Land-use corruption in urban management and planning systems: a case study

Abstract

This paper seeks to assist in the understanding of the difficulties found in urban management related to urban corruption, defined by actions with protagonist of public and private agents who use the planning system for their own benefit or for a particular group. Some mechanisms are investigated that, inserted in the planning systems, can potentiate corrupt transactions. Through a literature review dealing with urban corruption, it seeks to outline which elements would contribute to this dynamic. The work was structured through a case study, which analyzed the dynamics of a planning and management system in a city of São Paulo during the period 1985-2016. The data collected, using a qualitative analytical method, based on official documents such as: legal processes, urban legislation and newspapers in the period, which allow the identification of the actors involved in the processes of urban expansion in the period. The case study dialogues with elements found in the literature allowing the construction of a work method that establishes its categories of analysis formed by factors inducing urban corruption such as: high discretion, procedural opacity and normative direction. The paper presents how certain mechanisms helped to obtain privileges in these processes.

Keywords:
Land-use corruption; Urban planning; Urban management; Medium cities; Urban policies