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Infrastructure and Urbanization of the State

Francisco Vidal Luna and Herbert S. Klein

in An Economic and Demographic History of São Paulo, 1850-1950

The creation of a modern communications network, the construction of a massive hydroelectric complex and the birth of a major world metropolis from a previously undistinguished urban center are the ... More

The creation of a modern communications network, the construction of a massive hydroelectric complex and the birth of a major world metropolis from a previously undistinguished urban center are the themes examined. All of these developments were made possible by major investments of the state and of the private sector in the basic infrastructure. State public works in everything from purified water and sanitation to paved roads and higher educational institutions were crucial in developing the major urban centers.Less

Fabricating Discipline and Progress in São Paulo, Symphony of a Metropolis

Maite Conde

in Foundational Films: Early Cinema and Modernity in Brazil

A common focus of the international cinematic avant-garde during the 1920s was the power and excitement of cities, something that gave rise in both Europe and the United States to a genre of films ... More

A common focus of the international cinematic avant-garde during the 1920s was the power and excitement of cities, something that gave rise in both Europe and the United States to a genre of films known as "city symphonies." Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand's Manhatta (1921), André Sauvage's Études sur Paris (1928), Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929), and Walter Ruttmann’s Berlin: Die Sinfonie Der Großstadt (1927) were examples of this genre. Such films inspired São Paulo: A sinfonia da metrópole, which is analyzed here. Made by Hungarian filmmakers, Rodolfo Lustig and Adalberto Kemeny, the Brazilian film typically documents a day in the life of São Paulo, exalting its urban dynamic as a sign of the city’s and country’s modernity. In examining São Paulo: A sinfonia da metrópole, this chapter shows that while it expresses the city’s speed brought by the experience of modernity, it also departs from its international inspirations to triumphantly project the discipline of labor, projected as a sign of order and progress, which is ultimately projected by the state.Less

Psychoanalysis in Brazil during Vargas’ Time

C. Lucia and M. Valladares de Oliveira

in Psychoanalysis and Politics: Histories of Psychoanalysis under Conditions of Restricted Political Freedom

C. Lucia M. Valladares de Oliveira’s chapter focuses on psychoanalytic practices in Brazil under the dictatorship of Vargas between 1930 and 1945. The author identifies three key areas in which ... More

C. Lucia M. Valladares de Oliveira’s chapter focuses on psychoanalytic practices in Brazil under the dictatorship of Vargas between 1930 and 1945. The author identifies three key areas in which psychoanalysis gained prominence after 1930: public health (in the form of the children's clinic), analytic training [inspired by the model of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA)], and the human sciences (in university academic teaching). The interaction between these practices and institutions and the political life of the country is examined in detail. Valladares de Oliveira argues that the authoritarian thinking that dominated the Vargas dictatorship did not prevent the flourishing of psychoanalysis. In fact, psychoanalysis was readily accommodated by intellectuals from the left and right, as well as by the government, as it was seen as being able to contribute to nation building.Less

Immigration and Diaspora

Mieko Nishida

in Diaspora and Identity: Japanese Brazilians in Brazil and Japan

Starting in 1908, Japanese immigrants arrived as coffee colonos in São Paulo state. Required to immigrate in family units, the Japanese settled down among themselves in rural São Paulo. In the ... More

Starting in 1908, Japanese immigrants arrived as coffee colonos in São Paulo state. Required to immigrate in family units, the Japanese settled down among themselves in rural São Paulo. In the 1930s and early 1940s they were challenged greatly by Brazilian nationalism under President Getúlio Vargas and the WWII, which ended prewar immigration in 1942. After the war, Japanese immigrants decided to stay on in Brazil and began to migrate to the city, whereas Japanese immigration was resumed in 1953. By 1980, Japanese Brazilians had moved up to urban middle classes, by means of higher education. Yet, due to Brazil’s hyperinflation, dekassegui started on a large scale in the mid-1980s, which resulted in the creation of Brazil Towns in central Japan. In June 2008, the centenary of Japanese immigration to Brazil was widely celebrated in Brazil but soon afterwards the global recession began to move Brazilians and their families in Japan back to their homeland.Less

Confronting Impunity

in Making Law Matter: Environmental Protection and Legal Institutions in Brazil

This chapter analyzes the communicative impact of Brazilian prosecutorial enforcement. The first part sets forth the civil and criminal enforcement powers held by Brazilian prosecutors. The second ... More

This chapter analyzes the communicative impact of Brazilian prosecutorial enforcement. The first part sets forth the civil and criminal enforcement powers held by Brazilian prosecutors. The second part describes their use in the states of São Paulo and Pará. The final part of the chapter examines differences in political independence among prosecutorial institutions in São Paulo and Pará to help explain the variations in their environmental enforcement activities.Less

