https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n39.03

Matheus da Silveira Grandi[
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8342-6792
Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
mtsgrandi@gmail.com

Abstract:

The Brazilian sem-teto or homeless worker movement is one of the main contemporary social urban movements in Brazil. As in other movements, the category struggle is central in the discursive theorizations legitimating its socio-spatial practices. This article begins with the polysemy and the metamorphosis of the struggle category in order to reflect upon the expressions used by this activism to scalarize its actions. First, some basic notions on scalarity are presented; then, two aspects of the practice-political role in the scalarity category are highlighted. These aspects point to the emergence of this struggle as a scalar one. In turn, scalarity helps us to explain the workings of the world, the drivers of some actions, and the transcendence of daily socio-spatial practices by sem-teto activists. Finally, the practical, dual (contiguous and discontinuous), and necessarily political features of geographic scales are highlighted.

Keywords: scalarity, Sem-teto movement, right to the city, social housing, Brazil.