The Trajectory of Urban Precarity in São Paulo, between Policies, Crisis and Inertia

Precarious urban areas are among the main social and environmental problems in cities in the Global South. As is widely known, Brazilian cites house a large stock of precarity in favelas and irregular settlements. At same time, the country experienced an important expansion of progressive policies towards these areas since the return to democracy in the late 80s. These policies were formulated and disseminated locally in the 90s and reached the federal government later in several progressive administrations. At the same time, recent years brought one intense economic crisis, the Covid pandemic and a very conservative federal administration, before the recent return to the precious political trajectory.

This article explores the net effect of this trajectory over the urban and social conditions of precarious areas in São Paulo, the largest and most important city in the country. Exploring recently released data from the 2022 data, the article investigates comparatively the social and urban features of precarious areas today with the two previous decades the new millennium.