Insurgent Regeneration: Spatial Practices of Citizenship in the Rehabilitation of Inner-City São Paulo

Abstract

The city center of São Paulo, Brazil, has increasingly become a key site for local housing movements to challenge the rules and practices of differentiated citizenship in urban Brazil. This is in line with Sassen’s analysis arguing that the last two decades have seen an increasingly urban articulation of global struggles, and a growing use of urban space to make political claims. Organized vacant buildings and occupations led by social movements in the center of São Paulo are prominent examples of urban spaces being appropriated to advance the claims of otherwise marginalized urban subjects. In the face of rising inequalities and social and spatial divisions across the city, squatted buildings emerge as a space of negotiation with political consequences at various times and scales. Apart from acquiring a symbolic value in the debate over regeneration and gentrification processes in the inner-city area of São Paulo, vacant building occupations are simultaneously intended by their proponents as a means to provide shelter to those in need, experiment with alternative ways of producing low-income housing in well-located urban areas, and contribute to wider demands for urban reform across Brazil. This article explores in detail the spatial practices of individuals and groups occupying a building known as Ocupação Marconi. It focuses on the production of the building being seen as a device for advancing alternative formulations of citizenship, and discusses the implication of this interpretation for a renewed definition of the notion and practice of urban regeneration.

巴西圣保罗的市中心，已逐渐成为挑战巴西城市中差异化的公民权规范及实践的在地住宅运动的关键场域。这与萨森（Sassen）主张过去二十年来见证了城市逐渐与全球斗争接合，以及城市空间逐渐用来进行政治宣称的分析相符合。社会运动在圣保罗市中心进行组织的閒置建筑和佔屋，是城市空间用来推进在他处被边缘化的城市主体的主张之显着案例。有鉴于城市中加剧的不平等和社会与空间的隔离，佔屋建筑浮现做为在不同的时间与尺度进行协商并产生政治后果的空间。除了在圣保罗内城区的更新与贵族化过程的辩论中取得象徵性价值之外，佔据閒置建筑同时也被其支持者用来作为提供庇护空间给有住房需求者的方法，并实验在区位良好的城市地区打造低收入住宅的另类方式，以及对全巴西更为广泛的城市改革要求做出贡献。本文细緻探讨佔据被称为“马可尼佔屋”建筑的个人及团体的空间实践。本文聚焦将该建筑物生产作为推进另类公民权形构的机制，并探讨此一诠释对于城市更新的崭新概念定义及实践的意涵。

Cada vez más, el centro urbano de São Paulo, Brasil, se ha convertido en sitio clave de los movimientos locales por la vivienda para retar las reglas y prácticas de ciudadanía diferencial en el Brasil urbano. Esto va en línea con el análisis de Sassen que sostiene que las últimas dos décadas han visto una creciente articulación urbana de las luchas globales, y una utilización del espacio urbano en aumento para efectuar reclamos políticos. Los edificios desocupados y las ocupaciones organizadas que orientan movimientos sociales en el centro de São Paulo son ejemplos prominentes de espacios urbanos tomados para adelantar los reclamos de sujetos urbanos que de otro modo estarían marginados. Frente a las crecientes desigualdades y divisiones sociales y espaciales que ocurren a través de la ciudad, los edificios invadidos aparecen como un espacio de negociación con consecuencias políticas en varios tiempos y escalas. Aparte de adquirir un valor simbólico en el debate sobre los procesos de regeneración y aburguesamiento en el área interna de la ciudad de São Paulo, las ocupaciones de los edificios desocupados tienen la intención simultánea para sus proponentes de servir como medio para proporcionar albergue a los necesitados, experimentar con alternativas para generar vivienda para gente de bajos ingresos en áreas urbanas bien localizadas y contribuir a las demandas más amplias de reforma urbana a través del Brasil. Este artículo explora en detalle las prácticas de individuos y grupos que ocupan un edificio conocido como la Ocupação Marconi. Se enfoca en la producción del edificio, viéndola como un mecanismo para avanzar en formulaciones alternativas de ciudadanía, y discute las implicaciones de esta interpretación por una renovada definición de la noción y práctica de la regeneración urbana.

Key Words:

• citizenship
• housing
• São Paulo
• social movements
• urban regeneration

• 公民权
• 居住
• 圣保罗
• 社会运动
• 城市更新

• ciudadanía
• vivienda
• São Paulo
• movimientos sociales
• regeneración urbana

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to Francisco de Assis Comaru and Ricardo de Sousa Moretti of Universidade Federal do ABC who collaborated on the research activities that led to this article. We would also like to thank the residents of Ocupação Marconi, for generously giving their time to this study.

Notes

1. The Right to the City was formalized by the Brazilian City Statute in 2001.

2. The social function of property refers to the prioritization of use value over exchange value, and of collective interest over individual ownership rights.

3. The total housing deficit is currently estimated by the municipality of São Paulo at 227.000 units (Fundação João Pinheiro – Centro de Estatística e Informações 2013).

4. The video is available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FwQDtJYDd0 (last accessed 1 June 2016).

5. A video describing the initiative is available online at http://www.mmpt.com.br/couch-surfing-na-ocupa-marconi/(accessed 1 June 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Beatrice De Carli

BEATRICE DE CARLI is Lecturer in Urban Design and Director of the Masters in Urban Design at Sheffield School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research and teaching explore questions of equity, diversity, and participation in urban areas. Her current work examines the self-organized tactics enacted by citizens to reappropriate urban space, and their capacity to produce transformative meanings, spaces, and social relations vis-à-vis dominant urban narratives and planned interventions.

Alexandre Apsan Frediani

ALEXANDRE APSAN FREDIANI is Lecturer in Community-Led Development in the Global South and Co-Director of the Masters in Social Development Practice at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London, London WC1H 9EZ, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include the application of Amartya Sen’s capability approach in development practice; participatory planning and design; and squatter settlement upgrading.