From the Mocambo to the Favela: Statistics and Social Policy in Brazil’s Informal Cities
This article explores the history of censusing in the informal neighborhoods that have always been foundational to the Brazilian cityscape. Focusing on Rio de Janeiro and Recife, it argues that the censusing of favelas and mocambos was at once a technology of governance and a performance of North At...
| Published in: | Histoire & mesure |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Éditions de l’EHESS
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.4000/histoiremesure.8208 http://journals.openedition.org/histoiremesure/8208 |
| Summary: | This article explores the history of censusing in the informal neighborhoods that have always been foundational to the Brazilian cityscape. Focusing on Rio de Janeiro and Recife, it argues that the censusing of favelas and mocambos was at once a technology of governance and a performance of North Atlantic modernity. The eventual emergence of the “statistical favela”, which defined urban informality as a problem of collective social dysfunction, had important implications for twentieth century urban and social policy. Cet article explore l’histoire des recensements des quartiers informels, qui ont toujours été un élément fondateur du paysage urbain brésilien. En se centrant sur Rio de Janeiro et Recife, il fait valoir que le recensement des favelas et des mocambos était à la fois une technique de gouvernement et une illustration de la modernité nord-atlantique de ces villes. L’émergence ultérieure de la « favela statistique », qui définissait l’informalité urbaine comme un problème de dysfonctionnement social collectif, eut des implications importantes pour les politiques urbaines et sociales du xxe siècle. |
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