Advancing the right to the city in Brazil: lessons learned and current challenges

This chapter presents the process of political and legal construction of the right to the city in Brazil. It shows that its recognition and conversion into public policies and legal instruments took place only after intense mobilisation of social movements committed to its implementation. Several moments in recent Brazilian history are analysed in order to highlight key milestones in this mobilisation process. Using the historical method, the chapter works from the hypothesis that, although Brazil was the first country in the world to recognise this right, the growing political polarisation and conservative shift in the country places it at serious risk.