The present study aims to provide the elements for a conception of municipal tax justice focused on maximizing the social function of the city and on the spatial perspectives of the excluded. The Urban Land and Territorial Tax (in portuguese, IPTU) has an important distributive aspect, precisely because it is a direct tax, difficult to avoid, and wich legally admits the progressivity of the rates. The theoretical framework that guides the analysis throughout the work used the following concepts: the idea of tax justice of Ricardo Lobo Torres; the concept of the right to the city, developed by Lefebvre; John Rawls's conception of justice as fairness; and the idea of progressivity, from Thomas Piketty's perspective. Regarding the methodology, different perspectives were adopted, based on historical, dogmatic, political-tributary and comparative law aspects. Among the results of this research it is highlighted the dubious behavior of the IPTU., considering that from the payers' point of view, its structure is regressive, with the poorest taxpayers suffering a greater taxation. The main cause is the regressivity in official real estate evaluations in relation to market values. The relevance of the present study lies in the fact that improving the progressiveness of the tax system can contribute to overcoming the high income inequality in Brazil. / O presente estudo tem o objetivo de analisar se e como o Imposto Predial e Territorial Urbano (IPTU) pode funcionar como ferramenta de diminuição das desigualdades de patrimônio e renda. A escolha pelo IPTU se justifica, pois ele tem importante aspecto distributivo, justamente por ser um imposto direto, de difícil sonegação e que admite legalmente a progressividade das alíquotas. O quadro teórico que norteia a análise ao longo do trabalho utilizou os seguintes conceitos: a ideia de justiça tributária de Ricardo Lobo Torres; a concepção de justiça como equidade, de John Rawls; e a progressividade, na perspectiva de Thomas Piketty. Com relação à metodologia, adotou-se diferentes perspectivas, a partir de aspectos dogmáticos, normativos e de dados concretos utilizando como parâmetro o município de Aracaju (SE). Entre os resultados desta pesquisa, destaca-se o comportamento dúbio do IPTU, que do ponto de vista dos pagantes tem uma estrutura regressiva, com os contribuintes mais pobres sofrendo tributação maior. A principal causa é a regressividade nas avaliações imobiliárias oficiais em relação aos valores de mercado. A relevância do presente estudo está no fato de que a melhoria da progressividade do sistema tributário pode contribuir na superação da elevada desigualdade de patrimônio e renda do Brasil. / São Cristóvão, SE

This master’s thesis deals with some concepts and theories related to public space and everyday life and points to how neglecting women’s needs and preferences in public spaces can lead to the formation of gendered urban spaces which prevent women from earning their right to the city. Concepts such as quality of life, quality of place, living environment, residential perception and satisfaction, and place attachment overlap and have many interrelations. One cannot consider, for example, the quality of residential environment independent of residential satisfaction or ignore its influence on the quality of life. This study focuses specifically on the perception of residential environment quality, in the medium scale (neighborhood). Despite a wide range of studies in the field of perceived residential environment quality, the review of literature reveals that studies in this field lack sufficient attention to power relations which among others (cultural, ethnic, etc.), can be gender related. Given the mentioned issues, this study explores women’s perceptions of residential environment quality in the Lindängen neighborhood in Malmö, Sweden. Drawing upon the analysis of a questionnaire, the study presents four scales of REQ in which women’s perceptions have been different from men’s: Recreational services, Safety, Public furniture and Commercial services. In the next stage, a set of semi-structured interviews were done with five women living in the neighborhood. These interviews explore the way women’s ideas and perceptions about their neighborhood, more specifically about the four aforementioned scales, affect their daily lives. The findings of this study highlight the influence of the residential environment quality on everyday lives of women and indicates their different needs for urban facilities and infrastructures (such as recreational or commercial services, as this study indicates) as compared to men.

The study examines the experiences of street hawkers and contributes to the current but less represented debate on hawkers’ ways of appropriating the urban space through space modification and codification that serve greatly their capitalist purposes and how those daily activities influence their sense of belonging to the urban public space. The hawkers in the study area; La- Nkwantanang-Madina Area, Ghana show some social concerns in their informal day-to-day street activities that account for some of the relocation issues that render the repressive measures of city authorities futile. In understanding the space appropriation and sense of belonging from the hawker’s perspective, the study introduces the concept of “right to the city” for which the purpose of this study conceptualizes it as “the right to the street” so it can better attend to the experiences of place and sense of belonging by the hawkers, the informality concept and the urban citizenship. The study uses qualitative approach which included methods; participant observation, in-depth interviews and Focus group discussion to help unearth some of the issues that contribute to the debate. The research finds that although the space contestations between the street hawkers and city officials still lingers on, the hawkers are able to successfully reproduce their belonging to the urban streets through exchange value of space and the diversification of urban streets which forms part of the urban fabric without dominating the streets to obstruct the use value for other urban dwellers.

