Territorial planning and urban development financining in the cities of the state of São Paulo: recent developments and pitfalls

• Grant number: 10/18636-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2011
• End date: July 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Urban and Regional Planning
• Principal Investigator: Raquel Rolnik
• Grantee: Raquel Rolnik
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Danielle Cavalcanti Klintowitz ; Joyce Reis Ferreira da Silva

Abstract

The 1990s in Brazil , under the new institutional background made available by the 1988 Constitution, was a decade of advances in the field of the right to housing and right to the city with the incorporation of the principles of social function of cities and property,the recognition of tenure rights for informal settlements dwellers and the direct participation of citizens in the urban policy decision making processes. These propositions have been the pillars of the urban reform agenda. It was also during the 90's that Brazil began to progressively decentralizatize competences to local governments, although this decentralization was limited by macroeconomic adjustments adopted in Brazil in the 1990s and by the high level of political continuity involved in Brazilian redemocratization, which included a high level of centralization of resources and decision powers at national level , specially in te filed of urban development. Focused on the experience of São Paulo State municipalities ( and benefiting from the exchange within a research network with similar focus in other states) this project aims to evaluate the limits and possibilities for the implementation of the urban reform agenda and, particularly, of the participatory urban planning processes, focusing the arenas and actors involved in the decision making processes on local urban investments. (AU)