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From Insurgent to Transgressive Citizenship: Housing, Social Movements and the Politics of Rights in São Paulo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2012

LUCY EARLE
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Abstract

This article examines the rhetoric and practice of a large social movement organised around low-income housing in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Making explicit the relationship between housing and citizenship, the União de Movimentos de Moradia (Alliance of Housing Movements) articulates a ‘politics of rights’ with which it calls on the state to uphold the constitutional right to housing, and legitimates its high-profile occupations of abandoned buildings in the centre of the city. The article engages with James Holston's historical examination of homeowners’ struggles on the peripheries of São Paulo to assert themselves as rights-holders and to mobilise against threats of eviction. While Holston names these groups of residents ‘insurgent’ citizens for the way they have unsettled entrenched social inequalities, this article presents the concept of ‘transgressive’ citizenship to reflect the challenge the housing movement makes to the state as it uses text-based law to justify building occupations.

Spanish abstract

Este artículo examina la retórica y práctica de un movimiento social importante organizado alrededor de un programa de vivienda para gente de escasos recursos en la ciudad de São Paulo, Brasil. Al hacer explícita la relación entre vivienda y ciudadanía, la União de Movimentos de Moradia (Unidad de Movimientos de Moradia) articula una ‘política de derechos’ con la que llama al Estado para que cumpla con el derecho constitucional de proveer vivienda, a la vez que legitima sus ocupaciones de alto impacto de edificios abandonados en el centro de la ciudad. El artículo se relaciona con la investigación histórica de James Holston sobre las luchas de los dueños de casas en la periferia de São Paulo para consolidarse como personas con derechos, con poder para realizar movilizaciones cuando hay amenazas de desalojo. Mientras que Holston llama ciudadanos ‘insurgentes’ a estos grupos de residentes por la forma en que han desafiado las desigualdades sociales tan enraizadas, este artículo presenta el concepto de ciudadanía ‘transgresiva’ para reflejar el desafío que hace el movimiento por vivienda al Estado en la medida que utiliza la ley escrita para justificar las ocupaciones de edificios.

Portuguese abstract

Este artigo examina o discurso e a praxis de um grande movimento organizado em torno de moradias de baixa renda na cidade de São Paulo, Brasil. Tornando explícita a relação entre habitação e cidadania, a União de Movimentos de Moradia articula uma ‘política de direitos’ pela qual convida o estado a garantir o direito constitucional à habitação e legitima suas ocupações notórias de imóveis de edificios fechados no centro da cidade. O artigo dialoga com a análise histórica de James Holston acerca da luta dos proprietários de imóveis nas periferias para afirmarem-se como detentores de direitos e de mobilizarem-se contra ameaças de despejo. Enquanto Holston chama esses grupos de moradores de cidadãos ‘insurgentes’ pela maneira na qual desestabilizaram desigualdades sociais arraigadas, este artigo apresenta o conceito de cidadania ‘transgressiva’ para refletir o desafio que o movimento por habitação coloca ao estado ao utilizar a própria legislação para justificar ocupações de prédios.

Keywords

urban social movementsBrazilcitizenshiplawright to housingmovimientos sociales urbanosBrasilciudadaníaleyderecho a la viviendamovimentos sociais urbanosBrasilcidadanialeidireito à moradia
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , February 2012 , pp. 97 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1 At the time, the ULC was the largest and most visible of the housing movements acting in the centre of the city.

2 In-depth, semi-structured interviews lasting between one and two hours were carried out with approximately 35 movement members and leaders. They are referred to here by first-name pseudonyms.

3 Holston, James, Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008)Google Scholar. Holston describes grileiros as swindlers involved in scams whereby they claim to have legitimate title to the land they are selling by producing an array of documents that are either forgeries or have been fraudulently acquired.

4 Holston, Insurgent Citizenship, p. 6.

5 Ibid., p. 7.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid., p. 199.

8 Ibid., p. 8.

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18 Holston, Insurgent Citizenship, p. 8.

19 www.ibge.gov.br.

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28 ‘Faltam moradias para um em cada dez paulistas’, O Estado de São Paulo, 11 Nov. 2010.

29 www.brasil.gov.br/noticias.

30 ‘São Paulo tem 290 mil imóveis sem moradores diz IBGE’, O Estado de São Paulo, 7 Dec. 2010.

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34 It is hard to verify this number, however, as people drift in and out of their local movements, and many cease to be active members once they have achieved a permanent housing solution.

