The trajectory of social housing policy in Brazil: From the National Housing Bank to the Ministry of the Cities

This paper discusses social housing policy in Brazil since the 1990s by analyzing government programs’ institutional arrangements, their sources of revenues and the formatting of related financial systems. The conclusion suggests that all these arrangements have not constituted a comprehensive housing policy with the clear aim of serving to enhance housing conditions in the country. Housing ‘policies’ since the 1990s – as proposed by Fernando Collor de Mello, Itamar Franco, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and ´ Luis Inacio Lula da Silva’s governments (in the latter case, despite much progress towards subsidized investment programs) – have sought to consolidate financial instruments in line with global markets, restructuring the way private interests operate within the system, a necessary however incomplete course of action. Different from rhetoric, this has resulted in failure as the more fundamental social results for the poor have not yet been achieved.

Centros históricos e desenvolvimento urbano: um estudo comparativo entre os programas Monumenta no Brasil e Polis em Portugal

Both the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century have been characterized as a period of major political, economic, social and cultural transformations. Two of the major consequences of the political-economical crisis of the end of last century are the restructuring of capitalist production, and the consolidation of neoliberalism as a worldwide phenomenon. This new world political-economical scenario has influenced, in a dialectic way, the contemporary urban development. In that sense, "new" spatial processes and new paradigms in both urban management and urban planning have gained shape. In this context of urban transformations, the central areas of western cities, also known as historic centers, are being increasingly (re)valued. Since the Second World War, the historic centers urban areas which have great infrastructure and symbolic relevance had been undergoing a process of evasion of population and activities, undeniably linked to the neglect of government authorities. However, in recent decades, the question of historic centers rehabilitation has acquired a growing interest, academically and in political agendas. The object of this dissertation is to focus on how the government of each Brazil and Portugal has dealt with the issue of historic center rehabilitation through programs of urban rehabilitation

Gestão de centros históricos: uma avaliação da política de requalificação urbana de Natal/RN

From the second half of the century XX, in many Brazilian cities, the "historic centers" stop being the most densely populated areas of the city, accumulate degradation of the built environment and its functions have physical, social and economic resignified when also intensified interventions in these same centers Historic focused its redevelopment. This work aims to reflect on the experience of urban regeneration in the historic center of Natal, addressing the strategies adopted in the implementation of public policies and how these improve the effectiveness of actions, processes and outcomes for which turn the management of the historic center in question. In Natal, is identified in the neighborhoods of the Upper Town and Ribeira, the historic city center, a large distortion of their ancient architectural complex, the use of sub-urban infrastructure and emptying in the evenings and weekends. Shares redevelopment of the historic center of Natal are considered late, it is only recently that these neighborhoods were objects of policies and projects generally aimed at enhancing the cultural attraction of the area, and not always, it can be said that they have relevance in development process of the city. Added to this, there is the slowness of the interventions, although the zoning as an area of historic preservation has been done for over two decade. In Natal, the ideas of sustainable development articulated a proposed redevelopment of its historic center is still far from being achieved, but on the other hand, the latest phase of implementation of plans and projects in the area, indicating the intention to transform practical experience in the formulations and proposals in relation to these ideals

A criança e a cidade: as transformações da infância numa Natal moderna

The first years of the twentieth century in Natal is characterized by several urban interventions that aim was to change the feature of the city basically rural to another that was in line with cities as models of modernity and civilization. In this case all individuals would have to play important social roles, which included men, women and especially children. It was in this atmosphere of bright future that the children were taken as key parts of an idealized society. Some processes were essential in triggering changes in natal s childhood, among them, operated within the families, that this historic moment in public life sought other possibilities of existence, the school education and the construction of which would be the model for urban education the School Groups, propagators of science as mediators of all knowledge, and finally, the medical interventions that disseminating health and hygiene practices has enabled not only the conservation of child life, but also the possibility of building their individuality in a body healthy. If these processes on the one hand tried to crystallize an ideal image of a child making a child identity directly linked to education and the "body hygiene" on the other, giving specific reflexive autonomy to children, providing them see the world through eyes of subject.

A reafirmação do bairro:um estudo geo-histórico do bairro do Alecrim na cidade de Natal-RN

By the end of the 21st Century, economy globalization trends to show a velocity process through which market being expanded characterized by an intense going on of the internationalization of finance, after that marginalizing the periphery of the social spaces. It is clear to see that this process occurred in those less developed countries happens in an accentuated way just because income distribution that is so regressive and also because the insufficient enclosing of the social programs, we find this situation in a big part of Brazilian cities. The marginalizing social economical process observed in Natal, a city located in the east coast part of Northeast region in Brazil and that owns a population upper to 778 thousand in habitants is nearly linked to the extension of goods and services commerce. The installation of new urban activities in the city pointed out tourist activity as the greater impulsive thing in the phenomenon promotion, most of them aiming to promote Natal to the national and international scenery. It privilege strongly in the South zone with economical implementations such as shopping s centers, supermarkets, and home buildings condominiums leading to a loss of functionality of some traditional district located in central areas of the city. Notwithstanding, some spaces, for instance Alecrim district officially created in 1911, has notably resisted to the expansion of the urban process pointed out in Natal in the last years. So that this put Alecrim District as a district with originally characteristics reaffirmed along the historical process form old times. The predominance of some residential characteristics such as the incidence of some villages and a concentration of a big and confuse popular commerce distributed along streets puts Alecrim District as a resistant space in Natal. The same way analyze Alecrim District under the prism of Historic Geography because we understand this way it accomplishes a fundamental role in the theoretical methodological development of our work, just when we analyze the time as a variant in our object of study. It is still inside this theoretical field that we carry out a brief reviewing about quarter/district definition, under the optic from several registered and scientific resources taken into account along this work, because we understand that it was necessary to think this important spatial unit especially to know exactly what we are referring to as a district and so we can reaffirm Alecrim as an important and traditional district to Natal and it has been resisting to spatial transformation verified in the last years in Natal city. To give support to our reflection we used methodological tools related to inhabitants lifestyles knowledge and also the study of Alecrim District as a space that promote a certain centrality in Natal as some indicators to keep original characteristics in the district in Natal