From the struggle for urban land to negotiation towards urbanization: Associativism in Rio de Janeiro slums in times of redemocratization

Abstract

The present work explores the changing nature of popular political mobilization occurred in the urban community movement of slum quarters in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the post-military dictatorship period in Brazil, that it popular mobilization has quickly redefined itself at the same time that the process of re-democratization was occurring in the country, when the urbanization of the slum quarters became the State policy that came to be the main flag of the community movement. Therefore, communitarian leaders began to the demand improvements of urban services and equipment in the slum quarters, as these demands where politically reasonable and were and had broader possibilities of success giving the new political backdrop. Yet, that political approach of the communities leaders implied a renounce from more radical claims of structural changes in society in order to gain political momentum with more immediate benefits.