My project creates spaces for common use, reclaiming a little left-over piece of the city landscape. The mobile culture house unfolds and fragments in interaction with the places it encounters. It is flexible, multi-use and respectful of the surrounding environment. I have attempted to answer to questions concerning the development of the city of Stockholm in times of escalating urbanization and galloping housing shortage when unreflected densification risks to erase diversity, cause gentrification and reinforce segregation. I have investigated the existing flora of small, urban grass-root, resistance movements and I have added my own contribution to the set. / Mitt projekt skapar utrymmen för gemensamt bruk genom att återta en liten bit av stadslandskapet. Det mobila kulturhuset vecklar ut och fragmenterar sig i samspel med de platser som det möter. Det är flexibelt, multi-use och respektfullt mot den omgivande miljön. Jag har försökt att svara på frågor som behandlar utvecklingen av Stockholms stad en tid av ökande urbanisering och galopperande bostadsbrist när oreflekterad förtätning riskerar att radera mångfalden, orsaka gentrifiering och förstärka segregationen. Jag har undersökt den nuvarande floran av små, ​​urbana gräsrots-motståndsrörelser, och jag har lagt mitt eget bidrag till uppsättningen.

The exclusion of marginalized individuals or groups from public space through interventions as part of processes of urban transformation, and the disparity between these processes and the stated motivations behind them have been widely researched (Berney, 2013; Low, 2020; Madanipour, 2020; Mitchell, 2017). The aim of the thesis is to critically examine the disconnect between motivations and outcomes in public space planning through the theoretical perspective of a right to the city (Lefebvre, 1996), applying the idea of circulating spatial rationalities (Huxley, 2006). The thesis takes a qualitative approach, and is designed as a case study, focused on the urban park Rålambshovsparken. The chosen methods were semi-structured interviews with four participants involved in the planning of the park, and a document analysis of three planning documents. The findings show that the interventions in the park could be said to affect inclusiveness in a few different ways, for example through overly protective measures, to ensure a perceived required quality level. Also that the motivations belong to larger spatial rationalities, the participants adhere to different spheres of rationality, though interlinking with each other.

No description available.

[pt] No mês de junho de 2013, jovens de diversas capitais do Brasil ocuparam as ruas para tentar impedir o aumento da tarifa dos transportes públicos. Conseguiram. Como uma onda, as manifestações se espalharam e logo aconteciam em pequenas e grandes cidades, portando as mais diversas bandeiras. As Jornadas de Junho de 2013 configuraram-se como um movimento essencialmente urbano e, em meio a tudo o que elas trouxeram à tona, um aspecto e um movimento social presente na vida urbana se destacaram: a pauta da mobilidade e o Movimento Passe Livre (MPL). Além de ressaltar essas duas variáveis, esta dissertação situa o debate em meio à produção acadêmica que há tempos se dedica a estudar o urbano e suas problemáticas. Seguindo uma linha de pensamento que compreende a cidade como lugar de existência plena do homem urbano, a luta pelo direito à cidade aparece como conceito fundamental para a compreensão dos conflitos urbanos hoje. / [en] In June 2013, young people from big cities of Brazil took to the streets to try to prevent the increase of public transport fare. They succeeded. Like a wave, the demonstrations spread and soon took place in lots of different towns and cities, carrying different flags. The Jornadas de Junho de 2013 were an essentially urban movement and, in the middle of everything that was brought to the streets, an aspect and a social movement present in urban life stood out: the agenda of the mobility and the Free Pass Movement. In addition to highlighting these two variables, this dissertation sets this agenda through the academic production that has long been dedicated to study the city and its problems. Following a thought line that understands the city as a place of full existence of urban men, the struggle for the right to the city appears as a key concept for understanding of urban conflicts today.

