Rogério Dalla Riva
Translation: Ligia Payão Cihzolini
(This text is Part III of the series "The Act of Dwelling." Also check out Part I and Part II.)
In the same way that the identification of dwelling with the human who occupies and builds it was addressed in previous publications in this series, a similar connection is observed regarding the Right to the City. Both the City as a physical space and the Urban as an abstract concept are constructions of the individuals who inhabit it. This construction, as discussed in part 1, occurs not only in a multilateral and systemic way in the present but also in a cumulative, historical manner.
The city, in both its physical space and its urban identity, is the product of the history it has undergone and the events that have marked its physical spaces, an amalgamation of what it is and remnants of what it was. In this sense, the urban sociologist Robert Park defined cities—in his work On Social Control and Collective Behavior—as a space made by humans and a space where humans remake themselves (1967).
Similarly, the city will also be the result of the actions of its inhabitants, the product of their labor—especially that of the working class—through which the physical space is shaped and the wealth that composes this space is built. It is important to note that by "wealth," we refer not only to material wealth but also to the wide range of cultural and ideological constructions present in the urban space that, in one way or another, compose and bring it to life. Human activities in a plaza or on a sidewalk are as important—or more so—than the sidewalk or plaza itself. This is because the plaza is and always has been an instrument for the manifestation of the purposes for which it exists and is occupied; without these, it is merely a semblance of what humans find beautiful in nature, as Milton Santos asserts when discussing the "artificialized nature" (SANTOS, 2006, p. 204). This production of culture, knowledge, and experience is part of the urban and part of the wealth that composes it.
Likewise, the city is made up of the public funds invested in it and the public services spread throughout it. The conflicts that permeate the urban space—and segregation itself—arise from the very essence of how these services and public funds are distributed. Economic interests and the incompetence of the state superstructure concentrate these resources in specific areas of the city, creating islands of wealth in a sea of urban cruelty and neglect. The wealth of the urban space is concentrated, and "its effective use is reserved for those who have private capital" (SANTOS, 2007:2, p. 31-32).
This situation becomes evident when an individual with financial means has greater mobility—due to owning a private vehicle in a system that favors this form of transportation—and can more easily access the city's resource centers than someone with low income, who is limited to low-quality public transportation that fails to meet demand. Not only is the right to freedom of movement restricted in this process, but so are the other rights dependent on it in practical terms. One cannot speak of the right to health when a sick person cannot even reach the hospital. The centralization that serves to simplify unnecessarily, to obsess over unnecessary efficiency, or to pursue standardization is nothing but an expression of contempt for those who suffer from these actions. The City, through its association with physical space, is a means of realizing rights.
As a capitalist product and consumer good, it becomes exclusionary, denying "non-consumers" access to goods and services they cannot afford to buy and consume. In this context, Ermínia Maricato argues that the city "is a product or, in other words, also a business, especially for the capital that pockets profits, interest, and rents through its production and exploitation" (MARICATO, 2013, p. 20). Thus, the disputes within—and over—the city are waged "between those who seek better living conditions from it and those who only seek to extract profits" (Idem, p. 20), competing for public funds and their absorption by the urban space.
Similarly, Carlos Vainer, in his article When the City Takes to the Streets, refers to today's city as the "Neoliberal City," guided by "the broader needs of capital accumulation and circulation" (VAINER, 2013, p. 37). In this city, the state's role in urban order is seen as something to be avoided, with the market dictating the rules of city growth while the state plays a subordinate role, subject to economic forces. This view closely aligns with the accumulation-oriented, "industrialized" and productivist paradigm, discussed in earlier sections of this work. It is precisely this paradigm of productivity and capital accumulation above all else that distorts and corrupts urban spaces, diverting and concentrating urban resources and wealth.
In this context, the city of our time resembles the industrial city, as residential complexes during that period were built far from urban centers and near industrial districts, with the sole purpose of strengthening the factory's hold over its workers. Today, impoverished populations are similarly displaced from their homes when these coincide with areas that will receive public investments, whether through direct expulsion or economic pressure, making it unfeasible for them to remain.
An example of the cyclical nature of these violations is the recent environmental conflict in Maceió, Alagoas, involving Braskem, which we discussed in a previous Ruptura publication. Due to the mining company's activities, several neighborhoods in the city are sinking, collapsing into the empty mines below. The proposed solutions, such as relocations, were poorly planned, leading to sprawl, increased vulnerability for affected individuals, and pressure on existing infrastructure, including the deactivation of bus routes and significant impacts on Maceió's VLT, which reportedly lost 80% of its passengers, as highlighted by Professor Renan Durval Aparecido da Silva (MAIS DIÁLOGOS, 2023).
Displaced populations were not only deprived of their community life but also expelled to parts of the city where they did not necessarily have support networks, forcing them to travel long distances to maintain their livelihoods or face the challenge of starting anew. Furthermore, the public infrastructure and services that served these populations and the rest of the city no longer exist in those areas. Thus, in addition to the immeasurable environmental damage, part of the population remains underserved in areas lacking basic services, while other parts of the city are overburdened with the demands of displaced residents.