Reshaping the Metropolitan Territory: Contemporary Urban Interventions in São Paulo

Carlos Leite

in Contemporary Urbanism Brazil: Beyond Brasilia

This chapter examines the concept of contemporary urban interventions in São Paulo Paulo, Brazil. It analyzes the city's process of territorial transformation and the new possibilities for urban ... More

This chapter examines the concept of contemporary urban interventions in São Paulo Paulo, Brazil. It analyzes the city's process of territorial transformation and the new possibilities for urban intervention and design and discusses three recent complementary urban interventions. It also attempts to answers questions concerning the ability of urban design to rescue immense degraded historic areas without creating scenic simulacra and the management of wastelands in the context of urbanism.Less

Introduction: São Paulo, Brazilian Megacity

David William Foster

in São Paulo: Perspectives on the City and Cultural Production

By most accounts São Paulo is not a user-friendly city, and it may even be viewed as hostile. A paradigmatic megacity (along with, for example, Mexico City or Tokyo), São Paulo has grown ... More

By most accounts São Paulo is not a user-friendly city, and it may even be viewed as hostile. A paradigmatic megacity (along with, for example, Mexico City or Tokyo), São Paulo has grown exponentially in the past 100 years, such that something like 18 million inhabitants now occupy the greater metropolitan area. Some of this growth is attributable to foreign immigrants, brought in mostly to work on the expanding coffee plantations, but the emerging industrial base east of the city is also a factor. The first decades of the twentieth century were the turning point for the explosive growth of São Paulo, which now serves as the financial center of the country—as well as of all Latin America—and, in its suburbs, as the country's industrial center. Brazil industrialized early, well before other Latin American societies, who thought that it might be better to produce the goods of modernity at home rather than import them from abroad. Culturally speaking, the turning point for São Paulo came with the Semana de Arte Moderna (Week of Modern Art).Less

Films by Day and Films by Night in São Paulo

David William Foster

in São Paulo: Perspectives on the City and Cultural Production

Approximately 18,000 films have been produced in Brazil in 110 years of filmmaking, but it is not clear how many of them were devoted to São Paulo. Nevertheless, São Paulo is an important venue for ... More

Approximately 18,000 films have been produced in Brazil in 110 years of filmmaking, but it is not clear how many of them were devoted to São Paulo. Nevertheless, São Paulo is an important venue for Brazilian filmmaking, and it is also the site of many respected film festivals, including the São Paulo International Film Festival, which dates from 1990. Yet it is undeniable that the presence of São Paulo in Brazilian fiction is not matched—at least in terms of the central core of Brazilian cinema—by an equal degree of interest from filmmakers. However, that does not mean that there have not been some remarkable films which incorporate a significant interpretive interest in the city. This chapter examines four of those films: São Paulo, S.A. (1965), O puritano da Rua Augusta (The Puritan of Augusta Street; 1965), O invasor (2002), and Anjos da noite (Angels of the Night; 1987). These films are analyzed in order to understand how the megalopolis functions as a laboratory for Brazilian urban life.Less

“Water, Water, Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink”: Land Use and Water Policy in São Paulo, Brazil

Margaret E. Keck

in Livable Cities?: Urban Struggles for Livelihood and Sustainability

This chapter presents a brief historical-institutional analysis of where water resource and sanitation issues fit in the development of the São Paulo metropolitan area. It then explains some of the ... More

This chapter presents a brief historical-institutional analysis of where water resource and sanitation issues fit in the development of the São Paulo metropolitan area. It then explains some of the guiding ideas about development, technical expertise, and participation that helped define the relationships among actors even when political arenas for dissent were very limited. It also reviews the kinds of organizations that developed to protest water pollution and the contexts in which they did so, and finally explores the factors that led to the beginnings of a more integrated and participatory approach to water resource management in the region. The boundary between activists within and outside of the state was found to be extremely thin and constantly shifting. There was also the possibility that well-developed interactive networks between the state and societal agents could mitigate some of the fears both of the community organizations and of the water engineers.Less

Strong Laws, Weak Agencies

in Making Law Matter: Environmental Protection and Legal Institutions in Brazil

This chapter focuses on Brazil's environmental agencies and the administrative enforcement of environmental laws in Brazil. The first part describes the evolution of environmental laws and ... More

