Occupy, Resist, Construct, Dwell!: A Genealogy of Urban Occupation Movements in Central São Paulo

Abstract

This paper offers a genealogy of building occupations carried out by occupation movements in central São Paulo to shed light on the particular form of urbanism that emanates from such downtown occupation practices. The main objective is to illustrate how occupation movements played a structural role in the urban recuperation of São Paulo’s central area by re-inhabiting a disaggregated stockpile of vacant buildings with thousands of homeless families, initiating parallel processes of architectural renewal and social reform. To that end, the contribution reconstructs the emergence and subsequent proliferation of occupation movements in central São Paulo between the 1970s and the 2010s. It dwells on particular exemplary building occupations during this period. This contribution draws from extensive discourse analysis, and multiple years of participant observation carried out in close collaboration with multiple occupations movements, especially the FLM (Alliance of the Struggle for Housing) and the MSTC (Homeless Movement of the Centre).

Squatting as tactics for creative resistance and transformation: The experience of a Brazilian housing occupation

“…After seven years of this project, we can observe that even when people's individual circumstances remain important, collective conditions take priority and it becomes easier to mobilize groups. This is not a particularity of Solano, it can be noted in several other different experiences where social movements were involved, as is the case of São Paulo, a city in Brazil with a long-term history of housing struggles and collaborative self-managed projects (Lago, 2011;Stevens, 2019;Zhang, 2020).…”

“…The basis of social movements' struggles is to create a political consciousness among the directly oppressed, those who have been historically so focused on their daily battles for survival that they cannot see any alternative outside the same system that is responsible for their own oppression (Santos, 2006). Therefore, squats organized by social movements 4 in Brazil have long defined occupation as an important political tool, beyond the mere access to a shelter (Cymbalista, 2020;Lago, 2011;Mello, 2014;Souza, 2006;Souza, 2015;Stevens, 2019;). In this sense, they can be interpreted as the right to the city (Lefebvre, 1968) put into practice.…”

“…Most of the inhabitants of squats -or squatters -are people in extreme need of affordable and dignified housing. Nevertheless, it is notable that many of these groups find themselves involved in political acts or in the political struggle after they start living in the occupation (Martins, 2012;Moreira, 2016;Stevens, 2019).…”

“…(Pruijt, 2013). In this sense, a renovation of urbanism as a discipline from the perspective of these practices is necessary (Andrade & Canedo, 2020;Stevens, 2019). In the following section we will explore the potential for social transformation within squatting and how it can contribute to building alternative futures.…”

“…In this sense, occupations of vacant land and buildings represent not only the sole alternative for housing for a significant part of the population, but also act as tools for assuring the right to the city (Lefebvre, 2008(Lefebvre, [1968). They challenge the hegemonic structures of power by evidencing the contradictions of the neoliberal system that produces empty spaces for speculation and simultaneously leaves thousands of people without access to housing (Stevens, 2019;Veríssimo, 2010). Harvey (2000) highlights that the struggle to the right to the city is diverse and intends to propose other forms of city production, rather than the sole access to an existing uneven and exclusionary model of city.…”