Space mobilization in the central area of São Paulo and the elements of critical urbanization: the PPP Habitacional incidence on the Luz region from the so-called Cracolândia

• Grant number: 21/02287-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: May 01, 2022
• End date: March 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Amelia Luisa Damiani
• Grantee: Ariel Machado Godinho
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/13105-4 - Public-private partnerships and the new urban frontiers: housing financialization, homelessness, and urban security in São Paulo downtown, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

This master's research proposes to investigate the process of space production and mobilization underway in the region of Luz, central area of São Paulo, focusing on the most recent moment marked by the incidence of the PPP Habitacional as of 2014 and their juxtaposition to the current territorial fixation perimeter of the so-called Cracolândia. To this end, we intend to focus on the realization of housing developments addressed to the Luz region in the PPP Habitacional SP Lote 1 S/A context and their coincidence with the transformation of the localized action forms of the State that once characterized this fraction of the central area of São Paulo. We start from the hypothesis that the juridical-financial relationship between the private agent and the conceding State that structures the PPP Habitacional is the inducer of the underway process in the Luz region and, concomitantly, obscures their social contents that, if critically understood, would allow the unraveling of the contradictory connections between the promise of urban renovation and the situated emergence of security forms of control aimed at annulling virtual damages or dangers and repelling behaviors deemed "undesirable". The objectives and procedures indicated in the present research project are therefore aimed at identifying the intricate forms of State participation in the process of space production and mobilization under analysis, and to investigate the mediations between its particular qualities and the role played by the articulation between finance and real estate in the contemporary dynamics of capitalist reproduction.