Democracia e segregação urbana: reflexões sobre a relação entre cidade e cidadania na sociedade brasileira

Abstract

Traditionally, cities have been thought like places of modernity and democracy; nevertheless, contemporary debate about urban impacts of economic transformations is marked by the hypothesis of the emergency of a new socio-spatial order, in the which cities fulfill an exactly inverse paper, with the sprouting of a dualized social structure and a fragmented spatial organization. In this article we examine some aspects of this hypothesis, according to our findings of changes and continuities of socio-spatial and institucional nature in Brazilian metropolis. Using a theoretical frame that articulates democracy with its social conditions and institutions, we finally discuss the effects that socio-spatial transformations in Brazilian cities may have over the effectiveness of citizenship rights and democratic dynamics.