The long-term effects of housing policy instrumentation: Rio de Janeiro’s case from an actor–network theory perspective

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This paper explores the long-term effects of Rio de Janeiro’s slum upgrading, a key policy instrument of municipal housing since the 1990s, and an essential reference for housing initiatives worldwide. From a theoretical stance, this paper builds on the Political Sociology of Public Policy Instruments (PPI) and actor–network theory (ANT). The paper argues that Rio’s slum upgrading instrumentation, that is, its constitution and use, has been key to the various housing policy oscillations over the past three decades. It also contends that this instrumentation contributed to the depoliticization of the municipal housing policy through the fostering of a ‘community of practice’ centred on slum upgrading, formed by a wide range of state and non-sate actors, and based on a technical rationality. This community and its practices have weakened the political control over Rio’s housing policy in the past decades.