Serving the private good through legal manoeuvrings. Urban mega-projects and state-mediated dispossession in Madrid

Abstract

Urban mega-projects are commonly deemed a symbol of public-private alliances where redistribution of public money into private hands is common practice. They tend to be great platforms for strategically positioned companies in the private sector to place their services and maximise profits. Such dispossession processes are often actively orchestrated and backed by the state. Theorising through the concept of accumulation by dispossession, this article undertakes a closer examination on how these processes are arranged. Of special interest will be the role of state actors and the way they use legal manoeuvrings in organising dispossession. Using the example of Madrid´s large-scale riverfront regeneration, the analysis reveals how the local government made use of their monopoly of legal power by altering, circumventing and ignoring legal regulations to the benefit of certain economic actors in the private sector while at the same time dispossessing the larger urban population of (future) public spending.