The urban form under patrimonialism: the limits of state action in the production of urban space in Brazil

Abstract

Urban public policies in Brazil are based on an exaggerated belief in the transformative potential of the state apparatus and urban planning. This is because the State model, which is used, is the model structured within the context of the regulated economies of the welfare state, where the production of urban space is the result of action by a strong State. The problem with this is that this model does not correspond to Brazilian sociability, nor to our urban form. It is therefore necessary to create a theory of the State for the urban, which is capable of covering the specificities of our patrimonialist society. Using the theory of State derivation, it may be inferred that the urban form derives from this specific sociability, defining a process that is not the social production of space, but a patrimonialist production of space, a pattern of domination through space that sustains the elite society.