PUBLIC POLICIES AND INTENTIONALITY: THE ABSENCES OF THE STATE IN REGARDS TO THE FAVELAS IN SÃO PAULO (1940 - 1973)

• Grant number: 25/04670-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Ana Claudia Scaglione Veiga de Castro
• Grantee: Mateus de Rubim Cheuk Lau
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to investigate the State's approach to the issue of favelas in the city of São Paulo through interventions carried out between 1940 and 1973 - before the first Cadastro Geral de Favelas (General Survey of Favelas) - and the subsequent historical erasure of these clusters, as their existence in the city before 1970 seems to have been largely underdiscussed. Therefore, the research aspires to better nuance the current narratives about the city's history. This investigation intends to use documents and reports from the São Paulo municipal government, historical press records, bibliography about the issue of Latin American cities in the 20th century as well as current studies that seek to question and reinterpret the prevailing historical narrative about São Paulo favelas. The aim is to understand the factors that may have possibly motivated the sparse actions of the State concerning the favelas, as well as correlating such factors to the period's respective political and ideological context and to the academic debates held in the field of urban studies about Latin American cities in the 20th century. (AU)