Middle Class Sensorial and Bottom-Up Condominization in Brazil’s Post-Neoliberal Public Housing
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Published
27-03-2023
Moises Kopper
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0327-7681
Abstract
In Brazil’s highly segregated urban centers, geographic location is known for its power to instantiate class positionality. Drawing on long term ethnographic engagements with housing beneficiaries of Brazil’s now revamped Minha Casa Minha Vida, I argue that, in the aftermath of the move, first-time homeowners activate remembrances of the hills (the slums where they lived before) to craft novel classed geographies which defy clearcut isomorphisms of class and space. As the once-rising-poor transitioned from peri-urban informal settlements to middle-class urban environments, the material and sensuous qualities of the hills leaked onto the built environment of the projects in unexpected ways. Yet first-time homeowners also engage in new infrastructural practices that challenge fixed understandings of class subjectivity and distinction—a middle-class-making process I refer to as “bottom-up condominization”—. By foregrounding the sensuous and material aspects of socioeconomic membership in the ruins of post-neoliberalism, I attend to the instability and unruliness of middle-class formations. Rather than an objective identifier for social stratification, the post-neoliberal middle class is best defined through its spectral and fleeting qualities —that is, as a “middle class sensorial”—.
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Keywords
middle class, condominization, post-neoliberalism, Brazil
References
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Caldeira, T. (2017). Peripheral Urbanization: Autoconstruction, Transversal Logics, and Politics in Cities of the Global South. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 35, 3-20.
Capron, G. (2019). Coproducción de la Seguridad Pública en Urbanizaciones Cerradas del Valle de México. Nueva Antropología, XXXII(91), 10-25.
Cardoso, R. (1977). Favela, Conformismo e Invenção. In T. Caldeira (Ed.), Ruth Cardoso: Obra Reunida (pp. 159-169). São Paulo: Mameluco Edições.
Cavalcanti, M. (2009). Do Barraco à Casa: Tempo, Espaço e Valor(es) em uma Favela Consolidada. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, 24, 69-80.
Costa, S. (2022). Unequal and Divided: The Middle Classes in Contemporary Brazil. Mecila Working Paper Series, 45, São Paulo: The Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America, 1-26.
Coutinho, B. (2018). Não Tem Essa de Separação, Aqui é Tudo Complexo Do Alemão!’ Uma Etnografia Dos Espaços Urbanos Em Um Conjunto Residencial No Rio de Janeiro (Non published Ph.D. Dissertation). Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos (IESP), São Paulo.
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DEMHAB (2009). Plano Habitacional de Interesse Social. Etapa II – Diagnóstico Do Setor Habitacional de Porto Alegre. Porto Alegre: DEMHAB.
De Faria, L. S. P., & Kopper, M. (2017). Os Rolezinhos e as Metamorfoses Do Urbano No Brasil Contemporâneo. Anuário Antropológico, 42(2), 239-266.
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Kopper, M. (2019). A Politics of Hope: The Making of Brazil’s Post-Neoliberal New Middle Class. MPIfG Discussion Paper, 19, 1-26.
Kopper, M. (2020). Measuring the Middle: Technopolitics and the Making of Brazil’s New Middle-Class. History of Political Economy, 52(3), 561-588.
Kopper, M. (2021). The Politics of Differentiation and the Co‐Production of the “Model Periphery” in Brazil’s Public Housing. City & Society, 33(3), 467-491.
Kopper, M. (2022). Middle-Class Sensorial: Conceptualizing the Experience of Inhabiting “the Middle” in Brazil’s Post-Neoliberal Public Housing. In M. Barbosa Cruz, A. R. López-Pedreros & C. Stern (Eds.), The Middle Classes in Latin America: Subjectivities, Practices, and Genealogies (pp. 331-349). London and New York: Routledge.
Kopper, M., & Damo, A. (2018). A Emergência e Evanescência da Nova Classe Média Brasileira. Horizontes Antropológicos, 24, 335-376.