This chapter focuses on Brazil's environmental agencies and the administrative enforcement of environmental laws in Brazil. The first part describes the evolution of environmental laws and administrative agencies at the federal and state levels. The states of São Paulo and Pará represent two sides of the spectrum in terms of their institutional capacity for environmental enforcement. The relatively wealthy, industrialized São Paulo of southern Brazil has been the country's leader in this regard while Pará and other poorer states in northern Brazil have lagged behind. The second part considers the problems faced by environmental agencies. In São Paulo and several other southern states, where agencies were once fairly strong institutions, they have experienced decline. In Pará and many other northern states, agencies have remained small and ill-equipped to deal with the extent of the state's environmental problems. The final part of the chapter describes the environmental enforcement instruments and activities of environmental agencies. It shows that the weakness of environmental agencies is reflected in their records of environmental enforcement. The chapter reaffirms the conventional wisdom that, despite the strength of Brazilian environmental laws, environmental agencies are constrained in their capacities to implement and enforce them.Less

Saudades do Brasil: Claude Lévi-Strauss's Photographic Gaze on the City of São Paulo

David William Foster

in São Paulo: Perspectives on the City and Cultural Production

In 1934, a young French anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, set out from the French port of Marseilles to assume a position in sociology at the newly formed Universidade de São Paulo. He first ... More

In 1934, a young French anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, set out from the French port of Marseilles to assume a position in sociology at the newly formed Universidade de São Paulo. He first arrived in São Paulo in 1935, but his anthropological work is best represented by Tristes tropiques (Sad Tropics), a work that went on to have a major place in the development of twentieth-century anthropology. As part of his field work in Brazil, Lévi-Strauss took many photographs with indigenous themes, which he considered important as notes for his subsequent interpretations, but unimportant as creative productions themselves. Many of these photographs are included in Saudades do Brasil (Nostalgia for Brasil), which has received considerable attention as part of Lévi-Strauss's fieldwork. However, while attention has been devoted exclusively to the anthropological material, Saudades do Brasil includes a number of the photographs Lévi-Strauss took of São Paulo during his brief residence there, photographs that are an important part of the record of changes that took place in the city in the latter half of the 1930s.Less

Anti-Noise Waves

Leonardo Cardoso

in Sound-Politics in São Paulo

The chapter focuses on two processes: complaints brought to the press by residents since the 1910s and the city administration’s responses to those complaints. In order to establish an inventory of ... More

The chapter focuses on two processes: complaints brought to the press by residents since the 1910s and the city administration’s responses to those complaints. In order to establish an inventory of contentious urban sounds and examine the successive shifts in São Paulo’s acoustic environment, I went through roughly 1,510 stories in two newspapers that used the term “noise.” This allowed me to catalog the actors and sounds that led to dissent in São Paulo and the routes through which they became public problems. The chapter also considers how the municipal administration framed the problems and what solutions (if any) it proposed. This will reveal some of the “translation gaps” between complainants and administrations in the back-and-forth between public controversies and their proposed scientific, legal, and political solutions.Less

Assessing São Paulo's Large Drop in Homicides: The Role of Demography and Policy Interventions

João M. P. de Mello, Alexandre Schneider, and Ernesto Schargrodsky

in The Economics of Crime: Lessons For and From Latin America

This chapter analyzes the role of demography and policy interventions in explaining the large drop in homicides experienced by São Paulo, Brazil. It attributes a positive role to several policy ... More

This chapter analyzes the role of demography and policy interventions in explaining the large drop in homicides experienced by São Paulo, Brazil. It attributes a positive role to several policy interventions including the creation of municipal police forces, the implementation of dry laws, gun control policies, the use of crime geo-referencing and criminal identification systems, and increases in incarceration. The authors feel that these factors cannot really account for the geographic and dynamic crime patterns. They explain that demographic changes fit well with the pattern of increase and reduction in homicides in São Paulo and other areas of Brazil. A different approach to the study of crime is needed, one that relies on estimating the role of long-run underlying trends to calculate the proportion of current crime rates that can be attributed to forces beyond the immediate control of policymakers.Less

The Vertical Cityscape in São Paulo: The Influence of Modernism in Urban Design

Silvio Soares Macedo

in Contemporary Urbanism Brazil: Beyond Brasilia

This chapter examines the influence of modernism in the urban design of the vertical cityscape of São Paulo, Brazil. It considers the isolated tower on a lot and the complex of towers in a block as ... More

This chapter examines the influence of modernism in the urban design of the vertical cityscape of São Paulo, Brazil. It considers the isolated tower on a lot and the complex of towers in a block as the hegemonic models that resulted from the Brazilian modernist paradigm, and discusses how they have configured São Paulo 's contemporary cityscape. It suggests that the approval of urban legislation regulating verticalization in São Paulo in 1972 influenced the city's spatial organization by generating ample and generous private open spaces, fostering construction of shared facilities in such spaces and encouraging the creation of corporate plazas while discouraging excessively tall buildings.Less

