Meio ambiente e qualidade de vida

The fate of the Jardim Colombo favela in São Paulo changed with the birth of a youth-led urban movement during the first art festival held in 2018. Planned and delivered in one month, the festival gathered dozens of volunteers and hundreds of residents to dream together about transforming a dumping site into a park for the community. The excitement of this initial action soon materialized into a self-aware social infrastructure ready to face future and unexpected challenges—including a pandemic, to which the young leaders in Jardim Colombo would respond with creativity, preventing devastating health outcomes. Drawing on three months of fieldwork and an ongoing relationship with the community leaders, I explore how this one-off celebration turned into an urban movement that is pursuing increasingly ambitious social and material goals. Sustained by four pillars—youth, women, creativity and planning—I present this story as a deployment of celebratory insurgency strategically engaging in festive practices to subtly push its counter-hegemonic political agenda in relation to cultural and identity matters. I argue that framing this creative approach as a planned urban celebration may inspire other planning initiatives seeking social justice in the peripheries of cities across the global South.

This article provides an ethnographic perspective on urban planning by presenting the creative practices of marginalized slum residents in Recife, Northeast Brazil, who are affected by planners’ decisions. It argues that such a perspective contributes to current critical urban theory in three ways. First, while many studies of urban planning follow the temporality of the timeframe of a particular project (‘project time’), this analysis emphasizes the timeframe of the lives of the affected residents (‘people's time’). Second, it attends to diversity, taking account of the variety of affected residents and the diverse consequences of urban planning on their lives. Third, it shows how urban interventions — similar to marriage, divorce, the birth of children and the death of loved ones — are high-impact life events for the urban poor. Finally, the article assesses the engagement between ethnography and critical urban theory and argues in favour of ‘grounding’ the latter better in the analysis of actual practices and experiences.

This article considers the politics of resettlement within ongoing efforts to construct the Tietê River Valley Park (Parque Várzeas do Tietê), a linear park that upon completion will be the largest linear park in the world. Located in the eastern periphery of São Paulo, Brazil, the proposed project uses riverbank naturalization to dampen floodpeaks and bring green space to underserved populations. Due to the presence of low-income neighborhoods on the river's edge, however, the project calls for the removal of roughly 40,000 people. Drawing from urban political ecology and contemporary concerns about environmentally induced displacement, I consider the conflicts over resettlement that mark the project. I analyze the project itself and situate it within a regional context defined by autoconstruction, regularized flooding, and insecure tenure. I argue that despite claims that the project will yield less risky lives for displaced residents, the form through which the project is being developed actually puts displaced residents in heightened situations of risk. I consider how communities have organized to resist displacement, and call for an approach to governance in peripheral landscapes that takes seriously the histories of collective infrastructural provisioning and autoconstructed housing that have marked them for decades.

Contemporary discussions of ‘democratic innovation experiences’ have evolved into aheated debate about how effective these ‘new spaces’ are in including ordinary citizens, particularly those traditionally marginalized and excluded. This article focuses on the Brazilian experience with Health Councils and begins by discussing the conditions that have been pointed out by previous studies as favouring the inclusion of these groups in these ‘new spaces’. On the basis of these studies, one question that remains is about the democratic legitimacy of these experiences, as it seems that there is a bias towards the inclusion of those that already have political ties with the traditional political system.The local Health Councils in 31 subprefeituras (new administrative subdivisions) of the city of São Paulo were researched and a continuum was observed: ranging from a small number of one or two sectors that have historical ties with political parties included in the council to a far more diversified composition, including up to seven sectors with autonomous representatives and various types of association. Using these results as their starting-point, the analyses conclude with a discussion of the relative significance of the factors previously identified as central in establishing the democratic legitimacy of these ‘new democratic spaces’.

With this study we join the conversation on housing aspirations from a Brazilian perspective, which is marked by coexisting formal and informal markets, investigating how market- driven narratives and socioeconomic factors shape these aspirations across generations in urban areas. We surveyed middle-class individuals and applied exploratory factor analysis alongside intergenerational comparisons, and our findings reveal that, despite the growing prevalence of renting as a response to market constraints, homeownership persists as a predominant aspiration, particularly for long-term security. The concept of aspirational postponement emerges as a key framework, illustrating how temporary adaptations to renting do not supplant the enduring desire for property ownership. Moreover, this research introduces the experience effect, wherein older generations recognize the practical advantages of apartments over houses, based on lived housing arrangements, and the adjustment effect, which reflects the tempering of idealistic aspirations among younger generations owing to financial and practical constraints. By situating Brazilian housing dynamics within a global context, we highlight the interplay of structural inequalities, cultural norms and generational preferences to offer perspectivesfor housing policy frameworks in developing economies.