Levi-Strauss, C. (1966). The Savage Mind. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Liechty, M. (2012). Middle-Class Déjà Vu: Conditions of Possibility, from Victorian England to Contemporary Kathmandu. In H. Rachel, L. Mark & F. Carla (Eds.), The Global Middle Classes: Theorizing Through Ethnography (pp. 271-300). Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press.
López, R., & Weinstein, B. (Eds.) (2012). The Making of the Middle Class: Toward a Transnational History. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Mathews, G., & Izquierdo, C. (Eds.) (2009). Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books.
Mitchell, S. T. (2017). Constellations of Inequality: Space, Race and Utopia in Brazil. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Müller, L. (2014). Negotiating Debts and Gifts: Financialization Policies and the Economic Experiences of Low-Income Social Groups in Brazil. Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology, 11(1), 191-221.
Nascimento, D., & Tostes, S. (2011). Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida: A (Mesma) Política Habitacional no Brasil. Arquitextos, 133(12). Available at: https://vitruvius.com.br/revistas/read/arquitextos/12.133/3936
Neri, M. (2011). A Nova Classe Média: O Lado Brilhante da Base da Pirâmide. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Saraiva.
Ortiz, R. (1994). Cultura Brasileira e Identidade Nacional. São Paulo: Brasiliense.
Paes de Barros, R., Foguel, M. N., & Ulyssea, G. (2007). Desigualdade de Renda No Brasil: Uma Análise Da Queda Recente. Brasília and Rio de Janeiro: IPEA.
Parker, D. S., & Walker, L. E. (2013). Latin America’s Middle Class: Unsettled Debates and New Histories. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Penha-Lopes, V. (2017). Confronting Affirmative Action in Brazil: University Quota Students and the Quest for Racial Justice. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Richmond, M. A., Kopper, M., Oliveira, V., & Garza, J. (Eds.) (2020). Espaços Periféricos: Política, Violência e Território nas Bordas da Cidade. São Carlos: Edufscar.
Rolnik, R. (2015). Guerra Dos Lugares: A Colonização Da Terra e Da Moradia Na Era Das Finanças. São Paulo: Boitempo Editorial.
Ruckert, A., Macdonald, L., & Proulx, K. R. (2017). Post-Neoliberalism in Latin America: A Conceptual Review. Third World Quarterly, 38(7), 1583-1602.
Shimbo, L. Z. (2012). Habitação Social de Mercado: A Confluência Entre Estado, Empresas Construtoras e Capital Financeiro. Belo Horizonte: Com Arte.
Soja, E. W. (1996). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other Real-and-Imagined Places. Los Angeles: Wiley-Blackwell.
Stewart, K. (2007). Ordinary Affects. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Torres, H. da G., & Marques, E. C. (2001). Reflexões Sobre a Hiperperiferia: Novas e Velhas Faces da Pobreza no Entorno Municipal. Revista Brasileira de Estudos Urbanos e Regionais, 4, 49-70.
Velho, G. (1973). A Utopia Urbana: Um Estudo de Antropologia Social. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar.
Villarreal, C. C. Z. (2019). Segurización, Gentrificación, y Airbnb: ¿Nueva Fase de la Renovación Urbana en la Ciudad de México? Nueva Antropología, XXXII(91), 26-43.
Zelizer, V. (2005). Circuits Within Capitalism. In V. Nee & R. Swedberg (Eds.), The Economic Sociology of Capitalism (pp. 289-322). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Biehl, J. (2016). The Postneoliberal Fabulation of Power: On Statecraft, Precarious Infrastructures, and Public Mobilization in Brazil. American Ethnologist, 43(3), 437-450.
Bittencourt, T., Giannotti, M., & Marques, E. (2021). Cumulative (and self-reinforcing) spatial inequalities: Interactions between accessibility and segregation in four Brazilian metropolises. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 48(7), 1989-2005.
