SPATIAL PRACTICES AND PRODUCTION OF SPACE IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

Abstract

To understand the production of space in urban informal settlements, we should perceive it not as just a product of the urban poverty concentration or an incomplete imitation of formal structures, sharing the same symbolic values. Albeit calling themselves as “communities” - a way to emphasizes the idea of “living among equals” - the Brazilians slums are, in fact, quite a heterogeneous space, with strong internal tensions and diverse possibilities of appropriation and sense of belonging. A territory organized by specific procedures and spatial tactics, settled and transformed by a dynamic everyday life, making possible to produce a very rich spacial structure and social networks. Typical urban practices found in those informal settlements may be understood as tactic movements, in Certeau´s assumption. As tactics they can develop a creative capacity to deal with the established power relations, acting in the system fissures, to overcome some aspects of economical and social precariousness in a segregated structure.