LAND FINANCIALIZATION IN THE CERRADO: AN ANTI-SYSTEMIC AND LATIN AMERICAN CRITIQUE BASED ON AILTON KRENAK, ANTÔNIO DOS SANTOS, AND NANCY FRASER

Abstract

This study analyses the financialization of land in the MATOPIBA region as an expression of a global process of territorial expropriation and socio-environmental devastation, linked to the logic of contemporary capitalism. The study starts from the understanding that land has been transformed into a financial asset through the operations of investment funds and transnational economic agents, dismantling traditional ways of life and deepening structural inequalities. The aim of the research is to understand how this process operates on both regional and global scales, highlighting its effects on the Cerrado biome and the resistance strategies carried out by Indigenous peoples, Quilombola communities, and peasant populations. The study adopts a qualitative, theoretical-conceptual approach grounded in the hermeneutic-interpretive method. Data were collected through a systematic and interdisciplinary literature review using descriptors in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, with a focus on publications from the past three years, in dialogue with classical texts and empirical studies on the region. The analysis is based on a theoretical triangulation of the works of Nancy Fraser, Ailton Krenak, and Antônio Bispo dos Santos. The findings indicate that the advance of financial capital over the Cerrado threatens biodiversity, intensifies land conflicts, and shifts the meaning of land from a space of collective existence to a market asset. The forms of resistance analyzed—rooted in ancestry, reciprocity, and territorial autonomy—demonstrate that traditional peoples are not seeking inclusion in the dominant model, but rather the continuity of their own ways of life. The study concludes that the proposed anti-systemic critique offers key theoretical and political tools to rethink the relationships between territory, development, and environmental justice, pointing toward alternatives in the face of the civilizational crisis driven by contemporary capitalism.