Nowadays, intensifying capitalism and financial capital are profoundly shaping global urbanisation, making land a valuable commodity for wealth accumulation. In various contexts, this has exacerbated global capital flows and speculative real estate dynamics associated with money laundering, white-collar crime and the growth of urban mafias. Despite the diverse spatial contexts, one pervasive effect of these circumstances emerges: the deepening precariousness of housing access and worsening affordability crisis. However, the penetration of these new actors and their practices into most spheres of everyday life has generated local and community resistance, which needs to be understood and shared across national and regional contexts.

This seminar series explores the two sides of this phenomenon. On the one hand, it debates the nature of speculative real estate dynamics and the emergence of new interests and mechanisms that support questionable actors, including those involved in illegal activities. On the other hand, it discusses how social movements, organised communities and individuals develop strategies to resist, reimagine or survive within structures of hegemonic urbanisation. With the aim to identify convergences and divergences between these experiences, one main contribution of these collective discussions will be the development of a conceptual framework that links local resistance to the global structural dynamics of urban development. To achieve this, debates within the seminar series will compare three different urban development policy and planning structures: the American market-led system, the British planning-led system, and the Peruvian regulatory-flexible system. The framework is expected to challenge the individualistic logic of property ownership by considering alternatives that prioritise collective territorial connections and recognise socio-spatial collective rights.

The seminar series comprises four events discussing the issue of land commodification and its impact on housing affordability in cities around the world under capitalist urbanisation: 

1. First event: Hybrid research workshop on land commodification and the housing crisis. Location: Lima (Peru), from 15 to 17 October 2025. This event will consist in several working sessions between academics from the global North and South. They will debate the state of social science research on land commodification and access to housing developed in their respective regions. 

2. Second event: Methods School 'Doing research under uncertain circumstances'. It will take place in two parts. The first part will be held virtually from 9 to 13 March 2026, followed by the second part in person, in Lima (Peru), from 12 to 14 October 2026. A key component of the proposal, the school aims at enriching the research knowledge of Peruvian and Latin American academics living and working in the region (i.e. graduate students, researchers, consultants and early career academics), by exposing them to the latest thinking on methodology and ethics when researching sensitive topics such as those proposed in this project.

3. Third event: Colloquium in a hybrid format. Location: Lima (Peru), from 12 to 13 October 2026. This event will bring the academic world into conversation with non-academics, in particular policy and decision makers, activists, communities, consultants, etc., in a round-table debate format to discuss land commodification and housing affordability.

4. Fourth event: International Research Conference in a hybrid format. Location: Lima (Peru) from 15 to 17 October 2026. This event will be peer-reviewed and expects to bring together researchers and academics from around the world to debate, interrogate and critique the current dynamics of urban development, the issue of land commodification and its impact on access to housing in different regions. It will include keynote speeches, discussion panels and individual presentations.