Construction without urban: hyper-management in housing production from public companies in Brazil

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the strategies of large publicly traded construction and real estate development companies in housing production after the 2014 economic recession in Brazil. The results of a multi-method qualitative research reveal that these strategies were based on financial calculations and metrics and contributed to the consolidation of a field of companies that control disparate points of the housing construction sector, ranging from financial services to the manufacture of building components. This expansion of productive control is due to what we call “hyper-management of production”, which combines, at different levels, standardization, managerial technology, corporate governance, and political arrangements over the formulation of technical norms and public programs. Hyper-management has become detached not only from qualities of the urban but also from space itself and has been driven by the time value of money.

Keywords:
Construction; Housing; Real Estate Developers; Building Companies; Production Management; Production of Urban Space