War of Places: The Colonisation of Land and Housing in the Financial Era (Guerra dos Lugares: A Colonização de Terra e Moradia na Era de Finanças) published by Boitempo book addresses the shift in housing that has occurred around the world, transforming this most important dimension of everyday life from a social good to a financial asset.

Based on her work for more than six years as the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, city planner and lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo Raquel Rolnik’s book provides research findings and case studies from around the world of precisely how housing has been co-opted as a financial asset, and the impacts of financialisation and colonisation of land on everyday lives especially for the urban poor.As part of the upcoming Whose Land is it Anyway Symposium, hosted by the RMIT Centre for Urban Research, Professor Rolnik will give a lecture based on the book’s themes and case studies and what the findings can teach us about the war of places unfolding in contemporary urban areas.

Come join us for drinks and nibbles to welcome Professor Rolnik and celebrate her work.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Professor Rolnik is a professor,architect and urban planner, with over 35 years of scholarship, activism and practical experience in planning, urban land policy and housing issues. In her career, Raquel has held various government positions including Director of the Planning Department of the city of São Paulo (1989-1992) and National Secretary for Urban Programs of the Brazilian Ministry of Cities (2003-2007) as well as NGO activities, such as Urban Policy Coordinator of the Polis Institute (1997-2002). From May 2008, Raquel was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing for a six years mandate, ending June 2014.