The “Reinvention” of the City Through the Favelas

Abstract

In Rio de Janeiro, favelas (Brazilian slums), with more than a century of existence, are highly incorporated to the urban landscape. It is important to mention that it was in Rio de Janeiro, in the last decade of the nineteenth century, that the term “favela” first emerged to designate (and discriminate) poor settlements built in the fringes of the formal city by the individual initiative of dwellers themselves. Initially considered precarious and temporary settlements, favelas turned into immense poor neighborhoods, as from the second half of the twentieth century, endowed with great cultural vitality and showing a clear critical consciousness related to the segregation and excluding processes associated with their origin. This article presents some thoughts on the resistance and consolidation of favelas and their leading role in the processes of the production and reproduction of spaces of the poor.