Back and forth: Housing provision in São Paulo and New York

• Grant number: 24/07720-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): September 04, 2024
• Effective date (End): May 14, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Urban and Regional Planning
• Principal Investigator: Luciana de Oliveira Royer
• Grantee: Giusepe Filocomo
• Supervisor: Thomas Angotti
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: City University of New York (CUNY), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/00423-5 - Finances, territory and housing in contemporary Brazil, BP.DR

Abstract

The United States and Brazil are undoubtedly countries with different positions in the capitalist system. The historical trajectories of these countries, since the colonial period, illustrate fundamental differences that remain to this day. The sophistication of capitalist relations seems to have brought about the dissolution of national borders in the context of an undeniable "fiscal crisis" worldwide, reinforcing the role of cities and housing as a privileged locus for the reproduction of capital in contemporary times. By considering both movements, the national historical form and the local scale as a territory for the production of urban space, it is possible to advance our understanding of housing provision. This proposal allows us to understand inequalities and the role of national formation in interpreting the urban, as well as the importance of thinking about the great movements of our society in the light of the urban. The cases of São Paulo and New York, economic and financial hubs, are emblematic in this sense, as is the study of social housing. This is why the research "Back and forth: Housing provision in São Paulo and New York" is proposed. "Back and forth" in the sense of advancing on the articulations between the two cities studied, understood as different cases that inform each other theoretically. The undeniable historical particularities and insertion of the two countries into the world system make up the differences and similarities between the North and South American cases. When considering social housing and the shape of the state, it is possible to propose convergences between the cases of São Paulo and New York. If the "Back and forth" research proposal proves to be relevant, an international research agenda can be built, contributing to studies on the relationship between society and urban space, with attention to the political economy of inequalities and urbanization at the same time. The study of the provision of social housing would prove to be productive, even in order to tension the "north and south global" dichotomy, in a scenario of growing concentration of wealth and increasing urban poverty in the world, signaled, among other things, by the contradiction between homeless people and abandoned buildings.