Land: the Embodied History of Land Financialization

‘Based on the book ‘Class Meets Land’ this paper reveals something seemingly counterintuitive: that 19th century class struggles over land are deeply implicated in the transition to 21st century financial capitalism. Challenging our understanding of land financialization as a recent phenomenon propelled by high finance, Maria Kaika and Luca Ruggiero foreground 150 years of class struggle over land as a catalyst for assembling the global financial constellation. Narrating the close-knit histories of industrial land, industrial elites, and the working class, the authors offer a novel understanding of land financialization as a "lived" process: the outcome of a relentless, socially embodied historical unfolding, in which, shifts in land’s material economic and symbolic roles impact both local everyday lives, and global capital flows.’