From Projects to Condominiums: The Politics of Low-Income Housing in Rio de Janeiro in Light of the Program Minha Casa, Minha Vida [My House, My Life]
Abstract
After nearly 20 years of virtually no investments in public housing, the government of Brazil launched, in 2009, the Minha Casa, Minha Vida program. One of its most controversial features is the unprecedented provision of subsidized housing for families who earn up to three times the minimum wage. In the light of this feature of the program, this paper re-examines the recent history of the production of low income housing in Rio de Janeiro. First, I look into how the ways in which the production and distribution of MCMV housing units connects them to previously established repertoires of policies, practices, tactics and exchanges that govern the production of different types of values in low income housing markets (moving beyond the formal/informal, favela/”formal city” analytical divides). Second, I examine how the shift from the production of housing projects (“conjuntos”) to the construction of MCMV “condominiums” allows for retracing larger changes and emerging conflicts in ideas and imaginaries of inclusion and social mobility in the city.
Bio
Mariana Cavalcanti holds a PhD in Socio/Cultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago (2007) is Associate Professor at the School of Social Sciences and History/CPDOC-FGV-RJ. She specializes in urban anthropology, is particularly interested in questions related to housing, urbanism and public policy, and recently co-directed the documentary film Favela Fabril (2012, 49’). She is also co-founder and board member of Casa Fluminense, a civil society association aimed at deepening democracy and reducing inequalities in the Metropolitan Area and the State of Rio de Janeiro.
[email protected]
After nearly 20 years of virtually no investments in public housing, the government of Brazil launched, in 2009, the Minha Casa, Minha Vida program. One of its most controversial features is the unprecedented provision of subsidized housing for families who earn up to three times the minimum wage. In the light of this feature of the program, this paper re-examines the recent history of the production of low income housing in Rio de Janeiro. First, I look into how the ways in which the production and distribution of MCMV housing units connects them to previously established repertoires of policies, practices, tactics and exchanges that govern the production of different types of values in low income housing markets (moving beyond the formal/informal, favela/”formal city” analytical divides). Second, I examine how the shift from the production of housing projects (“conjuntos”) to the construction of MCMV “condominiums” allows for retracing larger changes and emerging conflicts in ideas and imaginaries of inclusion and social mobility in the city.
Bio
Mariana Cavalcanti holds a PhD in Socio/Cultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago (2007) is Associate Professor at the School of Social Sciences and History/CPDOC-FGV-RJ. She specializes in urban anthropology, is particularly interested in questions related to housing, urbanism and public policy, and recently co-directed the documentary film Favela Fabril (2012, 49’). She is also co-founder and board member of Casa Fluminense, a civil society association aimed at deepening democracy and reducing inequalities in the Metropolitan Area and the State of Rio de Janeiro.
[email protected]