Monique Nuijten (Wageningen University)
The Politics of Space and Place. Violence and Citizenship in a Housing Project in Recife, Brazil
This article addresses and problematizes the notion of citizenship in a neighbourhood characterized by drug trafficking and violence in Recife, Brazil. It looks especially into the effects of a slum upgrading project in which the population is removed from shacks at the river to a new housing area. What is the relation between citizenship and the re-construction of urban space by the Brazilian state? How does place-making relate to feelings of belonging or exclusion? The article deals with forms of membership and belonging, techniques of governmentality and resistance, and the role of violence in the re-construction of urban space.
