Speculating on Development: Transnational Circuits of Accumulation in Coastal Andhra

<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences </strong> Seminar Notice <strong>Prof. Carol Upadhya</strong> (National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore) a talk on <strong>Speculating on Development: Transnational Circuits of Accumulation in Coastal Andhra</strong> Date : <strong>March 17, 2015 </strong> <strong>Abstract: </strong>In the months just before and after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in June 2014, land values in the core delta districts soared, driven by intense speculative activity in response to circulating and shifting rumours about the possible location of the new state capital. After the decision to establish the capital near Vijayawada was announced several months later, the land market became even more volatile as diverse actors manoeuvred to profit from the proposed construction of a 'world-class city' on the banks of the Krishna River. This story raises questions about the political economy of land in post-liberalisation India, especially the financialisation of agricultural land on the periphery of growing towns. In this presentation, I draw on these recent developments in Andhra to consider why land has become a prime site for the absorption, transformation, and re-circulation of value in the contemporary moment. I trace the trans-regional and transnational connections between local real estate markets and wider circuits of capital accumulation, especially through the agency of regional capital and diasporic actors. This case points to the 'immaterial' sources of value as land is transformed into real estate and gets entangled in circulating imaginaries of development and 'visions' of the future.