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Displacing Informality: rights and Legitimacy in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

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  • Nogueira, Mara

Abstract

This article compares two cases of displacement suffered by informal workers and informal residents in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, both connected to the hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It asks the following question: considering that the right to work and the right to housing are both enshrined in the Brazilian Constitution, why do claims upon space based on those constitutional rights have different degrees of legitimacy? Two cases are analysed in detail. The first one concerns a group of informal workers displaced from their workspace for the modernization of the local stadium. The second one tells the story of an informal settlement where 90 families were displaced due to the construction of a flyover designed to improve access to the football stadium. This article engages with current postcolonial debates around urban informality, tackling two points that have been absent from these discussions. First, it compares two ways of informally occupying urban space?for work and for housing?revealing the distinct degrees of legitimacy embedded in such practices due to pre-existing institutional arrangements. Second, it emphasizes the connection between work and home through the life strategies and place-making practices of the urban poor.

Suggested Citation

  • Nogueira, Mara, 2019. "Displacing Informality: rights and Legitimacy in Belo Horizonte, Brazil," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100837, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:100837
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/100837/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Francesco Chiodelli, 2016. "International Housing Policy for the Urban Poor and the Informal City in the Global South: A Non‐diachronic Review," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 788-807, July.
    2. Veronica Crossa, 2009. "Resisting the Entrepreneurial City: Street Vendors' Struggle in Mexico City's Historic Center," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 43-63, March.
    3. Denise Morado Nascimento, 2016. "Accessing the Urban Commons Through the Mediation of Information: The Eliana Silva Occupation, Belo Horizonte, Brazil," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1221-1235, November.
    4. Brown, Alison, 2015. "Claiming the Streets: Property Rights and Legal Empowerment in the Urban Informal Economy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 238-248.
    5. Fox, Sean, 2014. "The Political Economy of Slums: Theory and Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 191-203.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mara Nogueira, 2020. "Preserving the (right kind of) city: The urban politics of the middle classes in Belo Horizonte, Brazil," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(10), pages 2163-2180, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    urban informality; Brazil; displacement; Belo Horizonte;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment

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