Bom Retiro Park – Successes and challenges in the institution of the common in Curitiba

Abstract

The paper analyzes tensions of urban production by questioning the neoliberal pattern of making cities through the analysis of a case in the city of Curitiba - the Bom Retiro Park. This case points to the possibility of establishing the common as a practice of appropriation and use of the urban space. In opposition to the capitalist logic of understanding the city exclusively as a commodity, the rationality of the common is grounded on the power of collective experiences, and structures the urban space based on the senses and affects that permeate everyday life. In the case presented here, it is possible to identify limits, contradictions, and challenges for the formation of a network of propositional actions that point to a certain production of the urban common.

neoliberal logic; common; insurgent practices; Curitiba; Bom Retiro Park