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Brazilian Urban Popular Movements: The 1997 Mobilization of the Inner-City Slum Movement in Sao Paulo
Abstract
Introduction Between 1997 and 2005, more than 80 occupations ofabandoned buildings took place in downtown Sao Paulo. They involvedmore than 10,000 people and were mobilized by five different socialmovement organizations. The scale and impact of these occupations surprisedboth social scientists and public officials given that the downtown cortiço1population has continued to diminish during the past 50 years and wasnever considered mobilizable by urban popular movement activists, evenduring important waves2 of urban land occupations and contestation in the1980s.3 An urban popular movement4 organized around housing issues hasa long history in Sao Paulo. Since the early 1990s, it has become more institutionalized,concentrating on housing project negotiations with governmentand international development agencies, and abandoning more radical formsof action such as occupations.
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