Over-indebtedness of the territory: geo-legal analysis of a global crisis

Abstract

Machado, Wilson Pantoja. (2018). Superendividamento: a responsabilidade pré-contratual do credor. Rio de Janeiro: Lumen Juris. The book of the Brazilian researcher Wilson Machado drew my attention in his broad approach to the phenomenon of over-indebtedness. This phenomenon has a direct influence on the organization and disorganization of territories, whether on a local, regional or global scale. Studies on globalization, with a critical character, show that economic groups (companies, banks, central countries), large entrepreneurs dominate the territory at the expense of the moral and economic bankruptcy of states. However, there is difficulty in describing the whole process by which a territory is indebted. Machado points out some paths that allow us to understand over-indebtedness through creditor actions. Wilson Machado's book is dedicated to improving the role of the creditor in the face of a process of individual or family over-indebtedness, however, when reading the book I realized that its content could be applied to explain the dynamism of a territory. Hence my interest, as a geographer, to understand how a creditor, state or private, can influence the dynamics of the territories.