Cavalli de Meira, Juliano; (2022) How the spatial meets the social? Favelas as urban institutions and COVID-19 in Brazil. (DPU Working Papers 214). The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL: London, UK.

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Abstract

This study looks into the responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its main objective is to enable an understanding of a favela as a capable urban governance institution. This rationale is made possible through the case study of local initiatives that surged in this city dur- ing the crisis, by making use of the complexity framework applied to social sciences. In the analysis of this case, three elements are central to the way one understands urban equality throughout the pandemic in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The first element is the formal government institution’s failure which constrains and enables grassroots responses throughout the pandemic. The second element is a widespread condition of inadequate health and sanitation access for the favelas. The last element comes from the bias and prejudices that portrays favelas as a threat and are perceived by formal institutions as something that must be fixed. This under- standing leads to a contribution to the academic and societal understanding of urban settings in Brazil. Despite its findings being somewhat limited to the specific context of favelas in Rio de Janeiro, this paper argues for future studies to be developed under the complexity framework to enrich theoretical and societal understanding of favelas and cities.

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