Institutionalization and Depoliticization of the Right to the City: Changing Scenarios for Radical Social Movements |
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Authors: | Sergio Belda‐Miquel Jordi Peris Blanes Alexandre Frediani |
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Institution: | 1. Departamento de Proyectos de Ingeniería, INGENIO— Instituto de Gestión de la Innovación y del Conocimiento, CSIC‐Universitat Politècnica de València, Ciudad Politécnica de la Innovación, Edificio 8E, 4a Planta, Camino de Vera, s/n., 46022 Valencia, Spain;2. Departamento de Proyectos de Ingeniería, INGENIO—Instituto de Gestión de la Innovación y del Conocimiento, CSIC‐Universitat Politècnica de València, Ciudad Politécnica de la Innovación, Edificio 5J, Planta Baja, Camino de Vera, s/n., 46022 Valencia, Spain;3. Development Planning Unit, The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London, 34 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9EZ, UK |
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Abstract: | The right to the city, a concept previously associated with radical social movements, has been accepted by several governments and has inspired new public policies. However, some authors see this process of institutionalization as involving a loss of a significant part of the radical origins of the concept. This article approaches this process and the new opportunities and limitations it may entail for social movement organizations with a more radical perspective on the right to the city. We explore the paradigmatic case of Brazil and the action of a particular organization, the Movimento dos Sem Teto da Bahia (MSTB, or Homeless Movement of Bahia) in the city of Salvador. We draw on the discussion of the politics of the right to the city and on an original combination of social movement theories and critical discourse analysis in order to analyse political‐institutional and discursive changes in urban reform in Brazil and Salvador. We then analyse how the MSTB moves within this new context, navigating its tensions and contradictions while advancing a radical project of transformation of urban reality within a reformist context. We also reflect on the relevance of Lefebvrian ideas for understanding and inspiring contemporary struggles for the right to the city. |
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Keywords: | right to the city depoliticization social movements critical discourse analysis Salvador Brazil |
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