Bonduki, N. (2009). Do projeto moradia ao programa minha casa minha vida. Teoria e Debate, 82, 8-14.
Botega, L. (2008). A política habitacional no Brasil (1930-1990). Periódico de Divulgação Científica Da FALS, 1(2), 1-14.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Caldeira, T. (2000). City of Walls: Crime, Segregation, and Citizenship in São Paulo. Oakland: The University of California Press.
Caldeira, T. (2017). Peripheral Urbanization: Autoconstruction, Transversal Logics, and Politics in Cities of the Global South. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 35, 3-20.
Capron, G. (2019). Coproducción de la Seguridad Pública en Urbanizaciones Cerradas del Valle de México. Nueva Antropología, XXXII(91), 10-25.
Cardoso, R. (1977). Favela, Conformismo e Invenção. In T. Caldeira (Ed.), Ruth Cardoso: Obra Reunida (pp. 159-169). São Paulo: Mameluco Edições.
Cavalcanti, M. (2009). Do Barraco à Casa: Tempo, Espaço e Valor(es) em uma Favela Consolidada. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, 24, 69-80.
Costa, S. (2022). Unequal and Divided: The Middle Classes in Contemporary Brazil. Mecila Working Paper Series, 45, São Paulo: The Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America, 1-26.
Coutinho, B. (2018). Não Tem Essa de Separação, Aqui é Tudo Complexo Do Alemão!’ Uma Etnografia Dos Espaços Urbanos Em Um Conjunto Residencial No Rio de Janeiro (Non published Ph.D. Dissertation). Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos (IESP), São Paulo.
De Certeau, M. (2011). The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
DEMHAB (2009). Plano Habitacional de Interesse Social. Etapa II – Diagnóstico Do Setor Habitacional de Porto Alegre. Porto Alegre: DEMHAB.
De Faria, L. S. P., & Kopper, M. (2017). Os Rolezinhos e as Metamorfoses Do Urbano No Brasil Contemporâneo. Anuário Antropológico, 42(2), 239-266.
Ferguson, J. (2015). Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Fischer, E. F. (2014). The Good Life: Aspiration, Dignity, and the Anthropology of Wellbeing. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
Fischer, E. F., & Benson, P. (2006). Broccoli and Desire: Global Connections and Maya Struggles in Postwar Guatemala. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
Freyre, G. (1986). The Masters and the Slaves. Oakland: The University of California Press.
Fonseca, C. (2000). Família, Fofoca e Honra. Porto Alegre: Editora UFRGS.
Houaiss, A. (2009). Enjambrado. In Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva. Available at: https://houaiss.uol.com.br/
Jiménez, M. (1999). The Elision of the Middle Classes and Beyond: History Politics, and Development Studies in Latin America’s Short Twentieth Century. In J. Adelman (Ed.), Colonial Legacies: The Problem of Persistence in Latin American History (pp. 207-228). London: Routledge.
Kopper, M. (2016). “Minha Casa, Minha Vida”: Experts, Sentidos de Classe e a Invenção do “Mercado” da Casa Própria no Brasil Contemporâneo. Horizontes Antropológicos, 45, 185-215.
Kopper, M. (2018). Porous Infrastructures and the Politics of Upward Mobility in Brazil’s Public Housing. Economic Anthropology, 6(1), 73-85.
Kopper, M. (2019). A Politics of Hope: The Making of Brazil’s Post-Neoliberal New Middle Class. MPIfG Discussion Paper, 19, 1-26.
Kopper, M. (2020). Measuring the Middle: Technopolitics and the Making of Brazil’s New Middle-Class. History of Political Economy, 52(3), 561-588.
Kopper, M. (2021). The Politics of Differentiation and the Co‐Production of the “Model Periphery” in Brazil’s Public Housing. City & Society, 33(3), 467-491.
