Forms of collective ownership of urban land in Brazil: collective usucapião and the Community Land Trust

• Grant number: 24/13849-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Urban and Regional Planning - Fundamentals of Urban and Regional Planning
• Principal Investigator: Thamine de Almeida Ayoub Ayoub
• Grantee: Paula Zanotello Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to study two forms of collective ownership of urban land in Brazil: collective usucapião, provided for by the City Statute (Federal Law No. 10,257/2001), and the Community Land Trust, still under construction. Individual ownership is understood as a paradigmatic form of appropriation and planning of Brazilian urban space, whose model was inherited during the colonization process and has sustained an unequal social and economic structure since the approval of the Land Law. Furthermore, individual private ownership of land is directly related to the history, structure and functioning of the Real Estate Registration System, which is a productive agent in the consolidation of this order, serving exclusively to support and guarantee the rights of owners, with little use for territorial planning. Over time, this system has been slowly improved by interests of the land market and "market" land regularization has expanded, although land regularization of social interest is a mechanism of resistance to this model. The alternatives to the private property paradigm in Brazil are limited and are limited to instruments for recognizing possession of public lands, such as the Granting of Real Right of Use and collective usucapião. Recently, there has been a debate about the application of the Community Land Trust in Brazil. Thus, studying the forms of collective property aims to deepen the understanding of the alternatives to private property in Brazil that are already legally recognized. (AU)