What is a Favela?

A favela is a scattered settlement in Brazil, which is occupied by rural poor, who escaped their previous living conditions to live where “the movement” is. Favelas are usually located on hills, right beside the cities. These cities are well advanced and modern.  Favela communities are built on unused land and are not planned by the city. Although it is not considered part of the city, they play a major role on urban economy, society and polity.

Favela homes are constructed with recycled materials, at first. Then as the residents collect and gain money, they begin to upgrade. They begin by buying blocks and they construct their own stable home. Clean water is very difficult to obtain in these communities.

For this research I took a deep look into Janice Perlman’s study on Favelas.

Favela: four decades of living on the edge in Rio de Janeiro by Janice Perlman.

 I used her studies to answer my question. Does Globalization help or hinder socio-spatial inequality? I used her studies to look into the spatial Inequality in Rio De Janeiro between the economic boom cities and its surrounding Favelas.

To make my research more specific, I looked into Nova Brasilia. Nova Brasilia is a Favela in Rio de Janeiro, which has expanded immensely throughout the years. This Favela expanded so much that it connected with other favelas forming one. This is where the problem arises within Favelas. When favelas merge, rival criminal groups fight for respect.

Perlman concentrated on the importance of place, differences in locality and legitimacy in structuring opportunities and constraints for individuals.

Now the favelas are in danger because of the loss of trust, community, unity and freedom of movement. And the "erosion of social capital are the consequences of the new disorder and the inability or unwillingness of the state to provide personal safety and public security in the space of favelas". (Perlman, 2009)

Another amazing source I used to concrete my studies in favelas is an amazing Documentary called "Favela Rising"A film by Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary. This documentary was real and touching. This documentary showed a different side of life in the Favelas that I could never have came across if i was not doing this research. 

Favelas are created without the consent of the state or the market, therefore they are seen as a threat to the people of the cities.

Access to water and electricity became a main issue in Favelas, Resident association came about, which representatives are selected in each favela to demand government action in the favelas. The government has no other choice but to provide these favelas with electricity and clean water. Due to the resident associations many favelas are now more advanced, although they are not safe, Favelas now have access to water, electricity and sewage.

Why move closer to the city?

Many people are pulled to the cities, because they want a better life for their children. Those who stayed behind fishing and working the plantations. These people are stuck in the same position, living in a favela is provides a better way of living than staying in the country side.

According to the major international development agencies are accepting that migration is inevitable. Urban growth is impossible to stop since everyone is looking for a greater way of life.  Favelas have gained respect because of their upgrade in society.  

Rio's Inequality compared to other cities: Positive Outlook

The Graph below demonstrates Rio's economic growth throughout the years. This graph also shows how Rio beging an economic trend before the other Cities, in Brazil. The graph shows how Rio's population grew four times more than the other cities, from 2.95 million to 10.8 million.

The cities go from top to bottom as follows:

Sao paulo

Rio de Janeiro

Belo Horizonte

Porto Alegre

Recife

Salvador

Fortaleza

Brasilia

Curitiba

An explanation for Rio's intense inequality could be granted to the fast pacing growth that it has encountered throughout the decades. It grows in population, but it does not provide equality amongst the people. The city grows faster in population than it does in providing jobs and social equality.

What is being done to help the Inequality! Positive OUTLOOK!

Viva Favela is a NGO that is trying to help the communication in the favela. Viva Favela serves like the main communication network in these favelas. They offer internet connection and they provide information on Rights and stories of favela residents. This shows the world the real story on favelas, and it shows the people in the community that they are not alone. This program extended to offer programs for students to keep them out of gangs and teach them how to be more productive with their lives.One program that is making a huge difference is the surfing program. The beach unites all people from all over the place, favela residents and city residents, it is the place where judgement is gone. For this research I watched a documentary that demonstrated how this amazing organization is trying to expands it's viewers and it;s support:

Viva Favela Part 1

Viva Favela Part 2

Viva Favela Part 3

Viva Favela part 4

Brazil:Economic Inequality

BRAZIL:

The urban population is growing extremely fast in Latin America. It is estimated that by 2050, 89 percent of the population will be living in cities.

Although this huge transformation is occurring worldwide, In latin America the issue is that there exists a huge inequality. The distribution of wealth has become a huge problem.  It’s not only an internal issue, but it has become an obvious problem. For instance, the Favelas surrounding the cities.

This is how it is measured: In the average developed nations the richest 20 percent is six times higher than the poorest, In Latin America, the richest earns 12 times more than the poorest(Valeria pero,2004) In the 20th century the favela growth rate was 2.4 % while the actual city grew was just 0.38%.

