Although this is seemingly obvious, the first step in transforming informal communities is recognizing the scope and permanence of these urban phenomena in the first place. The spatially jarring, almost fantastical images of favelas engulfing the boundaries of gated communities in Brazil points to this issue dramatically. Even though informality in urbanism is expanding rapidly and affecting societies around the globe, economic/social/political marginalization remains a major hindrance to the advancement of social justice in these communities.
The paradox of aid and development lies in the fact that informal communities physically need to be transformed in order to promote the health and wellbeing of residents while simultaneously understanding that these communities are inhabited by individuals who have agency and their own conceptions of space, dignity and development. Top-down approaches are not necessarily good or bad but require a heightened awareness of conditions on the ground in order to be effective. While The City of God dramatized the difficulties of growing up in informal settlements in Brazil, it also gave the impression that the culture of gang violence was so pervasive that it dominated life itself. While hard-hitting and based in reality, the film does not take into account the richness of life beyond gang violence. Ironically, the film’s main character comes of age by straddling the boundaries of the formal and informal, fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a photographer through strange twists of fate that result from his peripheral relationship to the gang war. The film culminates in a detached journalistic account of the violence, departing from the first person narrative that characterized the beginning of the film.
Teresa Caldeira identifies the film’s main limitation as giving the false impression that the experience of life in the favela was universally characterized by gang life. She counters this approach by celebrating grassroots forms of culture such as hip hop and street art that articulate an entirely different conception of marginalization and class/racial division (Caldeira 174). Her approach recognizes the cries of protest coming directly from the favela as a more genuine form of cultural expression and identity.
Where does the role of the architect and urban planner fit into these questions of culture and identity? Successful interventions must be critical of condescending grand narrative assumptions about daily life in informality and avoid generalizations while recognizing the need to improve material conditions on the ground (Jáuregui 60). This mentality suggests that the person behind the intervention have a personal connection to the community in question, similar perhaps to Robert Neuwirth’s project of embedding himself in informal communities. Even a project as simple as a community well or latrine involves a complex series of questions concerning site, access, existing conditions and the community’s relationship to land itself. Attempts at blanket solutions, such as giving land titles to entire communities of squatters, demonstrate that there are limitations to approaches that do not correctly assess conditions on the ground.
Jáuregui, Jorge Mario. Articulating the Broken City and Society.
Caldeira, Teresa. Worlds Set Apart.