Financialization and Water Security: The Ecological Limits of Property (A07)

• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 424638267

This project examines the relationship between financialization and property regimes using the example of water security. Water security is a European policy field in which water supply is no longer understood solely as a question of urban infrastructures but increasingly also as a question of the use of land areas that play an important role in the water balance. The financialization of the ecosystem services of land areas and the issuance of green bonds are regarded as central building blocks for the protection of the water balance. The project examines – both on the level of European programs and their implementation on the country and city level – how water security policies allow the ownership of financial securities, the calculation of natural capital, and the ownership and use of land to enter into contradictory constellations.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 294: Strukturwandel des Eigentums
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
• Project Head: Professorin Dr. Ute Tellmann