From May 9 to 12, the city of Recife will host the 1st Brazilian Meeting of Social Urbanism. With the theme "Brazilian cities in perspective", the event will be attended by specialists in social urbanism from various regions of Brazil and Latin America, grassroots leaders, public managers, professionals from third sector organizations, consultancies, social businesses and other segments. Sponsored by Diagonal, the event will discuss issues relevant to the country's public policies, such as the housing deficit, urban violence and unequal access to basic services.
Organized by the Brazilian Social Urbanism Network and the Recife Agency for Innovation and Strategy (ARIES), this initiative came about as a result of students from the second postgraduate course in Social Urbanism at INSPER, who identified the need to work towards reducing inequalities, using concepts studied in the course, and to benefit Brazilian cities through these discussions. After the group's visit to Medellín, a city that is a symbol of Social Urbanism, the Network challenged itself to promote a nationwide meeting to expand the discussions and the scope of the successful case of the Colombian city, which is considered a laboratory for public policies and open-air social innovation projects.
With the aim of promoting systemic changes in the favelas, Medellín's public administration, from the 1990s onwards, implemented spaces for living together as a strategy to combat violence, including the construction of libraries, parks, squares and educational, cultural and leisure complexes known as Unidades de Vida Articulada (UVA), which have been a reference for the creation of Compaz in Recife.
"We want to provoke Brazilian cities to include social urbanism actions in their public policies," says Paulo Moraes, coordinator of the Brazilian Social Urbanism Network and one of the organizers of the meeting.
Social urbanism, as a concept, presupposes that interventions in areas that are socially vulnerable or lack urban infrastructure should be approached holistically, taking into account the demands and needs of the communities, and planned in a participatory manner, together with the local communities. In this way, it is a fundamental concept for promoting cooperation between public authorities, civil society organizations and the population in general, with the aim of improving the indicators of the sustainable development goals.
Although the term has only recently become popular, Diagonal has been working with social urbanism for over 30 years. It was with the launch of the Social Urbanism Guide in partnership with Insper's Future of Cities Laboratory that Diagonal established itself as a reference on the subject. Download the free guide to social urbanism here.
Free event
Registration for the event is free and will give you access to all the talks and panel discussions. The event will take place in person, with the panels and lectures being broadcast online. For the program on May 10, participants will need to choose the workshops and activities they wish to take part in and for May 12, they will need to choose which territory they wish to visit.
Among the options for visiting the territories, the meeting offers the options Mais Vida nos Morros (Vila Arraes - Várzea and Morro da Conceição), Comunidade Ilha de Deus, Compaz Governador Eduardo Campos, Comunidade do Pilar and Porto Digital.
As the event will be broadcast online, registration is required ONLY for the face-to-face activities.
Among the names confirmed for the meeting are Jorge Melguizo (former Secretary of Culture of Medellín/Colombia), Sérgio Fajardo (former Mayor of Medellín), Carmen Silva (leader of the Homeless Workers' Movement of São Paulo), Kátia Mello (co-president of Diagonal) Aline Cardoso (Secretary of Economic Development of the City of São Paulo) Gustavo Leal (UNDP/Uruguay specialist in Citizen Security) Tomas Alvim (coordinator of the Arq. Futuro de Cidades Laboratory at Insper/SP) Tadeu Alencar (National Secretary for Public Security at the Ministry of Justice) and Paula Mariano (Undersecretary for Social Integration and Habitat at the Housing Institute of the Argentine Ministry of Development).
The Diagonal at the Meeting
Diagonal will take part in the official opening of the event on May 9, thematic tables and workshops on May 10 and visits to the Recife territories.
"It's very important to have an event like this taking place in the country. Recent tragedies have shown us that we need to take a different look at the construction and organization of cities, analyzing territories from the point of view of their social impact. And this is a debate that needs to involve public and private bodies, academia and civil society," explains Katia Mello, co-president of Diagonal.
One of the highlights of the event will be the guided tour of the Ilha de Deus territory, which will be led by Deise Coelho (director of Condominium, a Diagonal Group company) and Daniela Mariz (Diagonal specialist).
The Integrated Management of Ilha de Deus was an emblematic project carried out for more than a decade (between 2007-2016) by Diagonal together with the State Government of Pernambuco.
Formerly known as Ilha sem Deus (Island without God), the community emerged in 1959 with the disorderly occupation of an urban mangrove swamp. Completely on the fringes of society, the island barely had access to the mainland and so it grew without basic infrastructure or services. It had a high rate of violence, a low quality of life and precarious housing made up of shacks and stilts. You can get to know more about the project here.
This success story in social urbanism became a book that was released in 2022 by Diagonal and is now one of the territories that will be visited by the event's participants to see on site the transformation of that community.
Check out the agenda for Diagonal's participation in the event below:
The full program of the meeting and the registration form can be found here:
https://www.even3.com.br/encontro-brasileiro-de-urbanismo-social/
