Advisor: Rachel Coutinho Marques da Silva
Defense date: 17/02/2022
Abstract
This thesis aims to contribute to the reflection of urban public policies
focusing on social risks and vulnerabilities in precarious settlements. To achieve
such goal the research will analyze urban public policies developed in the squatter
settlement known as Favela Rocinha in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 2006
to 2014. The choice of Rocinha as a case study is justified by the characteristics of
urban and building precariousness as well as the various problems of social risks
and vulnerabilities. Therefore, this thesis will analyze the aspects that produce
social inequalities in the urban space, which partially configure the absence of the
right to the city, using the concepts of endogenous and exogenous risks. The
methodology is developed through three categories of analysis: risk and
vulnerability, social inequality, and the right to the city, based on documentary
research, field research and semi-structured interviews with community leaders.
The research concludes that vulnerability in Rocinha is directly related to social
inequality and the absence of the right to the city, both in comparison to privileged
neighborhoods of the city, and internally, due to the greater neglect of the most
precarious sub-neighborhoods, which receive less attention from the government.
The mais endogenous risks identified were public security and precariouness of
housing and infrastructure. And exogenous risks were flooding and landslides. The
interviews pointed out as main vulnerabilities violence, food insecurity, basic
sanitation and poverty.