Growing cities come with complex challenges. As diverse people live and work in the cities, the public spaces within them must accommodate a range of needs and wants. But who is the city built for? By using semi-structured interviews, site visits, observations and an online survey, this thesis aimed to investigate the public toilets of Stockholm, asking what the role of the public toilets are and how this has been shaped, what peoples experiences of and thus approaches towards them are as well as how we could start to change current discourses and practices, both in developing and using them. The study indicated that the role of the public toilet is to make the city accessible for all, especially for more toilet-dependent people and as a means of equity and that it has become more central and public in the city than before. People’s experiences of and attitudes towards public toilets are indicated to be generally negative but there are several ways which one could change current practices, such as inclusive design processes, more information and transparency, retrofitting and adding value to public toilets in public space rather than taking functions away. The question of public toilets in cities are still highly unexplored and this thesis calls for a change on all levels and for all actors involved to work towards a more inclusive city where our most basic needs are accommodated for in a just and equal way.

Hostile architecture is a medium through which social exclusion is enacted in the public and common areas of our cities. By limiting who is allowed to occupy space, and how they may do so, it functions to define the contours of inclusion in urban space-- all of which is predicated on one’s engagement with the zones of consumerism that have overtaken the cities’ commons. As a result, those without the means to partake are pushed aside, despite the inner-cities’ historical relationships with the poor, unhoused, and marginalized. The purpose of this study is to explore how lived experiences and knowledge of discriminatory architecture can inform a sociological analysis of hostile architecture. By exploring hostile architecture in Calgary, this thesis addresses a specific question: How do people with lived experience of homelessness understand hostile architecture? Through Community-Based Participatory Research and Photovoice, this question is addressed through collaboration with community members with lived experience of homelessness. Collectively, we conclude that those with lived experiences of homelessness understand hostile architecture in a multitude of ways. Amongst these understandings is the notion that hostile architecture not only excludes and displaces the unhoused and marginalized, but that it is also part and parcel of the wider range of hostilities against those experiencing homeless. One key theoretical concept grounds the research. Henri Lefebvre’s ‘Right to the City’ is used as a starting point in discussing what an equitable city might look like. I maintain that the lived experiences and knowledge held by those with experiences of homelessness can sensitize the public, and inform regional and national policymakers about this exclusionary mechanism. / Graduate

This dissertation analyzes contemporary transformations in urban policy and space production in Brazil; in particular, those associated with state efforts to attract the private sector to participate in the design, finance, development and long-term management of infrastructure and housing provision systems. While the study's focus is on adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism in the affordable housing sector, empirical research is based on the case study analysis of Casa Paulista Program, the first PPP for affordable housing delivery in the country, sponsored by the State Government of São Paulo and implemented in the central districts of the city of São Paulo, the state's capital. Specific questions driving the research are twofold: in the first, I ask what were the characteristics of the Casa Paulista PPP model, and in the second, how public and private agents, including social groups, affected the evolution of the model. Permeating this analysis is the concern as to how housing provision through PPPs may affect the ability of local populations to access adequate housing and fully participate in city living, as demanded by social housing movements and urban reform advocates and predicted in Brazil's Federal Constitution, and rights-based urban policy at national and local levels. Findings indicate that the Casa Paulista model, while neither leveraging private capital nor scaling up housing production, facilitates rearrangements in the private local housing market, urban policy, and social relationships around housing provision. These efforts are successful only with support of the development and finance industries operating beyond the local scale. I argue that these new rearrangements support a publicly funded, privately managed model to support predominantly residential real estate development projects of large scale and which are debt financed through long term agreements. This dynamic generates risk to society's ability to control urban transformation in the central city area and support preservation of a stock of public and private land where affordable housing development is currently prioritized, an outcome I describe as 'privatizing planning and socializing risk'. / PHD / This dissertation analyzes contemporary transformations in urban policy and space production in Brazil. While the study’s focus is on adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism in the affordable housing sector, empirical research is based on the case study analysis of Casa Paulista Program, the first PPP for affordable housing delivery in the country, sponsored by the State Government of São Paulo and implemented in the central districts of the city of São Paulo, the state’s capital. Specific questions driving the research are twofold: in the first, I ask what were the characteristics of the Casa Paulista PPP model, and in the second, how public and private agents, including social groups, affected the evolution of the Casa Paulista model. Findings indicate that the model, while neither leveraging private capital nor substantially increasing housing production, facilitates rearrangements in the private local housing market, urban policy, and social relationships around housing provision. I argue that these new rearrangements support a publicly funded, privately managed model to support predominantly residential real estate development projects of large scale and financed through long term debt agreements. This dynamic generates risk to society’s ability to control urban transformation in the central city area and support preservation of a stock of public and private land where affordable housing development is currently prioritized.