This paper examines the effects of the new economy on national city size distribution in 102 countries. Results show that the new economy has significant effects on city size distributions and such effects are heterogeneous across countries. Human capital contributes to the polarization of city size distribution in developed countries and service-dominated countries, while it helps to equalize city size distribution in industrial-dominated countries. While innovation promotes an equalized city size distribution in general, globalization promotes polarization and then equalization of city size distribution. Information and communication technology triggers an equalized followed by a polarized city size distribution, and has contributed to an equalized city size distribution in service-dominated countries. It is evident that thriving new economic processes are changing the global urban hierarchy and reshaping national city size distribution. This study facilitates an in-depth understanding of the effects of the new economy on city size distribution, which is of great importance to promote more equitable development and urbanization.

Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) is a challenging issue for low-income countries, impacting on the environment, socio-economic, health, aesthetics and infrastructure, due to the generated volume of wastes, treatment and disposal methods. This challenge is often impacted by the transitioning of MSWM from mostly unsustainable methods to a sustainable level. A meaningful MSWM transition requires an understanding and consideration of historical developments and common themes. This paper reviews the common themes limiting MSWM sustainability in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries as well as the historical transition of MSWM to a sustainable level in some high-income countries (United States, Japan, Denmark, and Australia). The study focuses on the interaction of MSWM with technology systems, related environmental issues, socioeconomic factors, influence on policy and decision making. The objective of the paper is to develop a holistic MSWM framework to address the prevailing issues, by systematic analysis of related and relevant literatures. The key MSWM findings drawn from the BRIC countries in this study is used to develop a thematic framework, underpinned by the different interacting factors of policy; environmental; socio-economic; and technology (PEST). The PEST thematic framework presents an adaptable systematic tool to policy and decision makers towards improving MSWM in low-income countries.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) as the emerging leading powers in the world have great influence on the world development. Urbanization process has been a significant engine for development in these countries, which has important effect on the sustainable development globally. However, rapid urbanization has induced various problems, such as air pollution, traffic congestion, habitat destruction, and loss of arable land. These problems present the threats to the sustainable development of urbanization in these countries. This paper presents an evaluation on the dynamic sustainability performance during urbanization process in these countries by applying an elastic coefficient method and a new-type McKinsey matrix. The data used for analysis are collected from World Bank database for the period of 1990-2011. The findings from this study suggest that during the surveyed period the Brazil, Russia and India have been engaging a sustainable urbanization practice, whilst the urbanization processes in China and South Africa are unsustainable. The study provides valuable reference in searching for solutions to further promote sustainable urbanization practice globally.

Cities are the major contributors to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They account for about 75% of global energy consumption and up to 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. With the ongoing rapid increase in urban population, expansion of middle class in urban centers in developing countries, and availability of cheaper vehicles such as Tata Nano and Bajaj RE60 in India, the demand for energy and associated emissions from cities are expected to grow rapidly. Though cities are in a better position to mitigate climate change, it does not necessary mean that there is a willingness on their part to capitalize on these mitigation opportunities. Climate change mitigation is not the priority for them because they face a number of competing priorities including local economic growth and development and service delivery. This paper suggests a range of policy tools that can help cities achieve both local priorities as well as reduce emissions, including GHGs. The suggested policies will be effective when used synergistically.

In recent decades, the world has witnessed a remarkable surge in urban expansion, leading to profound consequences for the global climate, biodiversity, and ecological environment. Despite the existence of numerous case studies, assessing the precise contributions of individual cities to this global trend has proven challenging, primarily due to the daunting task of collecting census data for thousands of cities. The study conducted a comprehensive analysis of the recent urban expansion in more than 6000 cities, utilizing state-of-the-art longterm datasets of urban impervious surface area (ISA), population, gross domestic product (GDP) data, and a global city boundary. By tracking the changes in ISA, population, and GDP, we assessed the magnitude and direction (increasing or decreasing) of these variables over time at both the global level and across different regions and countries. Through correlation analysis, we established statistical relationships between urban expansion and GDP growth as well as population change. Furthermore, we examined the profits of these cities and evaluated the projected flood risks they faced. Through the study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis and revealed detailed characteristics, patterns, and disparities in city development, economic output, population density, as well as the profits and projected flood risks across cities, countries, and regions. This in-depth understanding of recent urban expansion provides valuable insights for decision-makers and stakeholders to actively promote sustainable urban development and effectively manage associated risks in diverse geographical contexts.