Edésio Fernandes

Constructing the `Right To the City' in Brazil

While there has been a growing utilization of Henri Lefebvres concept of the `right to the city, not much has been said about the legal implications of such a concept. This article discusses the main aspects of the legal construction of the `right to the city in Brazil. Following a discussion of Lefebvres contribution to the debate on urban politics, the article analyses the role played by the legal order in the determination of the exclusionary pattern of urban development in Brazil, as well as the role a redefined legal order can have in the processes of urban reform, socio-spatial inclusion, and sustainable development. Emphasis is placed on the main dimensions of the 2001 City Statute, the legal framework governing urban development and management, which recognized the `right to the city as a collective right, followed by an introduction to the proposed `World Charter of the Right to the City. As a conclusion, it is argued that, while a great deal has already been done to promote the materialization of the `right to the city in Brazil, there are still serious obstacles to be overcome, and renewed socio-political mobilization is required for the new legal-urban order to be fully implemented.

Implementing the urban reform agenda in Brazil

This paper describes the urban reform process in Brazil and its legal and institutional innovations since the promulgation of the 1988 Federal Constitution. These include the 2001 City Statute and the creation of the Ministry of Cities and the National Council of Cities in 2003. The paper discusses the progress to date in urban reform and the issues that still need to be addressed. Within this, it notes the need for a combination of legal reform, institutional change and renewed social mobilization at all levels to take advantage of the new political spaces created for urban reform, and thus to reverse the spatial and social exclusion that has characterized most urban development in Brazil in recent decades.

The Regularization of Favelas in Brazil - the Case of Belo Horizonte

LTHOUGH FAVELAS’ have long been an essential part of Brazilian cities, the relationship between them and the ’official’ city, and particularly with the state, has always been extremely difficult. Until the 1970s, conflict was intense and there were countless collective expulsions throughout the country. However, due to the increasing mobilization of favela dwellers and partly due to the work of the progressive branch of the Catholic Church, public policies concerning favelas have progressively had to favour the transfer of the population, instead of their expulsion. They have been largely unsuccessful, mainly because of the resistance of favela dwellers to the poor alternatives usually offered by the government. More recently, with the changes in the country’s political scene caused among other factors by the strengthening of popular movements some local authorities have started to recognize favela dwellers’ rights to remain on, and keep, their plots of land. Several official programmes have already been formulated to date, including both urbanization and legalization of favelas. Such programmes have been realized mainly through urban laws enacted at the local level, although some important policies have also been formulated at the federated-state level. This article aims to discuss some aspects of this process of regularization, which is an extremely important sociopolitical phenomenon full of contradictions and with very broad repercussions. It also aims to examine