Antonio Cattani | Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (original) (raw)
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Papers by Antonio Cattani
The Human Economy: a citizen’s guide. Cambridge: Polity, 2010
We have just been through a prolonged social experiment in which markets and money were left to f... more We have just been through a prolonged social experiment in which markets and money were left to find their own way around the world without much political interference. This experiment has been called 'neoliberalism', at one time 'the Washington consensus'. The freedom of these markets was mainly for those with lots of money. The rest of us had to adjust; and society became much more unequal as a result. One victim of neoliberalism was certainly democracy in any meaningful sense.
The increasing complexity of urbanization requires a more careful look at the relationships that ... more The increasing complexity of urbanization requires a more careful look at the relationships that produce and reproduce the Brazilian cities, locus of life of more than 80% of citizens and places in fruition by world economic system. This paper aims to demonstrate that, even after the creation of the City Statute in 2001 (document born from the claims of popular movements in the country's democratization in the 1980s and which regulates all the urban planning process of the cities in Brazil), the relation between social agents that (re)produce the urban space generates unequal political scenarios. In turn causing socio-spatial segregation, diminishing urban mobility, increased violence, emergence of "urban plutocrats" and flexibilization of the current legislation. This occurs because at one extreme is a State that fails to ensure the right to the city, exposing more people to high social vulnerability processes. On the other side, social movements contesting, ensuring and promoting rights already conquered by the population (which alter the nature of this process), and many times fighting against other more conservative movements which are used for political privileges to be held by use of power. Thus highlighting the contradictions that the Cities Statute cannot resolve, since, theoretically it should serve as a democratic territorial management channel. In this light, new debates appears for the social sciences, especially regarding the empowerment of new social agents, according to the economic dynamics and dominant politics in recent decades, as well as the search for a new typifying, nature and interests involved in urban planning. We believe that the academic debate needs to show -and also be updated about -the state action before the socially interested agents discuss and (re)produce the urban space. Therefore setting its stance towards democratically established legal frameworks, consonant to the proposal here presented, which aims to contribute to the sociological debate about the Brazilian cities, filling gaps left in recent years within the academy.
The Human Economy: a citizen’s guide. Cambridge: Polity, 2010
We have just been through a prolonged social experiment in which markets and money were left to f... more We have just been through a prolonged social experiment in which markets and money were left to find their own way around the world without much political interference. This experiment has been called 'neoliberalism', at one time 'the Washington consensus'. The freedom of these markets was mainly for those with lots of money. The rest of us had to adjust; and society became much more unequal as a result. One victim of neoliberalism was certainly democracy in any meaningful sense.
The increasing complexity of urbanization requires a more careful look at the relationships that ... more The increasing complexity of urbanization requires a more careful look at the relationships that produce and reproduce the Brazilian cities, locus of life of more than 80% of citizens and places in fruition by world economic system. This paper aims to demonstrate that, even after the creation of the City Statute in 2001 (document born from the claims of popular movements in the country's democratization in the 1980s and which regulates all the urban planning process of the cities in Brazil), the relation between social agents that (re)produce the urban space generates unequal political scenarios. In turn causing socio-spatial segregation, diminishing urban mobility, increased violence, emergence of "urban plutocrats" and flexibilization of the current legislation. This occurs because at one extreme is a State that fails to ensure the right to the city, exposing more people to high social vulnerability processes. On the other side, social movements contesting, ensuring and promoting rights already conquered by the population (which alter the nature of this process), and many times fighting against other more conservative movements which are used for political privileges to be held by use of power. Thus highlighting the contradictions that the Cities Statute cannot resolve, since, theoretically it should serve as a democratic territorial management channel. In this light, new debates appears for the social sciences, especially regarding the empowerment of new social agents, according to the economic dynamics and dominant politics in recent decades, as well as the search for a new typifying, nature and interests involved in urban planning. We believe that the academic debate needs to show -and also be updated about -the state action before the socially interested agents discuss and (re)produce the urban space. Therefore setting its stance towards democratically established legal frameworks, consonant to the proposal here presented, which aims to contribute to the sociological debate about the Brazilian cities, filling gaps left in recent years within the academy.