The perversity of the ‘Citizenship Game’: Slum-upgrading in the urban periphery of Recife, Brazil

Abstract

This article analyses the effects of slum upgrading on the lives of slum dwellers, especially on their position in society and their relation with the state. It zooms in on the implementation of Prometrópole, a World Bank-funded slum upgrading project in Recife that removes the population from shacks close to rivers to new housing estates. In this project, the state embraces participatory democracy and stresses the growing inclusion of the poor as citizens of the Brazilian nation-state. The question that inspired the article is: ‘How does the “citizenship agenda” employed by the Brazilian state relate to practices of political belonging in the urban periphery, characterized by social exclusion and violence?’ On the basis of ethnographic research, the article concludes that the upgrading of poor neighbourhoods indeed increases feelings of belonging and inclusion among the poor population. At the same time, however, the stress on the responsible citizen and the empty participatory procedures in the project have the perverse effects of side-lining the poor and reinforcing clientelist politics.