Politicizing urban scales: jurisdiction, territory and governance in the Metropolis Statute

Abstract

The Estatuto da Metrópole (Metropolis Statute, Law 13089/15) is the object of an exploratory analysis in this paper. Such Statute has potential for promoting a legal-political reconfiguration in the field of interfederative governance. That is why it mobilizes asymmetric actors who dispute the rescaling of urban politics. So much so that the Estatuto da Metrópole has already suffered substantial suppressions regarding deadlines for institutional adaptation and respective sanctions in case of delay. Viewing this process as an emblematic one, the authors make a case for the concept of “politics of scale”, useful to the theoretical comprehension of the nature of the conflicts arisen, and offer a critical account of scalar devices and their relationship to the new tools for dealing with the Brazilian metropolization.