State property, venture capital and the urbanisation of state capitalism

To sharpen the conversation between urban studies and ‘new state capitalism’, I argue that studies of the state's role as a venture capitalist in the urban process may be developed along four lines: (1) expounding where logics of state-backed venture capitalism fit within shifting repertoires of urban entrepreneurialism; (2) specifying how the injection of state-owned capital in start-ups facilitates processes of both real and financial valorisation, thereby altering urban relations of production; (3) analysing state-backed venture capitalism in light of emerging forms of ‘derisking developmentalism’; and (4) foregrounding geopolitically infused techno-nationalism as a potentially significant driver of state-backed venture capital.