Abstract
In this article, we view the expansion fronts of urban borders as privileged spaces to understand practical agencies, the network of actors, and the power games involved in the production of urban land and housing markets in São Paulo. An unavoidable presence in those places today, the men of Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC – First Capital Command), in interaction with this intricate network of actors, act as operators of these markets and the internal management of popular territories. The fact is that the PCC's businesses expand as occupations and precarious settlements expand. In the ambivalent game of protection and extortion, between acceptance and coercion, they mobilize power resources in agreements, disputes, conflicts, and accommodations that constitute the production and management of informal land and housing markets.
informal land and housing markets; urban occupations; space management; PCC