The favela in the city-commodity: deconstruction of a social question (original) (raw)

The emergence, consolidation and expansion of the favelas 3 in Rio de Janeiro, and the related debate about the virtues and vices of their existence in the city's social space, synthesize, in an eloquent manner, the various stages of metamorphosis of the Brazilian social question 4 . Each of them begins with the appearance of new propositions for the model of action regarding such territory, justified by the construction of social representations that defend and/or condemn the existence of favelas. For such, cognitive, normative, political, more or less erudite, arguments are mobilized, in different institutional ambits. Therefore, as a social question, the favela presupposes a discursive field and action open to passion and reason, centered around a set of aporias sustained by arguments with which they simultaneously intend to become acquainted, judge and propose, or, to be coherent with what has been enunciated above, propose, judge and become acquainted. This is the starting point for this article. The understanding of the various conjunctures in which the favela enters the public debate must seek to elucidate the relations inherent between the explanation/assessment of its existence and its problems with the propositions of action. Here, however, we do not aim to reconstruct these conjunctures. It would be impossible to do so in this brief approach that only develop the oral communication presented in the seminar from which this book resulted. We center our reflection on the present conjuncture, which we consider as a hypothesis, constituting the final stage of the favela as a social question and the deconstruction of the aporia formerly established by the imposition of a set of instrumental and pragmatic justifications -which withdraw the debate from the 1 Senior Professor of the Institute of Research and Urban and Regional Planning of Rio de Janeiro Federal University -UFRJ. Researcher 1A of the CNPq (National Research Centre). Co-ordinator of the INCT Observatório das Metrópoles (Metropolis Observatory) -CNPq/Faperj/Capes.