Urban dispossession and insurgency: conflicts and contradictions of real estate and housing based on recent occupations in São Paulo

Abstract

The concept of urban dispossession was formulated in the 1970s to explain the poor living conditions of workers during industrialization in São Paulo. In the following decades, real estate became central to economy, which made house prices rise. This process, together with the condition of low income, restricts the access of the poor to housing and reveals the contradictions inherent in private property as a housing solution. Based on observations of a recent occupation in the periphery and another one in the central region of the city, new forms of urban dispossession are discussed in the article, identifying strategies to struggle for the right to housing. It is concluded that collective occupations have potential for challenging private property and inequalities; however, they are not free from the contradictions they engender.