35 Gustavo Cavalcanti, ‘Uma concessão ao passado: trajetórias da União dos Movimentos de Moradia de São Paulo’, unpubl. MA diss., University of São Paulo, 2006.

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37 The extent to which housing policy is actually debated in this arena varies, and is greatly affected by the attitude of the incumbent administration towards this type of citizen participation. For a discussion on this, see Cornwall, Andrea and Coelho, Vera Schatten (eds.), Spaces for Change? The Politics of Citizen Participation in New Democratic Arenas (London: Zed Books, 2007)Google Scholar.

38 Interview with Adana, 6 July 2007.

39 Interview with Ana, 19 June 2007.

40 Interview with Wanda, 24 July 2007.

41 Interview with Benjamin, leader of regional movement, UMM treasurer and member of executive, 5 June 2007.

42 Interview with Cristiano, leader of small local association in the city centre, 9 Aug. 2007.

43 This clearly borrows from the rural MST's slogan of ‘Occupy, Resist, Produce’.

44 Interview with Benjamin, 5 June 2007. The building of social and low-income housing is prioritised in areas labelled ZEIS.

45 Interview with Sergio Mendonça, 1 Aug. 2007.

46 Interview with Anderson, founder and effectively director of the UMM but not named as such, 26 June 2007.

47 James Holston and Teresa Caldeira, ‘Democracy, Law and Violence: Disjunctions of Brazilian Citizenship’, in Felipe Aguero and Jeffrey Stark (eds.), Fault Lines of Democracy in Post-Transition Latin America (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998), p. 276.

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52 Macaulay, ‘Taking the Law into their Own Hands’.

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57 Caldeira, City of Walls, p. 345.

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59 Ibid., p. 113.

60 Maricato, ‘As idéias fora do lugar’, p. 143.

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62 Ibid.

63 Scheingold, Stuart, The Politics of Rights: Lawyers, Public Policy and Political Change (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004) p. xixCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64 Ibid., p. 148.

65 Ibid., pp. 39–40.

66 Macaulay, ‘Taking the Law into their Own Hands’; Scheingold, The Politics of Rights.

67 Interview with Pedro, 18 Sep. 2007.

68 Scheingold, The Politics of Rights, p. 13, emphasis in original.

69 Taylor and Buranelli, ‘Ending Up in Pizza’.

70 Macaulay, ‘Taking the Law into their Own Hands’, p. 88.

71 Peter Kingstone and Timothy Power, ‘Still Standing or Standing Still? The Brazilian Democratic Regime Since 1985’, in Kingstone and Power (eds.), Democratic Brazil, p. 17.

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76 Interview with Benjamin, 5 June 2007.

77 Interview with Nina, member of a local movement affiliated to the UMM who was living in a building renovated as social housing after an occupation in the late 1990s, 9 Oct. 2007.

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79 Sen, Amartya, Development as Freedom (New York: Knopf, 1999)Google Scholar.

80 Interview with Ernesto, leader of a centrally based housing movement, 14 March 2007. At the time of fieldwork he was in charge of an occupation of an abandoned hotel by the central train station.

81 Interview with Joanadarc, leader of a small association representing families living in an occupied building in the city centre, 23 April 2007.

82 Interview with Nora, leader of a small association based in the city centre, 8 Oct. 2007.

83 For further discussion see Bedau, Hugo (ed.), Civil Disobedience in Focus (London: Routledge, 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

84 Interview with Nora, 8 Oct. 2007.

85 Interview with Henrique Pacheco, 8 July 2007.

86 Interview with Adana, 6 July 2007.

87 Interview with Leon, 7 June 2007.

88 Interview with Ivana, 1 June 2007.

89 Holston, Insurgent Citizenship, p. 267.

90 Ibid., pp. 23, 108, 110–11.

91 Ibid., p. 111.

92 DaMatta, Roberto, Carnivals, Rogues and Heroes: An Interpretation of the Brazilian Dilemma (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Guillermo O'Donnell, ‘Polyarchies and the (Un)Rule of Law in Latin America: A Partial Conclusion’, in Juan Mendez, Guillermo O'Donnell and Sergio Pinheiro (eds.), The (Un)Rule of Law and the Underprivileged in Latin America (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999); Holston, Insurgent Citizenship. The expression ‘Aos meus amigos, tudo. Aos meus inimigos, a lei’ is attributed by O'Donnell to Getulio Vargas.

93 Holston, Insurgent Citizenship, p. 5.