Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: SARAH DE ANDRADE E ANDRADE

Insurgent periphery: from socio-spatial segregation to the Right to the City on the hill of Mãe Luiza

Mãe Luíza, Insurgency, Periphery, Urban Planning, Right to the City.

The work presented begins with a reflection on the dialectical relations between appropriation and domination in the context of the capitalist production of space and, to this end, looks at the case of the Mãe Luíza neighborhood in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. Starting from the insurgent character of the socio-spatial practices that take place in its territory, we seek to unveil them in order to understand their role in overcoming the living conditions imposed by socio-spatial segregation. With the initial occupation of areas next to the beach, joint efforts and campaigns to pave roads, de-ratification and housing construction, financing, construction and shared management of collective use facilities such as schools and a multi-purpose gymnasium: the organization around permanence and the problematization of the main needs of the neighborhood, as well as the social articulation to remedy them, inserts Mãe Luíza into a context of struggles and achievements that are an important milestone in the production of the peripheral space of Natal. Its path points to the expansion of the "survival agenda" and highlights the "citizenship agenda" as an emancipatory horizon, making us question what is specific about it in terms of understanding how social groups rise up in the quest to transform the material and immaterial conditions of everyday life. Based on the reflections of the french philosopher Henri Lefebvre, we confirm the hypothesis that the simultaneous and contradictory processes of appropriation and domination of space, resulting from the different socio-spatial practices that take place in the neighborhood, are moving towards the construction of a "differential space" (Lefebvre, 2013[1974]), which expresses the conquest of the right to differences, resistance and pluralities, from which the possibilities of social transformation are emphasized. Using the methodological strategies considered successful by this same author - a seminal reference for this work - the thesis is structured on the basis of the regressive-progressive method. We take an initially descriptive and curious look at the insurgency in the Mãe Luíza neighborhood, returning to the moments that contributed to shaping these relationships and returning to the present to weave the seams that allow us to understand their specificities. We also used qualitative research procedures and techniques, such as semi-structured interviews based on the dialog between the methods Paroles d'habitants (Lefebvre, 1970; Haumont, 2001; Raymond, 2011) and Comprehensive interviews (Kaufman, 2013). With an investigation that emphasizes and privileges the analysis of what is lived, we highlight the Centro Sócio Pastoral Nossa Senhora da Conceição as the protagonist of the scenario of conquests and empowerment of this urban peripheral nucleus, contributing to ratify the dimension of use and appropriation in the production of urban space and the consequent resumption and expansion of the encounter, the playful, the work and the Right to the City.