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Keeping financialisation under the radar: Brussels Airport, Macquarie Bank and the Belgian politics of privatised infrastructure

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  • Laura Deruytter

    (Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium)

  • Ben Derudder

    (Geography Department, Ghent University, Belgium)

Abstract

This article explores the financialisation of Brussels Airport following the acquisition in 2004 of a majority stake by the Australian Macquarie Bank. Adopting a variegated capitalism perspective, we argue for a greater sensitivity to the mutually constitutive relation between durable institutional governance structures and financialised practices injected by global investors. The case of Brussels Airport presents an informative case to examine this relation, as Macquarie has had to continuously interact with the Belgian federal state in its different guises of contractor, co-owner and regulator to implement financialisation. While Macquarie indeed brought in risks that are structurally associated with profit making through financial means, the governance of these practices is shaped by the Belgian state’s distinctive and pragmatic approach to infrastructure privatisation: the state enables these practices, but also contests them in case of a direct clash with its interests. Meanwhile, the regulatory environment marks the contradictory meeting point of two varieties of capitalism: while the light-handed regulatory framework is inspired by the UK’s airport industry, the Belgian regulator does not possess similar abilities as a UK regulator, and resultantly, informal negotiations between the stakeholders are more influential in the airport’s governance. The case of Brussels Airport shows that the state plays an active role in constituting global capitalism, yet also shapes how financialisation works out on the ground. To understand the tensions that mark the governance of financialised infrastructure, it is therefore imperative to be sensitive to the local, historical and political trajectories that underwrite the variegated outcomes of financialisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Deruytter & Ben Derudder, 2019. "Keeping financialisation under the radar: Brussels Airport, Macquarie Bank and the Belgian politics of privatised infrastructure," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(7), pages 1347-1367, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:7:p:1347-1367
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098018809912
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    Cited by:

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    2. Laura Deruytter & David Bassens, 2021. "The Extended Local State under Financialized Capitalism: Institutional Bricolage and the Use of Intermunicipal Companies to Manage Financial Pressure," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 232-248, March.
    3. Peter O’Brien & Phil O’Neill & Andy Pike, 2019. "Funding, financing and governing urban infrastructures," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(7), pages 1291-1303, May.
    4. Callum Ward, 2021. "Contradictions of Financial Capital Switching: Reading the Corporate Leverage Crisis through The Port of Liverpool's Whole Business Securitization," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 249-265, March.
    5. Kobe Boussauw & Thomas Vanoutrive, 2019. "Flying Green from a Carbon Neutral Airport: The Case of Brussels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, April.
    6. Kevin Ward & Andrew Wood, 2021. "“We just need the developer to develop†: Entrepreneurialism, financialization and urban redevelopment in Lexington, Kentucky," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(7), pages 1471-1491, November.

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