Urban warfare : housing under the empire of finance / Raquel Rolnik ; foreword by David Harvey ; translation by Felipe Hirschhorn.

English translation from the Portuguese of "Guerra dos lugares: a coloniza�c�ao da terra e da morandia na era das finan�cas" (S�ao Paulo: Boitempo, 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-349) and index.

Part I -- 1. The global financialisation of housing -- 2. The mortgage system -- 3. Exporting the model -- 4. Post-crisis measures: More of the same? -- 5. The demand-side subsidies model -- 6. microfinance: The last frontier -- Part II -- 7. Tenure insecurity -- 8. From enclosures to foreclosures -- 9. Informal, illegal, ambiguous -- 10. Private property, contracts and the globalised language of finance -- 11. Insecure tenure in the era of large projects -- Part III -- 12. Financialisation in the tropics -- 13. At the frontier of the real-estate-financial complex -- 14. Real-estate avenues -- 15. Real-estate games -- 16. June 2013: Journeys and beyond.

The most comprehensive survey of the current crisis, Urban Warfare charts how the financial crisis and wider urban politics have left millions homeless and in financial desperation across the world. The financialisation of housing has become a global catastrophe, leaving millions desperate and homeless. Since the 2008 financial collapse, models of home ownership, originating in the US and UK, are being exported around the world. Using examples from across the globe, Rolnik shows how our cities have been sold to construction companies and banks, while supported by government-facilitated schemes, such as "the right to buy" subsidies and micro-financing. Our homes and neighbourhoods have become the "last subprime frontiers of capitalism," organised by those who benefit the most.