Considering Brazil's history, it becomes evident that this dynamic is not unique to our time. The hygienist urban policies of the early 20th century in various Brazilian cities—most notably in Rio de Janeiro—demonstrate that segregationist policies and the prioritization of capital interests have long prevailed in state actions. These practices are not unlike the actions or omissions in Maceió, where an entire population was displaced from a central area to the periphery, solely because the interests of the involved company were prioritized over those of the communities affected for decades. While the city is essentially a resistance entity against capital and productivist industry, once subverted by these forces, it can be used—indeed, it has been used—as a mechanism for perpetuating segregation and inequality.
This segregating force of capital coincides with its homogenizing force. It is in the nature of capital to impose a homogeneous culture based on a consumerist, neoliberal, and productivist model, denying the multiplicity of human cultures and realities. The segregating action, in this sense, is precisely to deny differences, viewing the urban space as a uniform and unvarying entity that can be divided, quantified, and "monetized"—to use Milton Santos' term (2007:2, p. 29).
In this sense, the Urban, when considered apart from capitalist oppression, is a force against segregation, for by recognizing differences, we take a step toward understanding the whole. We foster a setting with a "multiplicity of cultural groups, where all tribes, through countless more or less transgressive forms of expression, rise up against a social system and a city that deny them space and passage" (VAINER, 2013, p. 40). This is where change becomes possible, no longer forcing an alleged evolution—always framed within the capitalistic and industrialist standards of progress—but encouraging the development of differences in their own way.
These concepts align with Milton Santos' reflections in Thinking About Human Space, where he discusses the fragmentation of human space. As regional spaces become part of a larger production process—one that involves various regions acting together—the notion that each individual or group has of the overall process becomes incomplete. Coexisting with fragments, human understanding of the process also becomes fragmented, and "the producer knows less and less about who creates new spaces, who the thinker, planner, or beneficiary is" (SANTOS, 2007:2, p. 29). It is through this fragmentation of space that humans, also fragmented, become both a cog in the system and a commodity. Through the fragmentation of production and space, human alienation is reinforced, and through this, the city is corrupted.
We must remember, in conclusion, that the fragmentation of space due to the capitalist-industrialist process and its productivism is not to be confused with the natural division between spaces. Industrialism forces a division of space, assigning each part a share in the production process but never the entire process, fragmenting space and alienating people from understanding the complete production process. As Milton Santos states, "since each person's practices are fragmented, the space of individuals appears as fragments of reality and does not allow the reconstruction of the unified functioning of space" (Idem, p. 34), turning human dwelling into its own enemy. Although perverted and used as a segregating tool, urban space is, by its very nature, an element that promotes diversity.
It is no wonder that Jane Jacobs states that cities are “natural generators of diversity and fertile incubators of new enterprises and ideas of all kinds” (JACOBS, 2000, p. 159). Though gripped by the segregating urge of capital, the city, by its very nature, resists this process, and in promoting diversity, it combats homogenizing forces. The proximity of many individuals brings them into contact with various collectives, groups which they simultaneously belong to. “Whatever kind it may be, the diversity generated by cities rests on the fact that in them, many people are quite close to each other, and they express the most different tastes, skills, needs, deficiencies, and obsessions” (Ibid., p. 161). Being a product of individuals, and likewise of collectives, “the city is made up of various cities, of different places that are inserted into the urban interstices, where life, full of relationships, unfolds” (HISSA in BRANDÃO, 2006, p. 86). There is, in the human who builds, a yearning for others, for the presence of the collective.
REFERENCES
ASSOCIAÇÃO RIO MEMÓRIAS (Rio de Janeiro). Os cortiços e as Hospedarias. Available at: https://riomemorias.com.br/memoria/o-crescimento-populacional-e-as-alternativas-de-moradia-os-corticos-e-as-hospedarias/. Accessed on: September 20, 2024.
Testimony. In: MAIS DIÁLOGOS. Escuta Pública - Plano de Ações Sociourbanísticas (PAS). YouTube, March 21, 2023. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/live/M2V0YwAuask?feature=share&t=15155. Accessed on: March 29, 2023.
HISSA, Cássio Eduardo Viana. Ambiente e vida na cidade. In: BRANDÃO, Carlos Antônio Leite (org.). As cidades da cidade. Belo Horizonte: UFMG, 2006. p. 21-34.
MARICATO, Ermínia. É uma questão urbana, Estúpido! In: MARICATO, Ermínia et. al. Cidades rebeldes: passe livre e as manifestações que tomaram as ruas do Brasil. 1st ed. São Paulo: Boitempo; Carta Maior, 2013.
JACOBS, Jane. Morte e vida de grandes cidades. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2000.
PARK, Robert. On Social Control and Collective Behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967.
SANTOS, Milton. A Natureza do Espaço: técnica e tempo, razão e emoção. 4th ed. São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, 2006. (Coleção Milton Santos).
SANTOS, Milton. Pensando o espaço do homem. 5th ed. São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, 2007.
VAINER, Carlos. Quando a cidade vai às ruas. In: MARICATO, Ermínia et. al. Cidades rebeldes: passe Livre e as manifestações que tomaram as ruas do Brasil. 1st ed. São Paulo: Boitempo; Carta Maior, 2013.
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