The Shopping Centers Shaping the Brazilian City: Two Case Studies in São Paulo

Gilda Collet Bruna and Heliana Comin Vargas

in Contemporary Urbanism Brazil: Beyond Brasilia

This chapter examines the Brazilian version of the shopping center through two significant examples, the Iguatemi and Pítio Higienòpolis, which were built more than thirty years apart in the city of ... More

This chapter examines the Brazilian version of the shopping center through two significant examples, the Iguatemi and Pítio Higienòpolis, which were built more than thirty years apart in the city of São Paulo. The findings indicate the shopping centers in Brazil stimulate several alterations in their surroundings and generate new centralities in the city environment. The result also indicates that great competition among the shopping centers led to successive transformations and adaptations in order to satisfy different types of consumers and their new demands.Less

Braided Lives

Misha Klein

in Kosher Feijoada and Other Paradoxes of Jewish Life in São Paulo

The second chapter provides historical background through the lens of the present, making use of ethnographic vignettes as windows into the historical origins of the community. Intersecting ... More

The second chapter provides historical background through the lens of the present, making use of ethnographic vignettes as windows into the historical origins of the community. Intersecting trajectories find Jews of many origins sharing communal institutions in this South American city. More than a mere backdrop, the city itself is one of the strands of identity. The way the community occupies the city and interprets its place within it (i.e., as a shtetl within the city) is key to understanding the specific ways that Jews in São Paulo manage the many sources of their identity. This chapter also sets the scene for an exploration of the internal dynamics of the community and the role played by the community on the national stage.Less

Making Agencies Accountable

in Making Law Matter: Environmental Protection and Legal Institutions in Brazil

This chapter shows how prosecutorial enforcement makes environmental law matter by making environmental agencies accountable. The first section discusses the various instruments that prosecutors may ... More

This chapter shows how prosecutorial enforcement makes environmental law matter by making environmental agencies accountable. The first section discusses the various instruments that prosecutors may use to oversee environmental agencies in Brazil. The second and third sections describe how prosecutorial oversight functions in the states of São Paulo and Pará, respectively. The final section discusses the various consequences of prosecutorial oversight, highlighting its legalistic tendencies as well as its accountability effects.Less

Mário de Andrade: On Being São Paulo-Wise in Paulicéia desvairada

David William Foster

in São Paulo: Perspectives on the City and Cultural Production

This chapter examines the poetry of Mário de Andrade devoted to the city of São Paulo. Andrade was responsible for a wealth of artistic materials important to the emergence of a national Brazilian ... More

This chapter examines the poetry of Mário de Andrade devoted to the city of São Paulo. Andrade was responsible for a wealth of artistic materials important to the emergence of a national Brazilian literature in the context of the Semana de Arte Moderna, perhaps none more notable that his antiheroic novel Macunaíma (1928), which deals with the experiences in São Paulo of a visitor from the indigenous interior. While Macunaíma provides a memorable Bakhtinian interpretation of the city and has been widely studied, much denser in terms of a poetic engagement with the city is the volume of poetry studied here, Paulicéia desvairada (Hallucinated São Paulo; 1922), a work whose title points, with its head noun, toward an epic vision of the city which is in turn parodied by the accompanying adjective: desvairada, meaning “hallucinated” or “delirious.” A work directly tied by date to the Semana de Arte Moderna, Paulicéia is the first significant literary interpretation of São Paulo in Brazilian literature.Less

Downtown in São Paulo with Hildegard Rosenthal's Camera

David William Foster

in São Paulo: Perspectives on the City and Cultural Production

Another near-forgotten woman's representation of São Paulo is that offered by photographer Hildegard Rosenthal. Arriving in Brazil in 1934 as a refugee from the Nazis (although she was not Jewish ... More

Another near-forgotten woman's representation of São Paulo is that offered by photographer Hildegard Rosenthal. Arriving in Brazil in 1934 as a refugee from the Nazis (although she was not Jewish herself, she had married a Jew, Walter Rosenthal), she soon moved in important artistic circles and found herself persuaded to begin photographing her new home. During a span of only nine years, 1938–47, Rosenthal took thousands of images of São Paulo before abandoning her undertaking in order to raise a family. Records show that it was not until 1974 that her photography was first shown, at the Universidade de São Paulo. One of the best-known images created by Rosenthal is that of the camarão, the shrimp-colored tram that carried passengers in and out of the financial and commercial center of São Paulo. Most commentators have underscored her primary interest in photographing human beings in public spaces.Less