The Favela and the University: illuminating the contested politics of urban informality

Keywords: informality, segregation, politics, favelas, Brazil
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 3

Abstract

The São Remo (SR) favela is an informal settlement that borders the University of São Paulo campus, the biggest and one of the most prestigious public universities in Brazil and Latin America. The majority of the land occupied by the São Remo favela belongs to the University of São Paulo. Drawing from six months of ethnographic fieldwork in 2017, this project explores the contested politics of urban informality by investigating the historical and territorial relationship between the São Remo favela and its residents and the University of São Paulo regarding processes of social, spatial, and symbolic segregation and subjection. I bring together the concept of social reproduction and the literature on spatial segregation as a lens to understand the conflicts, contradictions, and ambivalence of this relationship and its consequences. Through a historical account of relations between the university and the favela, I analyze two main themes: 1) the politics of permanence of the favela throughout over 50 decades of its existence, and 2) the politics and dynamics of favela residents’ physical and symbolic access and exclusion of the university campus. I argue that the historical relationship between the SR favela and the University of São Paulo constitutes an ongoing process of giving/taking conditional consent for permanence and access. The favela and its residents are accepted under specific conditions, locations, and timings that the university determines and imposes over time through specific strategies and threats of expulsion and physical and immaterial violence.