The future of São Paulo in the 1950s

Author(s)

Bruno de Macedo Zorek

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2019-03-15

Examining board members

Silvana Rubino; Ana Claudia Scaglione Veiga de Castro; Miguel Soares Palmeira; Heloísa André Pontes; José Alves de Freitas Neto

• Advisor: Silvana Rubino

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis is to discuss the production of the future of São Paulo, with focus on the transformations of the city's destinies occurred in the 1950s. During the first half of the twentieth century, the dominant image of its future was that of a gigantic metropolis, functioning in a harmonious way and marked by order and progress. In the second half, in contrast, the hegemonic representation, although it also imagined a gigantic metropolis, bet on a future of chaos and paralysis, provoked by the excess of urban problems. Therefore, a destiny that was predicted glorious came to be seen as tragic. It was in the 1950s that the passage from one image to another occurred. However, throughout this decade, both these destinies coexisted without nullifying one another, producing a frayed future for São Paulo. At that moment, the metropolis was predestined to be both heaven and hell. In order to discuss both the passage from one future to the other and the frayed future, this thesis analyzes not only the different representations of the destinies of São Paulo, but also the social conditions of production of these images. In this sense, are investigated the characterization, emergence and routinization of the most powerful destinies of the city and, at the same time, some historical personages who especially incarnated each one of these futures. Three of these personages were given the role of protagonists in the thesis: Francisco Prestes Maia, Luiz de Anhaia Mello and Florestan Fernandes. Prestes Maia was, in the 1950s, an important public manager, former mayor of São Paulo and a renowned town planner. He imagined a future of glory and progress for the metropolis, representing the discourse that was hegemonic until that moment. Anhaia Mello was also an experienced public manager and a well-known city planner, but he posed as the main opponent of Prestes Maia. Anhaia Mello foresaw an apocalyptic future for a São Paulo that continued to grow, but also offered an alternative destiny for the metropolis ¿ which would be transformed into a confederation of small garden cities. Fernandes, in turn, began the 1950s as an aspirant in the intellectual world and ended the decade as the most important Brazilian sociologist. The leader of the "Paulist School of Sociology" embodied both the transformation of the expectations of the future as well as the change itself. The sociologist, who was optimistic about the destiny of São Paulo, changed his mind as Anhaia Mello's ideas became better known, the São Paulo intellectual field became more autonomous and he himself assumed a leading position in this field. At the end of the decade, Fernandes looked with pessimism towards the future of the city, although he held a small hope based on education. Throughout the thesis, the story of the transformations in the future of São Paulo is told based on the ideas and actions of these protagonists. But in addition to them, the thesis also analyzes a set of supporting and secondary personages, as well as the São Paulo press, who played a decisive role in deconstructing the epic destiny of the metropolis and in building the city of a tragic future (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/17709-2 - The future of the city of São Paulo in the 1950s
• Grantee: Bruno de Macedo Zorek
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate