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ABSTRACT
This article identifies and discusses some of the ideas of Michel Foucault and applies them to the history of Brazilian city planning. It is argued and shown that the theoretical framework developed in his work provides a useful insight for the understanding of the discourse on city planning in Brazil. I discuss concepts created by Foucault such as discipline and bio-power applying them to the planning history of mainly Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, but also providing insights on Recife, analysing episodes of interventions in Brazilian cities.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Boyer, Dreaming the Rational City.
2 Foucault, Surveiller et punir.
3 For a critique of Foucault's work by a historian see Poster, “Foucault and History”; Noiriel, “Foucault and History,” and Léonard, “L’historien et le philosophe”. For a discussion of Foucault and the French historians see Foucault, “Table ronde”. For a brilliant defence of Léonard's critique see Foucault, “La poussière et le nuage”.
4 Barbosa et al. “Congresso de Engenharia e Industria”.
5 Boyer, Dreaming the Rational City.
6 Barbosa et al. “Congresso de Engenharia e Industria,” 176.
7 Harvey, “Between Space and Time,” 418.
8 For details on these periods of Rio de Janeiro's history see Abreu, Evolução Urbana; Benchimol, “Pereira Passos”; Benchimol, “A modernização do Rio de Janeiro”; Barbosa, “Modernização urbana”; Kessel, “A vitrine e o espelho”; Needell, “Rio de Janeiro at the Turn of the Century”; Needell, “Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires”; Needell, A Tropical Belle Époque; Meade, “Civilizing Rio”; Pechmann and Fritsch, “A reforma urbana”; and Reis, O Rio de Janeiro.
9 Foucault, “L’oeil du pouvoir,” 213–214.
10 Ibid., 214.
11 Machado et al., Da(n)ação da norma, 246; Benchimol, “Pereira Passos,” 214; Pereira, “L’ephémere et la perenité,” 263–264.
12 Machado et al., Da(n)ação da norma.
13 Foucault, L’archeologie du savoir.
14 Foucault, Naissance de la clinique.
15 Machado et al., Da(n)ação da norma, 248.
16 Ibid., 258.
17 Ibid., 261.
18 Ibid., 264–265.
19 Ibid., 266.
20 Ribeiro, “As condições actuaes,” 6. See on this aspect the excellent works of Abreu, Evolução urbana; Kessel, Crescimento urbano and Pereira, L’ephémere et la perenité, 465–466.
21 See particularly Outtes, Disciplining Society, Chapters 3 & 4.
22 Machado et al., Da(n)ação da norma, 266.
23 Boyer, Dreaming.
24 Ibid., 9.
25 Ibid., 14.
26 Ibid., 15.
27 Ibid., 17.
28 Ibid., 20.
29 See the numerous articles by Mello, “O problema psychologico”; Mello, “Urbanismo”; Mello, O recreio ativo; Mello, “Urbanismo: O recreio activo”; Mello, Problemas de urbanismo; Mello, “Os parques estaduais”; Mello “Habitação e urbanismo,” and Mello, “A cidade jardim”.
30 Mello, “Os parques estaduais”.
31 Boyer, Dreaming, 25.
32 Ibid., 27.
33 Ibid., 29.
34 Ibid., 29–31.
35 Agache, Cidade do Rio de Janeiro.
36 Boyer, Dreaming, 33.
37 Ibid., 33.
38 See for his articles Freire, “Melhoramentos de São Paulo”; Freire, “A cidade salubre”; Freire, “A planta de Bello Horisonte”; Freire, “Codigos sanitários”; Freire, “A expansão da capital paulista”; Freire, “Urbanismo”. For histories of city planning in Rio de Janeiro see the work of Rezende, Planejamento urbano and Rezende, “Evolução da produção”. For urbanismo in São Paulo see the work of Campos, Os rumos; Simões Jr., O setor de obras públicas; Simões Jr., O setor de obras publicas; Simões Jr., Anhangabahú; Osello, Planejamento urbano; Leme, Planejamento em São Paulo; Leme, ReVisão do Plano de Avenidas; Leme, “Francisco Prestes Maia”; Leme, “La formazione dell’urbanistica”; Leme, “A formação do pensamento urbanístico”. See on the urbanismo of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Outtes, Disciplining. See also on the urbanismo of Brazil and Argentina Outtes, La ville; Outtes, “Discipliner la société”; Outtes, “Regolare la società”; Outtes, Disciplining; Outtes, “Disciplinando la sociedad”; Outtes, “Disciplining Society”; Outtes, “Disciplinando a la sociedad”; Outtes, “Cidade e habitação,” and on the urbanismo of Recife the works of Outtes, “O Recife pregado”; Outtes, “‘O corpo de um herói’,”; Outtes, O Recife: a gênese; Pontual, “Homens e coisas”; Pontual, “O urbanismo”; Pontual, “Gestão da cidade”; Pontual, “Tempos do Recife”; and Pontual, Uma Cidade e dois prefeitos.
39 See for his writing Maia and Cintra, “Um problema actual”; Maia, Estudo de um plano; Maia, “Os melhoramentos”; Maia, “A remodelação de São Paulo,” and Maia, Os melhoramentos. For the planning of São Paulo and particularly some garden-city suburbs see Andrade, Barry Parker.
40 See for his work all the bibliography on note 29.
41 Cavalcanti, Grandjean de Montigny.
42 Bouvard, “O relatorio”; Segawa, “Bouvard em São Paulo”.
43 Boyer, Dreaming, 37.
44 Ibid., 40.
45 Ibid., 45–46.
46 Ibid., 62.
47 Ibid., 63.
48 Harvey, “Between Space and Time,” 418.
49 Boyer, Dreaming, 65.
50 Ibid., 67–68.
51 Ibid., 68.
52 Ibid., 66.
53 Ibid., 69.
54 For the renewal of the port and the district see Lubambo, Do Corpo Santo. For the sanitation project see Brito, Saneamento. See on the work of Brito, Andrade, “O plano de Saturnino de Brito”; Andrade, “A peste e o plano”; Andrade, “Camillo Sitte”; Andrade, “Le pittoresque et le sanitaire”; and Andrade, “Saturnino de Brito”.
55 For the history of the animal traction tramway and its influence in the development of the city and vice-versa see Zaidan, O Recife. For data on the electric tramways see Mota, No tempo do bonde and for a socio-historical treatment see Rios, Linhas apagadas.
56 There is no space to deal in detail with the plans for Recife in this article. For a study of these plans see Outtes, O Recife, 1991, 43–218, and Outtes, O Recife, 1997, 57–212.
57 Ficher, Ensino e profissão, 230.
58 Martins, “Curso de administração”.
59 Law 1,874 of May 12, 1915, cf. Guaraldo, São Paulo, 117.
60 Perlman, The Myth of Marginality; Pino, Family and Favela.
61 For a more detailed analysis see Wright, “Tradition in the Service of Modernity”.
62 Ibid., 307–308.
63 Ibid., 330, note 15.
64 Ibid., 300.
65 Ibid., 310.
66 Ibid., 312.
67 For details on this episode see Bruand, Arquitetura contemporânea, 73.
68 Foucault, “Politics and the Study of Discourse”. See also Foucault, “Verité et pouvoir”.
69 Mello, “Habitação e urbanismo”.
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Joel Outtes
Joel Outtes has a Doctorate in Geography from the University of Oxford (2000) under the supervision of David Harvey and Colin Clarke and is an architect and planner who writes about history. He is Associate Professor level 04 at The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, having experience in the fields of urban planning, geography, urban design, history and architecture. He taught in universities of the United States (DePaul, Rowan, Eastern Illinois), United Kingdom (Institute of Latin American Studies, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of London; Open University) and Brazil. Joel studied architecture and planning (UFPE- Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 1986) and urban and regional development (MPhil, UFPE, 1991). He also holds a Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies (Diploma of Advanced Studies) in urban territories from the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, 1993. His intellectual output is related to historical-geographical questions such as urban planning, housing, and the Urban International, a comparative study of international urban institutions. His academic work received several prizes, among those the Nelson Chaves prize in the category of history from the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, the Harold Blakemore Essay Prize of the British Society for Latin American Studies, the Cultural Geography Award of the Association of American Geographers and the Brazil Section Award of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). He was also guest editor of Storia Urbana, Milan, Italy. His interests include urban and planning history, geography, sustainability and the teaching of geography, planning and architecture.