Social housing in urban rehabilitation projects in São Paulo, Brazil: a comparative study of the Nova Luz Project and the “Casa Paulista” public-private partnership
Loading...
Date
2016
Authors
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AESOP
Abstract
In cities all over the world, it is well known that the rehabilitation of degraded urban areas can – and often does - trigger the displacement of socially vulnerable groups from the area under intervention, either actively, through forced evictions that follow both public and private works, either passively, as a consequence of the rise in property prices due to the implementation of the urban renewal process.
Gentrification, or the replacement of the poorer original residents by wealthier social groups, is often perceived by the real estate market, and most of the times also by the city’s Administration, as an index of the urban rehabilitation’s "success”.
Nevertheless, as SMITH (1996) points out, “gentrification, displacement and segregation point toward a significantly restructured urban geography”. Gentrification aggravates spatial segregation and social inequalities in the city as a whole, putting economic interests above social and environmental demands. Therefore, gentrification represents a violation of the “right to the city”, here understood as a third generation collective human right, dedicated to render cities environmentally balanced, economically prosperous and socially inclusive for all its residents and users.
As a concept originally developed by LEFEBVRE (1967), the right to the city is, as HARVEY (2012: 253) points out, a collective right to “reinvent the city” that “depends upon the exercise of a collective power over the processes of urbanization”.
Description
Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
Keywords
License
All rights reserved