The right to the city in Rio de Janeiro’s slums: conclusions, hypotheses and questions derived from a research study

Abstract

This paper synthesizes the conclusions of a research conducted into the recent changes underwent by slums regulation, especially regarding the formalization of real estate property and the right to build. Based on an original empirical research and on data from previous studies, we aimed to map the “state of the art” of such regulation. A dialogue with the contemporary debate on slums configuration and on urban policies addressed to slums is also developed. In this sense, common hypothesis are questioned, especially those which argue that dialogic processes have disappeared, since they have been subsumed by a violent sociability, or even those which conceive slums as anomic spaces, where the State is seen as an absent agent. A revision of such hypothesis is suggested due to the recent State policies, in which conflicts over the “new” order proposed to the slums can be widely observed