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Rocinha’s Rua 4: A Mixed Approach to Public Housing
Sep 27th
The government normally takes one of two approaches to its relationship with favelas in Rio de Janeiro: either favelas are a blight on the city and should be replaced, or they can be upgraded on-site. The first approach was popular in the 1960s, when the government began constructing conjuntos residenciais—public housing apartment complexes on government-owned land—to house favela residents displaced by eviction, natural disaster, or, as in the infamous case of Catacumba, arson. The early conjuntos often followed the Le Corbusier model of public housing: high rise residential blocks set in ostensibly green space, often in isolated locations.
This type of housing became More >
Solidarity vs. Individualism: The Power of Mutirão
Sep 26th
I have always been amazed by solidarity! To me, seeing people getting together to help each other, fight as a group instead of alone and be there for each other is the hope that the world can get better. Even in the presence of pain, disasters and wars, when there is solidarity, there is hope that in future things will improve, some good will come of it all. This feeling, combined with a passion for social causes and Latin America are what led me to Rio de Janeiro to undertake research on mutirão culture in the favelas. Mutirão is quite common More >
Dona Zélia, after the social clean-up: “It ended up looking like a Miami”
Sep 20th
“This is what you call a social clean-up. 68 families have been moved, the first and largest part of the community, so that they can build a pretty garden at the entrance of the condominium. It has ended up looking like Miami. When residents opened their eyes it was already too late. And now, once again, for no (good) reason, they are going to get rid of the rest.”
This outburst comes from Maria Zélia Carneiro Dazzi, President of the Association of Residents and Fishermen of the Vila Arroio Pavuna Community, in Rio’s West Zone. Descendent of the first inhabitants of More >
Human Rights Activists Threatened by UPP Officers
Sep 19th
By email from the Network of Communities Against Violence:
In Brazil today we are experiencing a weakening of democracy. This current period is characterized by threats and intimidation attempts (and in many cases successful assassination attempts) against those who dare to denounce human rights violations and other arbitrary actions carried out by a perverse symbiosis of corporate interests and the public sector. Although many want to cover it up, this situation is easily observable in the North of the country where there have been numerous assassinations committed this year due to agrarian-ecological conflicts and due to the tens of activists who, More >
Beltrame’s Remarks at Seminar “UPP: a new public safety model?”
Sep 16th
September 14, 2011–The State of Rio’s Public Security Secretary, José Mariano Beltrame, spoke at a Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) law school seminar on the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) of Rio.
The event, entitled “UPP: a new public safety model?” was co-sponsored by the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, and also featured Professor Julita Lemgrumber, a sociologist at the Center for Security and Citizenship Studies at Cândido Mendes University who presented her research results; Percília da Silva Pereira, Babilônia community leader; Ricardo Henriques, president of Rio’s Urbanism Institute (Instituto Pereira Passos); Luci Oliveira, research coordinator at the Center for Justice and Society at FGV Law; and Lucia Cabral, More >
