Descrição
The paper aims to understand one of the contradictions inherent in the urban crisis – that between domination and appropriation of space – against the backdrop of the practices of urban social movements that produce a space of conflict. We understand space of conflict as that where an encounter brought about by conflict gives rise to actions that demystify discourses and actions carried out by agents that seek to dominate space. The space of conflict is collective, insofar as it does not reduce citizenship and participation to discourse, but instead promotes the demands made by residents. Our hypothesis thus rests on the idea that resistance can produce a space of conflict. For this reason, the struggle waged by the residents of Maria Cursi (a slum in the city of São Paulo) together with the Movement in Defense of Slum Dwellers reveals the production of such space. In order to counteract the strategies for removing the slum from high value land in São Paulo’s peripheral space, these residents had to promote activities that politicized lived space in their battle against policymakers and others interested in displacement.||Este artigo visa compreender uma das contradições inerentes à crise urbana, a relação entre dominação e apropriação do espaço à luz das práticas dos movimentos sociais urbanos que produzem o espaço de conflito. Compreendemos este espaço como aquele onde a exigência de um encontro em torno de um conflito proporciona ações que vão desmistificando discursos e ações de sujeitos que buscam o domínio do espaço. O espaço de conflito é considerado como coletivo, espaço que nega o exercício da cidadania e da participação somente como discurso, revelando as reivindicações dos moradores. Assim, a hipótese se sustenta na ideia de que a resistência pode produzir o espaço de conflito. Por isso, a experiência de luta de moradores da Favela Maria Cursi, na cidade de São Paulo, em conjunto com o Movimento de Defesa dos Favelados, revela essa produção, já que, para resistir às reiteradas estratégias de expulsão de uma área valorizada de um bairro periférico, tiveram que promover atividades nas quais politizavam o vivido a partir de confrontos diretos com os representantes do Estado e também com os demais setores interessados na expropriação.
Abstract
NOTES ON THE PRODUCTION OF A SPACE OF CONFLICT IN THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CITY
The paper aims to understand one of the contradictions inherent in the urban crisis – that between domination and appropriation of space – against the backdrop of the practices of urban social movements that produce a space of conflict. We understand space of conflict as that where an encounter brought about by conflict gives rise to actions that demystify discourses and actions carried out by agents that seek to dominate space. The space of conflict is collective, insofar as it does not reduce citizenship and participation to discourse, but instead promotes the demands made by residents. Our hypothesis thus rests on the idea that resistance can produce a space of conflict. For this reason, the struggle waged by the residents of Maria Cursi (a slum in the city of São Paulo) together with the Movement in Defense of Slum Dwellers reveals the production of such space. In order to counteract the strategies for removing the slum from high value land in São Paulo’s peripheral space, these residents had to promote activities that politicized lived space in their battle against policymakers and others interested in displacement.