Brazil and its economic boom:

Brazil moved up from a rural country to an urban one in a fast pace. From 1960- 2000, Brazilian cities absorbed 108 million new residents most of them poor, usually in the favelas. The farmers in the north moved to the south for a better way of life and 3 out of 5 Brazilians living in the country side left to the city.

The graph on the top, shows the Favela and Non- Favela growth in Rio De Janeiro. The second on the top shows regions and it's percentage earning from 1950-2000

The Second at the bottom shows the landscape of Inequality, which is the average income of the heads of household in each CENSUS region. (Janice Perlman, 2009)

Perlman’s opinion:"If the wealth was distributed more equally than many of the rural poor will have access to a more comfortable way of life. Brazil’s economy is growing, and according to statistics it will keep on growing. Brazils GDP, 2 years ago was US $199 trillion, who is to say that only a few, generally white Brazilians are obtaining that wealth". 

Brazil: Favela Vs Rio

Rio De janeiro: 

 During the 1980’s Rio’s appeal to tourism failed due to violence. But, tourism in 1992 inspired a whole outlook overseas. Many restaurants and bars in different countries, like France have a “favela inspired” look to them. Many places are now favela inspired. It is ironic because favela residents are not economically stable, but its poverty and it’s culture is turned into an expensive luxury in other countries.

 In Rio, Social Mobility is nearly impossible, because of it’s huge inequality gap that has affected its advancement. It’s declining employment and lagging growth rates.  “Rio has the lowest rates of social inequality among all the metropolitan regions of Brazil” (Valeria, 2003)

Rio De janeiro has the largest favela population of any Brazilian city. Favelas, have evolved immensely since the beginning, "first eradicating favelas and then upgrading and integrating them into their surrounding neighborhoods". Favelas are essential for the economic and political growth of the city of Rio.

As the city grows, so does the favelas.


 When the city expanded towards the coast, favelas expanded 3 times more. This creates more jobs, which attracts more and more people to establish a life in the favelas.  In the 20^th Century, the favelas growth is 6.5 % while the city’s growth is only 2.5 % compared to the favelas. This causes greater inequality because many jobs would already be taken by the people in the neighborhoods, there isn’t enough jobs for everyone.

Contradictions::::::::::

There is another issue, as to why governments are incapable of providing the correct tools for the residents of the favelas. The population in a favela is not exact. Many residents hide from the Census. 

Nova Brasilia: An insight into Rio's expanding Favela

NOVA BRASILIA:

Nova Brasilia is the favela I chose to take a closer look into the life of an actual favela community.

 Nova Brasilia’s development is essential towards figuring out how inequality affects a specific group of people. Public transportation around the actual city is efficient. But once it gets closer to the favelas they become less,a couple of buses takes residents to the main road entrance of the favela.

The government has tried to provide paved roads. They have widened the streets,which have been improved throughout the years in the favelas.

Houses are turned into shops, restaurants, pastries, even furniture stores. The favelas have become unsafe, but more organized because of the organization of the favelas. They presidents of the resident association keep folders and documentation of the favela residents, this has also created unity in the favelas.

Service providers began realizing that favela residents are potential consumers, so they began to sell their product, which serves better to the community because it lowered the price. Before, residents used Illegal lightening ,which was more expensive.

GLOBAL: A closer look into big corporations affecting the lives of favela residents.

The Coca Cola Bottling Company had a stronghold on its workers since it created many jobs surrounding it. Once Coca cola left, many favela residents were left unemployed for a long time. It was difficult to find other jobs since there were no unemployment pensions or anything that protected the rights of it's workers. They worked for minimum wage.

GLOBALIZATION: Mailing has developed in the favelas. It has made it easier to communicate, although there are  no street names or numbers, residents association has found a way to distribute and keep families together. Drug lords  have been preventing the naming of the streets because it will make it easier for the police to capture them.

Education: the great hope for social mobility is almost impossible because teachers do not show up and students become unmotivated and do not show up as well. It is enforced by law that students cannot be left behind, even if students do not grasp a clear understanding, they must continue to the next grade level.

Even the police stations that are set up in the favelas are scared to even step in because the streets are ruled by the druglords, as you can see the drug war takes a toll in everyday life, even the presidents of the associations are ruled by the drug lords.

Politics / Favelas in News: World Cup Series

Politics:

Upscale communities enjoy full citizenship. Only allowing upscale communities to take part in political and economic participation has caused a huge gap between the residents of Rio. Favelas residents are usually the citizens that have no idea what their rights are and what they are capable of accomplishing with their rights. 

Many people in the favelas are illiterate and it is hard for them to exercise their rights when they have no idea what they are. 

The poor are shut off from the city. Favelas residents are sometimes not considered citizens. 

