Urban redevelopments in central areas and distributive conflicts: regulatory frameworks, circuits of valorization and discursive strategies

Author(s)

Alvaro Luís dos Santos Pereira

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Direito (FD/SBD)
• Defense date: 2016-02-17

Examining board members

Ana Maria de Oliveira Nusdeo; Diogo Rosenthal Coutinho; Mariana de Azevedo Barretto Fix; Jeroen Johannes Klink; Luís Fernando Massonetto

• Advisor: Ana Maria de Oliveira Nusdeo

Abstract

This work discusses transformations in patterns of state intervention in the production of urban space in contemporary capitalism, based on reflection about policies of urban redevelopment in central areas and the redistributive struggles related to them. Departing from an economic law perspective, this work explores relations between capital accumulation and patterns of state intervention in urban space from different analytical levels; addressing theoretical, legal-institutional and empirical issues. The process of capitalist restructuring initiated in the 1970s has impacted upon urban regulation, leading to changes that have affected its form and function, and that permeate different geographical scales. The social and economic order that has emerged in contemporary capitalism, characterized by the spread of a neoliberal political agenda and by the rise of a financial led regime of accumulation, unfolds in specific manners at the urban scale. In this context, urban policies have been increasingly guided by a pragmatic and entrepreneurial rationale, turning away from the influence of democratic spheres and abandoning redistributive commitments. These qualitative changes are mediated by institutional forms and regulatory frameworks that are not confined to the urban scale and to urban regulations, comprising norms that regulate issues like property rights, the connection between real estate and finance, the fiscal basis of urban policies, amongst others. Based on a case study about Porto Maravilha a large scale urban redevelopment project broadly connected to global economic flows that is being implemented in the city of Rio de Janeiro since 2009 this work enquires into changes concerning the role the state within urban development processes. Two hypothesis are articulated . The first is that patterns of urban regulation arising in contemporary capitalism do not merely reflect broader changes, but are an active and constitutive dimension of them. The second is that urban redevelopment policies in central areas act as catalysts of deeper connections between local and global processes, as well as being incubators of new patterns of urban regulation. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/03195-7 - The urban renewal programs and the transformations of the brazilian urban law:reflections from the experiences of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro
• Grantee: Alvaro Luis dos Santos Pereira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate