| Wording prior to reforms |
New wording |
Forms of irregular occupation of land owned by others (public or private) for housing purposes in urban areas and, in general, characterized by an irregular urban pattern, lack of essential public services and location in areas that have restrictions on occupation.
The identification of subnormal clusters must be made based on the following criteria: |
Popular territories originating from the various strategies used by the population to meet, generally autonomously and collectively, their housing needs and associated uses (commerce, services, leisure, culture, among others), given the insufficiency and inadequacy of public policies and investments private sector aimed at guaranteeing the right to the city.
In many cases, due to their shared origin, neighborhood relationships, community engagement and intense use of common spaces constitute community identity and representation.
In Brazil, these spaces manifest themselves in different forms and nomenclatures, such as favelas, occupations, communities, quebradas, grotas, baixadas, alagados, villages, ressacas, mocambos, stilt houses, informal subdivisions, maloca villages, among others, expressing geographical differences, historical and cultural aspects in its formation.
Favelas and urban communities express the socio-spatial inequality of Brazilian urbanization. They portray the incompleteness - at the limit, the precariousness - of government policies and private investments to provide urban infrastructure, public services, collective equipment and environmental protection to the sites where they are located, reproducing conditions of vulnerability. These are aggravated by the legal insecurity of tenure, which also compromises the guarantee of the right to housing and legal protection against forced evictions and removals.
To identify favelas and urban communities, the IBGE uses the following criteria: |
| Justification: The introduction to the concept summarizes several points raised throughout this document, starting with the need to specify, from the outset, that it is a territorial category, opting to use the term “popular territories”. The importance of considering the autonomous production character of these territories is also highlighted, although, in exceptional cases, these are settlements produced by the State (hence the use of the adverb “generally”). The right to housing was brought as a central element, seeking to align the IBGE concept with international pacts and the Brazilian normative framework after the 1988 Federal Constitution. We also sought to remove the notion that favelas and communities are needy territories because of itself, emphasizing them as a result of the insufficiency and inadequacy of public policies and private investments. Next, emphasis was placed on the identity and community aspects that, in most cases, shape favelas and urban communities. This was an issue reiterated at various times throughout the consultation process, in addition to being explored in academic research. This characteristic supported reflection on the relevance of using “urban communities” as a complement to the term “favelas”. At the same time as this complement opens up space for the incorporation of different forms of self-identification of populations in relation to their territories, it also makes it possible to highlight their community character. Finally, the different nomenclatures known to refer to territories with these characteristics in different regions of the country were highlighted. This highlight is fundamental, as it reinforces the concept of favelas and urban communities as a broad concept that incorporates and recognizes multiple forms of the naming of territories, conferred by the populations themselves. The last paragraph of the introduction to the concept summarizes all the elements that make up the new wording of the criteria, considering the IBGE’s new approach to favelas and urban communities. Below are the criteria and their new wording, followed by justifications. |
| Wording prior to reforms |
New wording |
| If there is irregular occupation of the land, that is, when the households are on land owned by someone else (public or private), now or recently (obtaining title to the land ten years ago or less) and when one or more of the following characteristics are added to the irregular occupation of land: |
Predominance of households with different degrees of legal insecurity of ownership, and at least one of the other criteria listed below: |
| Justification: The new wording assumes the right to adequate housing, based on Comment no. 4 of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and in the Brazilian legal system after the Federal Constitution of 1988, expressed mainly in the City Statute (Law no. 10 257/2001), which presents the social function as a fundamental principle of urban property. To the extent that favelas and urban communities are produced with the purpose of guaranteeing the right to housing, and considering that property must fulfill its social function, it becomes anachronistic and distant from fundamental social precepts to describe these territories as irregular, as well as talking about “occupation of other people’s property” - which results in its stigmatization. Security of tenure is also considered to be one of the core elements that guarantee the right to adequate housing, with its guarantee being the duty of the State, in the face of arbitrary evictions and threats. Finally, it should be noted that, in the same favela or urban community, there may be different degrees of legal insecurity of ownership. |
| Wording prior to reforms |
New wording |
| Precariousness of essential public services, such as household electrical lighting, water supply, sanitary sewage and regular garbage collection and/or |
Absence or incomplete and/or precarious provision of public services (public and domestic electrical lighting, water supply, sanitary sewage, drainage systems, and regular garbage collection) by the competent institutions; and/or |
| Justification: The main change, in this regard, refers to the change in perspective, seeking to highlight that the right to adequate housing is a fundamental right and promoting it, therefore, is a duty of the States and competent institutions. When considering favelas and urban communities as territories marked by precarious public services, there is a risk of promoting a certain naturalization of this condition, qualifying them as needy or even precarious in themselves. The new wording identifies these territories, within the scope of essential public services, from the other end, which is the supply, that is, the favelas and urban communities are not deprived, the supply of essential public services is incomplete or precarious. |
| Wording prior to reforms |
New wording |
| Urbanization outside current standards, reflected by the presence of narrow circulation roads and irregular alignment, many unequal sizes and shapes, absence of sidewalks or irregular widths, and constructions not authorized by public bodies and/or |
Predominance of buildings, streets and infrastructure that are usually self-produced and/or guided by urban and construction parameters different from those defined by public bodies; and/or |
| Justification: Once again, this change sought to avoid the stigmatization of favelas and urban communities. As a way of making housing feasible in the face of incompleteness or precariousness of initiatives through the competent bodies to guarantee this right, the populations of these territories have developed their own logic for organizing space, which needs to be recognized in its specificities, as well as, in addition to demanding specific investments, in many cases, present autonomously and communally developed solutions. This recognition, therefore, must go beyond simply qualifying this urbanization as “irregular”. |
| Wording prior to reforms |
New wording |
| Occupancy restriction, when households are located in an occupied area that does not comply with legislation that aims to protect or restrict occupation for housing purposes, such as, for example, highway rights-of-way, railways, protected environmental areas, and contaminated areas. |
Location in areas with restricted occupation defined by environmental or urban planning legislation, such as highways and railways, rights-of-way, power transmission lines, and protected areas, among others, or in urban sites characterized as areas of environmental risk (geological, geomorphological, climatic, hydrological, and contamination). |
| Justification: The main change in the wording of this criterion refers to the incorporation of the environmental risk dimension, which is closely related to processes of vulnerability of certain populations. This criterion used to identify and map favelas and communities becomes essential, given the increase in environmental events that result in disasters and deeply impact these territories, such as floods, deluges, and landslides. |
The power of naming: IBGE’s commitment to Brazil’s favelas and urban communities
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Source: IBGE; Maré Census.