O discurso espacial como instrumento da produção capitalista do espaço: Experiências em São Paulo e Barcelona

Abstract

This paper aims to examine how spatial discourses have become key elements for the implementation of spatial policies that seek to insert space into the circuits of accumulation through the reshaping of the spatial morphology of outlying, low-income neighborhoods. Such discourses integrate new elements due to their need of endless reformulation, because the conflicts that emerge with the progression of such spatial policies erode the legitimacy of such arguments. The latter then integrate justifications that reinstate their previous coherence and cohesion. Among such recent justifications incorporated into spatial discourses are those that stem from social demands, such as infrastructural enhancement and environmental protection. In doing so, such discourses transform the discursive matrices of social movements and collective actions into instruments for spatial practices that promote, in some areas of the city, gentrification at the expense of appropriation. © EURE.