From social conflicts to urban commons: a case study on São João del-Rei
urban commons, space production, social conflicts
In the face of neoliberalism, the outbreak of new conflicts and disputes of forces in the midst of privatizations, destruction and spoliations of goods and resources, the commons come "resurging" as a tactical political instrument against private property and its appropriations, while maintaining its potentiality as an element of survival of the popular classes amid the coercions made by capitalism. São João del-Rei, a pole city in the micro-region of which it is a part, has been showing a historic urbanization process aligned with the imperatives of the real estate market and neoliberalism, favoring socio-spatial segregation, closure and spoliation of urban commons. The production of an urban space focused on capitalist economic development in São João del-Rei has been present in the city since the end of the 19th century, with the arrival of the railway, the first industries and the development of trade. However, in recent decades, urbanization has found neoliberalism as a way of organizing its production and increasingly turning the process towards the accumulation of capital at the expense of the living conditions of the popular classes. This is because, in its contradiction, the urban space favors the production and permanence of the common and political movements, at the same time, it is a key piece for neoliberalism to extract income, to appropriate, to restrain and to close them. To this end, the research seeks to understand conflicts, political movements and urban commons in São João del-Rei from the perspective of Critical Urban Geography, through the Marxist perspective and the Lefebvre theory on urban space.