Por práticas emancipatórias no planejamento urbano: análise das dinâmicas sócio-espaciais e pesquisa-ação no Alto das Antenas

Abstract

This dissertation deals with research elaborated on a small unconsolidated slum, called Alto das Antenas, in the Barreiro Regional in Belo Horizonte/MG, which is the object of the research, and as subjects its residents, who form it and according to which it exists. The particularity of this space is that almost all families originally existing in it were removed, between 2012 and 2014, by the Vila Viva Program. However, the process undertaken did not go as planned and today this slum is completely reoccupied, including some who were removed but returned. This reveals, on the one hand, the resistance of these people to occupy an unplanned space, and, on the other, that these structuring public interventions, heteronomous in nature, do not recognize the slum dwellers' way of life, imposing them the middle class standard. The justifications for the research were the desires to (1) understand the socio-spatial dynamics of the people who inhabit this place, understanding them as fundamental for the perception, planning or construction of any intervention in this space, and (2) to draw new perspectives for urban planning, especially in areas of social interest, through emancipatory practices that can engender social transformation and change in the status quo. The autonomist perspective was one of the analytical lenses used for research and also understood as a mean to achieve the desired emancipatory purposes. Based on several authors, I approached, especially, the concepts of socio-spatial production in favelas, socio-spatial dialectic, autonomy, heteronomy, lefebvrian triad of space production (perceived, conceived and lived spaces), tactic and resistance. The understanding of Alto das Antenas as a socially constructed space was fundamental for the research approach and for the construction of this text. The research was divided into two phases. In the first one, I sought to make a socio-spatial historical construction of this slum, as a way to present and characterize the object and the subjects of the research. Therefore, more than physical and technical analysis of this space, I sought to know the perceptions of the external institutional agents who work in it and especially the perceptions of those who live in it, as a way to reveal the distinctions between them. Considering as a horizon the promotion of emancipatory, autonomist practices, which value the relations and socio-spatial practices, as opposed to the usual heteronomous practices, which are decided by external agents and only communicated to the slum dwellers, the second phase of the research corresponded to an action-research conducted with the residents of Alto das Antenas. Through a collective work process that sought to involve and consider residents and their interests as a central point, and that systematized and provided technical information about this space, the goal was to make the dwellers recognize themselves as agents of transformative action, also aiming to contribute, with regard to this space, to their awareness, collective self-organization, decision-making for direct action and eventual future negotiations with external agents.