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2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

5. Fronting Up to the State: Constructing a ‘Politics of Rights’

Author : Lucy Earle

Published in: Transgressive Citizenship and the Struggle for Social Justice

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The concept of the ‘politics of rights’, key to the book’s analysis of the way the housing movements engage with the right to the city, is introduced in this chapter. It uses interview material to illustrate the movements’ combative stance towards the state, and their ‘fighting talk’. It then contrasts this with the parallel adoption of a discourse and practice of participatory citizenship, evidenced by the movements’ engagement in deliberative policy councils. The chapter demonstrates how the housing movements maintain this dual position by using the idea of democracy and its trappings—participation and the language of rights—to frame their own practice while highlighting the state’s failure to respond to the needs of the urban poor.

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previous chapter Social Movements in Brazil: Democratization and Politicization
next chapter The Limits to Institutional Engagement: Negotiating Housing Policy the Nice Way
Footnotes
1
The UMM does not work with homeless rough sleepers (there are a number of movements in São Paulo organized for and by this group).
 
2
Interview with Benjamin, 25.11.14.
 
3
Meeting between UMM representatives and municipal housing secretariat staff, 18.09.07.
 
4
Interview with Anderson, member of the UNMP (National Union for Popular Housing) executive, 06.08.08.
 
5
Interview with Ivana, high-profile leader of a historically important centre-based movement, 01.06.07.
 
6
Interview with Leon, UMM spokesperson and politically active leader of a centre-based movement that undertook a high-profile building occupation from 1997 to 2005, 07.06.07.
 
7
Interview with Gaetano, leader of a regional movement and member of UNMP executive, 08.06.07.
 
8
Interview with Ivana, 01.06.07.
 
9
Interview with Pedro, leader of a regional movement and member of UNMP executive, 18.09.07.
 
10
Interview with Adana, adviser to the UMM and the UNMP, 06.07.07.
 
11
Interview with Ana, who provides support to regional movement leaders, 19.06.07.
 
12
Interview with Wanda, 24.07.07.
 
13
Interview with Benjamin, leader of a regional movement, UMM treasurer and member of UMM executive, 05.06.07.
 
14
Interview with Cristiano, leader of a small local association in the centre, 09.08.07.
 
15
Interview with Jose Eduardo Cardozo, PT federal deputy, 30.07.07.
 
16
Described in Chap. 5.
 
17
Interview with Benjamin, 05.06.07.
 
18
Interview with Sergio Mendonça, 01.08.07. The significance of this remark will be discussed in more detail in the final chapter.
 
19
Interview with Anderson, 26.06.07.
 
20
Interview with Juliana Avanci, Centro Gaspar Garcia, 05.12.14.
 
21
Media scrutiny and criticism of MCMV-E is also noted by Tatagiba et al. (2014).
 
22
Conversation with Dr. J. Setzer, 25.07.08.
 
23
Interview with Pedro, 18.09.07.
 
24
Although Scheingold’s work does not consider the question of illegal action, the discussion of occupations as civil disobedience in Chap. 7 explains how these can be understood as an extension of the movement’s politics of rights.
 
25
Competency for promoting the provision of housing is shared across all three levels of the state (Article 23).
 
26
Email communication with Anderson, 06.08.08.
 
27
The right to housing was a key area of debate at Habitat II (Urquiza 1996), but it was not incorporated specifically into the conference’s final document, the Habitat Agenda. Instead, references are made to the ‘right to adequate housing’ as set out in other UN treaties, in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Further, the Habitat Agenda states that this right ‘shall be realized progressively’ (UN Habitat 1996).
 
28
Turenne (2004) notes the use of constitutional commitments to the dignity and equality of all citizens by housing activists in France. Dignity is also a core element to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Articles 22 and 23 of the Declaration present the realization of social, economic and cultural rights as indispensable for the dignity and free development of the person (Dicke 2002).
 
29
Although movement leaders acknowledge that members join because their incomes are not high enough to access mortgage credit available on the open market, they do not generally speak about housing in economic terms. Leaders admit that housing improves family finances, since subsidized loan repayments are often lower than the costs of renting, but these economic issues were not stressed by movement leaders. This is not surprising: a movement whose discourse revolves around housing as a right, and its importance in promoting citizenship, is unlikely to stress that it will also be making its members richer.
 
30
Interview with Ernesto, leader of a centrally based movement affiliated to the FLM, 14.03.07.
 
31
Interview with Kelly, member of UMM executive, who represents the movement at international forums, particularly on women’s issues, 29.05.07.
 
32
Interview with Adana, 06.07.07.
 
33
Interview with Tristana, leader of a regional movement and member of UMM executive, 26.03.07.
 
34
Interview with Nina, 09.10.07.
 
35
Interview with Lourdes, leader of a small centrally based association.
 
36
Speaking at a centre-movements’ meeting, 02.07.07.
 
37
Interview with Nina, member of a UMM-affiliated movement, housed after an occupation, 09.10.07.
 
38
Interview with Ernesto, 14.03.07.
 
39
Interview with Plácida, member of an FLM-affiliated movement, living in an occupied building, 24.07.07.
 
40
No sources are provided by Nettl for these findings.
 
41
Interview with Ernesto, 14.03.03.
 
42
Interview with Joanadarc, leader of a small association representing families living in an occupied building in the centre, 23.04.07.
 
43
Interview with Nora, leader of a small association based in the centre, 08.10.07.
 
44
Interview with Anderson, 26.06.07.
 
45
Interview with Diogo, 12.06.07.
 
46
Interview with Ana, 27.11.14.
 
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Metadata
Title
Fronting Up to the State: Constructing a ‘Politics of Rights’
Author
Lucy Earle
Copyright Year
2017
Book
Transgressive Citizenship and the Struggle for Social Justice

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51399-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-51400-0

Copyright Year: 2017

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51400-0_5