Combatendo a desigualdade relacional no espaço urbano através de integração e de um mecanismo participativo

• Grant number: 19/13470-1
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): October 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): January 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal researcher: Adrian Gurza Lavalle
• Grantee: Katarina Pitasse Fragoso
• Home Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07616-7 - CEM - Center for Metropolitan Studies, AP.CEPID

Abstract

How should we (re)organise the city according to an egalitarian criterion of justice? Political philosophers have tried to answer this question according to a resourcist criterion by advancing normative reasons for a fair division of resources among different urban spaces. However, it has recently been argued, drawing upon a relational viewpoint, that the problems of cities are not always related to the unequal distribution of resources, but also to how physical and symbolic spaces are organised to negatively shape interactions between citizens. It is, then, a lack of social and political interaction that causes injustice in a range of domains, including socio-economic deprivation and disempowerment of disadvantaged and oppressed groups. If the issue is not only of resources, how can we move from a deeply segregated city to an integrated one? What promising strategies do we have for dealing with this problem? Following an instrumental reason, reforms of urban spaces have been suggested, based on more welcoming public areas (such as parks and libraries) capable of bringing about opportunities for valuable interactions between fellow citizens. Although I think we need an instrumental reason to act against corrosive inequalities and create social infrastructure aimed at fostering integration, it is unclear whether this could eventually overcome the structural forms of injustice that worsen the lives of disadvantaged and oppressed groups. My project aims to contribute to this debate by combining issues of relational egalitarian justice and deliberative theory, drawing on normative research in both political and social philosophy. Integration in cities is a means to attenuate inequalities, and also a fundamental requirement for a relational approach embedded in the principle of respect. My main research hypothesis is that if we have both arguments, we may better understand the relational approach by clarifying moral and pragmatic reasons to act against segregation in the city and by proposing tailored strategies to tackle them. A promising way to deal with the lack of social and political interaction in cities is through local government, with a face-to-face strategy capable of bringing people together to decide what should be done in terms of social infrastructure. My second hypothesis is that interaction demands the social engagement of the individuals involved, and that a common political project at local level seems to be a good starting point.