A case study on the implementation of the “Parque Augusta” public park in the city of São Paulo: the role of social movements in the struggle for the right to the city

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide a brief case study on the role played by social movements in support of the implementation of a public park – Parque Augusta – in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. To better achieve this goal, we have made a critical analysis of media reports, public documents and scientific texts referred to our subject, taking the right to the city’s legal framework as our main theoretical reference. As a result, we have observed that the conflicts surrounding the implementation of the Parque Augusta boil down to the polarization between two mutually exclusive claims. On the one hand, the property expropriation for deployment of a public park, subject to public domain and public management with the community’s participation, which is demanded by the social movements with the support of the public attorney’s office. On the other hand, the implementation of a private development, consisting of mixed-use buildings and a private park “open to public enjoyment” but controled and managed by private investors, which is intended by the real estate developers under the consent of the municipal historic and cultural heritage council and with the support of a surrounding residents association. We have thus come to the conclusion that the main underlying issue in this urban conflict, which has served as motivation to the social movements mobilization, lies in the re-signification and the claiming of public spaces as places of social exchange and
citizenship, in a broader social process initiated by the great Manifestations of June 2013 and, therefore, closely related to the political dimension of the right to the city. For these reasons, it is our understading that the future developments of the Parque Augusta must be carefully monitored by urban issues scholars, particulary in the Urban Law domain.