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CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios

versão On-line ISSN 2182-3030

CIDADES vol.44  Lisboa jun. 2022  Epub 15-Jun-2022

https://doi.org/10.15847/cct.27381 

EDITORIAL

Editorial 44

Editorial 44

1Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, maria.gato@iscte-iul.pt


Starting the summer of 2022, a time traditionally marked by the return of emigrants to Portugal for the holidays, the 44th issue of CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios presents a thematic dossier dedicated to Return migration to Portugal, organized by Liliana Azevedo, Amandine Desille and Filipa Pinho. Revisiting the past to understand the present is not just a support subtitle to the dossier’s theme. It is above all an approach to overcome the less worked research perspectives on return migration. According to the organizers, the set of texts that comprise the dossier results from a collective reflection initiated four years ago and which has been gaining more robustness, with the contributions of researchers from various disciplines and professional backgrounds. This diversity, along with the quality of the texts, merits an attentive reading of the multiple and opportune reflections on the concept of Return. Apart from the thematic dossier, five articles, two essays and a book review complete the array of the 44th issue of CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios.

The first article takes up the theme of urban policies through specific construction finance programmes in Curitiba, Brazil. Authored by Paulo Nascimento Neto and Tomás António Moreira, “Between formal intersections and functional distensions: urban operations and financialization on the periphery of capitalism” illustrates, through the specific case of Curitiba, how urban policies make use of various financial instruments to attract certain investments and investors, in order to produce significant transformations (or not) in urban territories. The analysis brought by the authors is based on criticism of both the financial instruments, which are somewhat emptied of their purpose, and their suitability to the socio-territorial structures of some Brazilian cities. In addition to these arguments, there is also the questioning of the real urban transformation achieved through these tools of access to world-wide capital circuits, as well as the effective beneficiaries of these transformations.

“Using multi-criteria analysis for smart city assessment” is the title of the second article, by Daiane Chiroli and her seven co-authors. A methodology to assess and rank Smart Cities based on a multi-criteria decision-making process is presented, and the smart performance of 10 cities in south Brazil is measured. Notwithstanding the multiple criticisms that these assessment models are likely to promote, in addition to the smart city concept itself, this article underlines the importance of this kind of research to provide information on topics such as governance models, local economic growth, environmental performance, security, mobility and citizen involvement, among others. The interest of the proposed methodology over the obtained results should be emphasized.

The third article focus on children and how their participation in urban planning is perceived by municipalities. “Children in participatory urban planning: institutional perceptions from Almada and Sintra municipalities”, from Sara Calado Conzalez, Ricardo Cunha Dias and Paulo Castro Seixas, explores the paradoxical understanding of children as citizens with rights, and the absence of their effective participation in local urban planning exercises in spaces where they are involved. Through the case studies of two municipalities in the Lisbon metropolitan area, Sintra and Almada, the authors seek to understand what role is granted to children and how they are perceived, in the scope of municipal tools of participation and co-creation. The conclusions point to a participatory exercise of the population in urban planning that is still very deficient, both due to the low adhesion of the population and to the negligent promotion of these processes by the municipalities. In the specific case of children, the scenario is no better, despite greater concerns about the quantity and quality of children's spaces. While there is greater institutional recognition of the importance of listening to children, this participation still does not take place in urban planning, nor in the spaces planned for them.

The fourth article combines the theme of violence against women and the rights to urban space through a Brazilian case study. Authored by Lais Paula Mota and Daniela Abritta Cota, “Urban occupation and confronting violence against women” exposes the example of feminist and urban social movements as articulated and bottom-up responses to violence against women. In the absence of public policies aimed at this problem, these shelters are an indispensable way to guarantee support and other needs for women fleeing from a situation of violence. But parallel to this primary function, other community and space interactions are promoted that lead the authors to question the transforming capacity of these shelter spaces, opening new ways for appropriation and social use of the city space for these women, and for citizens in general.

The last article retains us in Brazil, in the city of Nova Iguaçu, to present a certain perspective over facing contemporaneity. “Social asymmetries, learning and empowerment habitats for the VUCA World” is authored by Danielle Rezende Rodrigues, Ana Carolina Magalhães de Souza, and José André Villas Boas Mello. In the context of public policies aimed at reducing social asymmetries by training young people for the labour market, the authors analyse the ‘House of Innovation’ programme, and how better professional profiles can be provided to face the VUCA world. Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity are not just the concepts behind this acronym. According to the authors, they are also the contours of the new economic model that has been gaining strength in the business and labour dimensions, requiring adequate training answers for potential human resources, especially concerning the young people.

The essay’s section is composed of two texts on quite different themes. The first one is entitled “An anonymous flâneur in São Paulo: a dissident look at the metropolis of the Fourth Centenary”, by Martin Jayo. In this essay, the author takes readers back to 1950 to suggest a stroll through the city of São Paulo and its representations. Between the paradoxes of the official images and discourses, and the experiences of anonymous citizens, the notes and photographic records of a foreign flâneur visiting this Brazilian city stand out. The reading of this text is not only captivating due to these period clippings, but also to the author's engaging writing.

The second essay, “Wives, maids and mistresses: intersectionality and the urban space in Desterro/Florianópolis (1850-1930)” is authored by Odila Carneiro da Silva and Renato Saboya. As indicated in the title, the revisiting of a Brazilian city in a past period of time is also proposed, using pictures and other epoch images from newspapers. Since women are the focus of analysis, the innovative component consists of the various intersections that are presented for examination, in order to demonstrate how different female behavioural expectations collaborated with the signification of urban space.

Concluding this issue, Sara Silva Lopes presents Direitos Humanos e Habitação: Evolução do direito à habitação em Portugal in the book review section. Authored by Gonçalo Antunes, this book published in 2021, offers a very comprehensive articulation between human rights and the right to housing, accompanied by the development of housing policies in Portugal and a reflection on the challenges currently faced in the housing field. In this presentation, Sara Silva Lopes is equally exhaustive in her appreciation of the book, offering us an excellent summary and demonstrating its usefulness for different audiences.

Happy holidays and good readings!

Referências

Azevedo, L., Desille, A., Pinho, F. (2022). Migração de regresso para Portugal: revisitar o passado, compreender o presente, CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios, 44, iii-x. [ Links ]

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