POPULAR MEMORY: DEVICE FOR THE STRUGGLE FOR THE RIGHT TO HOUSING.

THE CASES OF THE VILA AUTÓDROMO COMMUNITY (RIO DE JANEIRO) AND THE 6 DE MAIO NEIGHBOURHOOD (AMADORA)

Abstract

This article is the result of action research carried out during the author’s post-doctorate at the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra (CES-UC), together with the social movements fighting for the right to housing in Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon. The research specifically addresses two cases: that of the Vila Autódromo community, located in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro, during the years 2015 and 2016, and that of the 6 de Maio neighbourhood, in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, studied during 2018 and early 2019. The case studies have similarities: the local public administrations favour the induction of processes of valorisation of the land articulated to the policy of evictions and removals of peripheral communities, which consist of institutional strategies of population replacement to meet the interests of the real estate sector. It should be noted that the forms of action of municipal administrations use resources that transcend legal spheres of negotiation and enter aspects of life, defined here as “biopolitical” tactics. The consequences of these strategies enter subjective community dimensions, and therefore require more complex articulations from social movements, capable of responding to the material and immaterial impacts caused by the municipal policy.