The Right to the City: Theory and Practice in Brazil (original) (raw)
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The trajectory of the right to the city in Recife, Brazil: From belonging towards inclusion
Planning Theory
In 1967, Henri Lefebvre developed the Right to the City (RTC) as ‘a cry and demand’ for ‘a transformed and renewed right to urban life’. In Brazil, the RTC was institutionalised in the City Statute in 2001. We examine the trajectory of the RTC in Recife, Brazil, through the lens of Alain Badiou’s set-theoretical ontology of inconsistency, which argues that there is a fundamental disjunction between belonging and inclusion. The articulation between belonging and inclusion produces four different arenas of power and categories of being in the city that we develop as a heuristic framework for analysing the trajectory of participation in Recife, where the struggle for the RTC resulted in a system of popular participation. This system operated under the precept that ‘everyone who lives and works here belongs here’, in opposition to urban capital’s drive to include everything and everyone in the market. However, the RTC was captured within a discourse of participation and inclusivity (wha...
Urban law and right to the city: Urban struggles in the inner city of São Paulo
Brazil is known for the advances achieved in the field of urban law, mainly in reference to the City Statute established in 2001. The city of Sao Paulo was a pioneer in this regard, being the first to integrate tools from this avant-garde law into its Strategic Master Plan. Promulgated in 2002, this plan classified specific urban areas as ZEIS - Special Zones of Social Interest. By establishing areas in which the use of social housing is a priority, the plan has become an important element to enforce social justice. The “Nova Luz” project, currently being conducted by the Sao Paulo municipality, provides a valuable case study. The project will be the first of its kind, simultaneously applying two urban tools, the urban concession and the ZEIS. The intervention will take place in 45 blocks of the centrally located Luz neighborhood, an area known for its profit potential. More than a project of “urban renewal” aimed to interest the real estate market, disputes between the "users" of the space (residents, local business, homeless and social housing movements) and the municipality reveal a singularity whose elements allows us to reflect over the "Right to the City." On the one hand, this struggle reveals the limits given by the structural condition of contemporary capitalism on the production of the city, making us question the supposed advances in the Brazilian urban field. At the same time, the emerged conflicts point to forms of social resistance that are only possible through the presence of an urban condition, which replaces the terms of Lefebvre about a possible urban society.
Urban Policy, Social Movements and the Right to the City in Brazil
Latin American Perspectives
Brazilian urban social movements have played a key role in bringing about change in urban policy since the 1980s and in light of the widespread protests across the country in June 2013. This insurgency and the urban reform movement of the 1980s and 1990s exemplify waves of mobilization and demobilization, signaling positive change at the level of praxis. More recent events have highlighted challenges for Brazil’s political left.
Revista de Direito da Cidade, 2018
This paper explores the judicialization of the right to the city (urban environment) as a strategy of legal mobilization of groups and sectors, to guarantee time, opportunity and social pressure for their political pretensions in the public space and state organs. The study starts from a theoretical approach, with the deductive method, combined with a qualitative case analysis. Therefore, the research is supported by a bibliographical and documentary survey. It analyzes an episode that took place in Recife (Brazil), around the social and legal movement to prevent or mitigate the consequences of real estate development in an area of environmental interest-Cais José Estelita. Based on the methodological approach of Judicial Politics, the legal protection of the right to the city in Brazil is described (Normative Theory) and evaluated the motivations of legal decisions, taking into account the judicialization as exercise of a political activity (Positive Theory). The general hypothesis is that democratic participation has in judicialization the possibility of obstructing public policies, broadening political costs for state decisions and the potential for negotiation in administrative channels. Este artigo tem por objeto a judicialização do direito à cidade (meio ambiente urbano) como estratégia de mobilização legal de grupos e setores, garantindo tempo, oportunidade e pressão social para suas pretensões políticas no espaço público e órgãos estatais. O estudo parte de
The Place of Social Citizenship and Property Rights in Brazil's 'Right to the City' Debate
Social Policy & Society, 2020
There has been considerable attention on Brazil's experience in applying the right to the city, influencing the urban reform movement and subsequent legislation including the 1988 Constitution and the 2001 Statute of the City. While much is known about Brazil's urban transformations, this article views this trajectory within debates on social citizenship , expanding the focus to show that property is integral to this debate. Through the lens of social citizenship, property rights and insurgency, this article traces Brazil's right to the city debate through a focus on three issues: (1) the rights dimension of such debates; (2) the role of the social function of property in urban legislation; and (3) the role of insurgent planning evident in urban social movements. While property rights and land rights are often distanced from debates on social citizenship, the Brazil case provides evidence in which the two are clearly intertwined.
Equal Access to Rights in the City: The Specific Case of Lisbon in Portugal
Inhabitants are simultaneously the main actors and subjects of law and policy within the environment of a city. Since the rise of cities, to the ultimate reality of megacities in the 21st century, sociologists, philosophers and lawyers tried to find solutions to improve well-being in urban spaces. Lefebvre’s right to the city or the more recent ideas of happiness are some of the pathways suggested. This essay proposes a vision based on an aspiring right for social-ecological resilience in the city, examining the example of Lisbon in Portugal and how local administrations try to respond to the needs of citizens.