Many favela residents are not aware of their public goods, and are shut off from the upscale communities, they are looked down upon and the favela residents are usually blacks or “mulattos”. In the actual cities, the white Brazilians hold all the power.

Democracy: The exclusion that exists in Rio is very apparent; democracy has not yet embraced the poor.


Many feel that democracy has not brought benefits, some say it has. It has separated it’s people because those who are not aware have no internet access and those who are on top, are the elites and those usually do not look back. 

Politicians only come around during elections, but do not seize to make a difference in the poor communities. All the promises that they make are only solely for the votes, but never seem to accomplish these promises. Therefore, this causes a huge disparity between the elite and the poor.  Public policies do not extend to the poor, but when votes are needed politicians show up in the favelas, since most of the population are in favelas. 






The World Cup Series




The World Cup series of 2014 will be taking place In Rio De Janeiro. Many of the favelas that surround the city of Rio will be walled off in order to prevent the growth of the favelas. This is shaping the way information travels to these favelas, in being walled off it shows how separated the government wants the favelas to be from the celebration. Many believe that these walls are being built to cover up the slums and to show a "nice" cleaned up view of Rio. The favelas in Rio are looked down upon. They are seen as a disgrace to the "beautiful" city of Rio.  


This angers me because the favelas represent the real culture of Brazil. It's where the pictures in post Cards come from.. They are the ones that demonstrate real culture and where its national food, dance and culture comes from. it is unfair that the majority of the population in Rio, the ones that contribute to the economy and everything else are being cut off quietly.  They are sending a strong military presence int he favelas, this angers me as well because the more they send military presence inside the favelas, the drug lords will feel disrespected and will want to fight back. On top of all this, many innocent people die and are killed off slowly in these favelas. This upsets me because there has to be another tactic to get rid of the drug lords in these favelas.

Spatial Inequality: Opinion/ Cited Works

Globalization and Spatial Inequality

Globalization is greatly affecting the squattered settlements because most of the population in a country,  will be substantially in the cities. This causes a great inequality amongst the rural and urban areas.

Capitalism has created a leeway to new technologies. The new technology replaces unskilled workers. Jobs that could be done by men are now done by “machines” or “robots”. Especially in Rio’s favelas, it has increased inequality.

Rio’s workers become noncompetitive; when international trade opens up, capital benefits when labor and production costs are cheap.

Brazil outsources jobs by sending products to be made overseas; this decreases job availability for the poor. Favela workers are usually uneducated and they lack the skill to migrate to a different country and work, to then send money back to its country like the middle class people have been able to do.


 Western culture, which is visible through the internet and TV has cities hungry to make profit. Therefore, they allow factories and toxic dumping from these oversea companies. This affects the health of the poor and has also exploited the people from its cheap labor and unrestrictive working conditions in Rio.
  

Globalization is depicted as a process that cannot be controlled; actually it can be, by fixing policies that make the market the most important issue, when there should be a concentration on communities and citizens.
This can “mitigate or reverse the trend toward greater inequality”(Perlman 2009).

The huge inequality between the rich and poor in Brazil is immense, it has deprived one third of its population political participation. Inequality is a huge reason why social mobility is nearly impossible, usually in favelas the people try to become better educated and try to make something of themselves.


 It also affects socio inequality because it “creates economic dependency on other countries” which makes them “slaves to the global economy”. (Perlman 2009).

Although there are also positive effects of Globalization, like the internet, which eases communications and access to information around the globe, It does not solve the issue on inequality that Rio suffers, instead it creates new needs and wants amongst the poor, like extra cell phones, and expensive materialistic things that the United States splurges on.  They may feel deprived, which takes their mind off more important things in life.  The consumer culture has also caused a great disparity amongst the people in Brazil.




Cited Work


Colitt, Raymond. "Brazil builds wall around Rio De Janeiro slums". 2010. <http://www.a-r-d.org/RIO%20Library/Favelas.html>

"Favelas in Rio De janeiro". <

http://www.a-r-d.org/RIO%20Library/Favelas.html>


Fox, Michael. "Brazil's Blacks Celebrate a day of Racial Consciousness". Lula's Legacy. <http://newamericamedia.org/2010/11/brazils-blacks-celebrate-a-day-of-racial-consciouness.php>

“Global Footprints”:Favelas In Brazil. Project originally funded by EU and DfID with support from Tower Hamlets LEA. 2009. <http://www.globalfootprints.org/issues/local/homeless/favelas.htm>

Perlman,E Janice. Favela:Four Decades of living on the edge in Rio De Janeiro. New York. Oxford University Press. 2010

Zimbalist, Jeff. Documentary DVD. 

Favela Rising Trailer.