Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This paper proposes to reconstruct the multiple appropriations that marked the trajectory of the history painting “Fundação de São Vicente” by Benedito Calixto, which belongs to the Museu Paulista collection since 1900. To achieve this goal, it will be presented the conditions of its production and inauguration during the 4th Centenary of the Discovery of Brazil, its political uses by the commemorative association; the process of the painting definitive acquisition by the government of the State of São Paulo and finally how it was exhibited during Hermann von Ihering’s (1894-1916) and Afonso Taunay’s (1917-1946) administration periods in the Museu Paulista, mobilizing some examples which can demonstrate how public museums diffuses political-imaginary conceptions from their historypaintings.

This article develops the idea of a “territorial dimension of culture” (proposed by Raquel Rolnik) in the context of contemporary grassroots urbanism in São Paulo, in particular in the peripheries of the city. The central argument of the article is the value of culture as an integral element in urbanism, and not as a separate area that is occasionally brought to bear on it. The article examines the use of culture in the construction of public spaces in the periphery—spaces defined not by their formal aspects, but for sustaining a diverse and inclusive public sphere. Culture is understood as urbanism both because it helps in critically understanding urbanization processes, and also because it aids in intervening in these processes concretely. The article also suggests a broadening of the epistemological assumptions of urbanism, so as to include practices and bodies of knowledge by diverse communities and groups, which are not necessarily recognized by official educational and professional institutions. Such a broadened vision has the potential to generate a more democratic, participatory and efficient urbanism, and a more just and humane city.

There are many different ways of expressing indignation about the current structure. Concerning the power established by a state or even moral organizations that control social bodies and actions, the most common way of manifesting occurs through occupation of the streets and use of “slogans”, demonstrating resentment, and either employing or not barricades and / or depredations of the physical space. However, there are different ways of manifesting named by various authors (DIDI-HUBERMAN, 2016; FOUCAULT, 1994; ARENDT, 2001; BENJAMIN, 2006; FLORESTAN FERNANDES, 2000; BADIOU, 2012; HOBSBAWM, 1995; CANDIOTTO, 2013; GOHN, 2014). From revolutions to uprisings, for instance, there are clear differences concerning internal organization, purpose and action. And, even within each of the concepts, it is possible to observe different readings when analyzing the perspectives of writing of each author. In this article we will analyze and qualify different spheres and ways of manifestation or collective action, thinking about their contradictions and modifications throughout history, especially for understand social movements and activism within the contemporary scenario.

Is it possible to think of another role for cultural heritage in cities that is not necessarily linked to their reconversion in spaces of cultural entertainment, towards recovering the value of central areas and gentrification? Is it possible to have an urban activism that transforms cultural heritage in a source of reflection and counterpoint to processes of urbanization as a business? This article aims to answer these initial questions from the exposition and discussion of an experience that is being developed in the city of São Paulo and has the objective to gather arguments and produce narratives in defence of the permanence of poorer social groups in city centers, using cultural heritage against gentrification. Such experience fits a kind of urban activism that has educational actions in the field of cultural heritage as an essential tactic. In this sense, it affirms the need to democratize heritages and also memorialization processes which have produced, over time, an invisibility of certain social groups, among which are workers and poor inhabitants of city centers.

This article recounts the vicissitudes of members of the Movement of Homeless Workers, the MTST, according to an ethnographic approach that, by exploring the collective construction spaces of daily life, according to the meaning of Maria Gallindo, reinterprets social problems and urban struggles as political practices of experimenting with being together and managing individual and collective vulnerabilities.

This special issue of the academic journal (magazine) arq.urb is dedicated to the debate of participatory processes involved in experiences of appropriation and production of the urban space and, by extension, to the discussion of conflicts involving the construction of citizenship.

Community initiatives to transform everyday spaces in a bottom up manner have been increasingly in large cities, responding proactively to the inability of governments to deal with urgent urban challenges by means of traditional urban planning. Dialoging with the theme of insurgent urbanism and urban activism, this paper discusses citizen tactics for the activation of underutilized areas, presenting, as referential cases, the community gardens in Rio de Janeiro. The paper starts with a discussion about tactical urbanism as an approach for conversion of underutilized areas into urban commons, followed by the analysis of the cases of Parque Sitiê (Vidigal) and General Glicério (Laranjeiras) gardens, community initiatives for the appropriation and transformation of underutilized spaces into urban commons that brought social, economic, urbanistic and environmental benefits to these localities. We seek to question how these actions could be multiplied, and what would be the role of public power in this process.

Brazilian metropolises increasingly require legal and urban tools capable of promoting fairer urban development and not only for select social groups. Numerous instruments have been implemented, being of great importance for urban planning policies and in order to provide more effective public actions. Among the legal instruments available and present in Urban Law, we highlight the Solo Criado, which allows the owner of a building to build above the construction coefficients allowed for a given land, provided there are counterparts, which must, according to the City Statute, be used to achieve the goals of a city for all. The article proposes to evaluate the path of implementation of Solo Criado in Belo Horizonte, from the 1990s to the present day. In this sense, it is sought to identify if the ends intended by the public power are being effectively achieved and are being applied correctly, without possible deviations. At the end, it is concluded that, among others, the difficulties of the implementation of the Solo Criado in Belo Horizonte are due to the inefficiency of public power and the adverse pressures of the real estate market, which considers it as another tax and private enterprises

The questions surrounding Smart Cities have been an ongoing theme, be it on city halls and the public sphere, be it on Academia through scientific publications. Following this trend, Brazil has also been broadening the discussion surrounding this theme, with a wide – and, many times, improper – divulge in the media about some kind of “ranking” of intelligence being reached by a certain city, achieved through national or international indicators. The goal of this research was to quantify publications in the Brazilian academic context about smart cities assess if any of the Brazilian cities ranked as smart actually match their scientific production to their position on the ranking Connected Smart Cities, made by Urban Systems. In order to do that a scientific research data base platform was selected - Engineering Village, it belongs to Elsevier an international publisher- to make a bibliometric mapping and relate the amount of scientific productions of the cities, using the time period of 1990 a 2017 as base. Based on the cho- sen ranking, it was analyzed that if the cities with the largest scientific productions were considered, effectively, the smartest. As a result, it was noted that eight out of the ten cities ranked the best in the ranking Connected Smart Cities have a relevant member of publications.

This article aims to analyze the public space immaterial production triggered by the performance of the urban social movement “A Batata Precisa de Você” in its various forms of appropriation and emancipatory political actions. The city, discussed here as its spatial characteristics and the transformation social power of these symbiosis, provides to population self-managed urban manifestations a resistance instrumental dimension, and beyond, instigate hypotheses about the future of spaces and urban life. It was observed that spontaneous action conditions of urban social movements allows collectives collaborative actions that, although ephemeral, are able to reinvent new senses to space and arouse new perceptions of the city. Aware that small daily actions or punctual appropriations do not promote immediate urban transformations, it’s considered that promote collective of social imaginaries creation; or long-term transformation processes. Finally, the emergent demand for cities construction process revision, involving and creating expanded participation spaces, where training processes are created for collective practices production, public participation, and access to decisions that effectively produce the urban space.