Physical Upgrading and Social Integration in of Rio de Janeiro: the Case of Favela Bairro

Abstract

Favela Bairro is the largest-scale squatter settlement upgrading programme implemented in Latin America. It has gained international recognition as an example of a new generation of housing and environmental upgrading programmes aiming at the reduction of urban poverty and social exclusion. Based on research carried out by the authors, the article examines the central concepts which have informed Favela Bairro and the ways in which they were operationalised [1]. The examination is conducted in the light of seven policy characteristics which the authors have identified as typifying an emerging new generation of housing and upgrading policies. The article argues that processes of participation and democratisation are central if the latest generation of poverty reduction initiatives are to have an impact which is both substantive in scale and lasting in time. Yet, as demonstrated in the case of Favela Bairro, it remains extremely problematic for governments to implement projects which devolve significant decisionmaking powers to poor urban communities and, even more difficult, to institutionalise mechanisms for civil society participation as a central part of state reform and democratisation. This is an extended and modified version of the paper “Favela Bairro and a New Generation of Housing Programmes for the Urban Poor” by the same authors, published in GEOFORUM, Vol. 3 2, No. 4, pp. 5 21–5 31, 2001. Adapted with permission from Elsevier Science.