Understanding state intervention in the territory through its instruments

• Grant number: 25/24504-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: April 15, 2026
• End date: December 14, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science
• Principal Investigator: Luciana de Oliveira Royer
• Grantee: Anna Carolina de Paula Madrid de Marco
• Supervisor: Isadora Araujo Cruxen
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Queen Mary University of London, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/22651-8 - State intervention in the territory: a case study from the public sanitation policy of the municipality of São Paulo, BP.DD

Abstract

Contrary to the worldwide trend of reclaiming water and sanitation public services, the sector in Brazil has been pursuing a very strong privatisation agenda, which culminated in the sanctioning of the Brazilian Federal Law No. 14.026/2020. As a result, the São Paulo State Sanitation Company - already publicly traded since 2002 - has more recently sold its controlling interest to equity investors. In the process, it raised the public and academic debate about its capacity to overcome the remaining significant deficiencies in water supply and sewage services- often concealed by municipal, state, and national averages. After analysing the institutional legacy of the sector and the intervention instruments applied by the São Paulo City Hall and the São Paulo State Government over time, attention is drawn to the practice of 'governing by contract' and its possible consequences for the reproduction of territorial inequalities. This research seeks, therefore, in social and political sciences, the theoretical foundation necessary to critically investigate the state action and instrumentation, focusing on problematizing its territorial impacts. It aims at analysing the social and equity impacts of urban processes, in face of the transformation of urban governance and the role of the state over the last decades; and at understanding the state intervention through its instruments, by precisely identifying social and territorial inequalities that may arise (even unintentionally) from the adoption of specific programs and policies. (AU)