Kopper, M. (2022). Middle-Class Sensorial: Conceptualizing the Experience of Inhabiting “the Middle” in Brazil’s Post-Neoliberal Public Housing. In M. Barbosa Cruz, A. R. López-Pedreros & C. Stern (Eds.), The Middle Classes in Latin America: Subjectivities, Practices, and Genealogies (pp. 331-349). London and New York: Routledge.
Kopper, M., & Damo, A. (2018). A Emergência e Evanescência da Nova Classe Média Brasileira. Horizontes Antropológicos, 24, 335-376.
Levi-Strauss, C. (1966). The Savage Mind. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Liechty, M. (2012). Middle-Class Déjà Vu: Conditions of Possibility, from Victorian England to Contemporary Kathmandu. In H. Rachel, L. Mark & F. Carla (Eds.), The Global Middle Classes: Theorizing Through Ethnography (pp. 271-300). Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press.
López, R., & Weinstein, B. (Eds.) (2012). The Making of the Middle Class: Toward a Transnational History. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Mathews, G., & Izquierdo, C. (Eds.) (2009). Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books.
Mitchell, S. T. (2017). Constellations of Inequality: Space, Race and Utopia in Brazil. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Müller, L. (2014). Negotiating Debts and Gifts: Financialization Policies and the Economic Experiences of Low-Income Social Groups in Brazil. Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology, 11(1), 191-221.
Nascimento, D., & Tostes, S. (2011). Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida: A (Mesma) Política Habitacional no Brasil. Arquitextos, 133(12). Available at: https://vitruvius.com.br/revistas/read/arquitextos/12.133/3936
Neri, M. (2011). A Nova Classe Média: O Lado Brilhante da Base da Pirâmide. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Saraiva.
Ortiz, R. (1994). Cultura Brasileira e Identidade Nacional. São Paulo: Brasiliense.
Paes de Barros, R., Foguel, M. N., & Ulyssea, G. (2007). Desigualdade de Renda No Brasil: Uma Análise Da Queda Recente. Brasília and Rio de Janeiro: IPEA.
Parker, D. S., & Walker, L. E. (2013). Latin America’s Middle Class: Unsettled Debates and New Histories. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Penha-Lopes, V. (2017). Confronting Affirmative Action in Brazil: University Quota Students and the Quest for Racial Justice. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Richmond, M. A., Kopper, M., Oliveira, V., & Garza, J. (Eds.) (2020). Espaços Periféricos: Política, Violência e Território nas Bordas da Cidade. São Carlos: Edufscar.
Rolnik, R. (2015). Guerra Dos Lugares: A Colonização Da Terra e Da Moradia Na Era Das Finanças. São Paulo: Boitempo Editorial.
Ruckert, A., Macdonald, L., & Proulx, K. R. (2017). Post-Neoliberalism in Latin America: A Conceptual Review. Third World Quarterly, 38(7), 1583-1602.
Shimbo, L. Z. (2012). Habitação Social de Mercado: A Confluência Entre Estado, Empresas Construtoras e Capital Financeiro. Belo Horizonte: Com Arte.
Soja, E. W. (1996). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other Real-and-Imagined Places. Los Angeles: Wiley-Blackwell.
Stewart, K. (2007). Ordinary Affects. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Torres, H. da G., & Marques, E. C. (2001). Reflexões Sobre a Hiperperiferia: Novas e Velhas Faces da Pobreza no Entorno Municipal. Revista Brasileira de Estudos Urbanos e Regionais, 4, 49-70.
Velho, G. (1973). A Utopia Urbana: Um Estudo de Antropologia Social. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar.
Villarreal, C. C. Z. (2019). Segurización, Gentrificación, y Airbnb: ¿Nueva Fase de la Renovación Urbana en la Ciudad de México? Nueva Antropología, XXXII(91), 26-43.
Zelizer, V. (2005). Circuits Within Capitalism. In V. Nee & R. Swedberg (Eds.), The Economic Sociology of Capitalism (pp. 289-322). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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