Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Negotiation of Slum-Upgrading Programs in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

研究生Gustavo Rivera， Jr.将在Kesha Fikes博士的指导下，对城市治理对穷人土地使用的限制和影响进行研究。研究人员将研究当公共住房建在寮屋空间中时，城市更新专家和寮屋居民如何调和空间使用和居住的冲突概念。这项研究将在巴西第三大城市贝洛奥里藏特进行。在项目的第一阶段，研究人员将进行档案研究，以熟悉贝洛奥里藏特的住房政策、城市更新和棚户区（favelas）的历史。在接下来的阶段，研究者将在搬迁到新的公共住房单元之前和之后对城市更新专家和贫民窟居民进行深度访谈，并在专家和居民都在场的参与式规划会议上进行观察。研究人员还将收集视觉文件，如手绘房屋草图、室内空间照片和航空地图，他利用这些文件从线人那里获得关于城市和空间使用的想法。这项研究将阐明政府如何更有效地与棚户区居民合作，以及搬迁到公共住房是否为传统上被边缘化的居民提供了一个获得更多权利和公民合法性的渠道。因此，它将有助于地方、空间、城市治理和公民身份的社会科学理论。这项研究也将有助于研究生的教育。

Graduate student Gustavo Rivera, Jr., with the guidance of Dr. Kesha Fikes, will undertake research on the limits and effects of urban governance in regulation of land use by the poor. The researcher will examine how urban renewal experts and squatter settlement residents reconcile conflicting notions of spatial usage and habitation when public housing is constructued within squatter spaces.The research will be carried out in Belo Horizonte, Brazil's third largest city. During the first phase of the project, the researcher will conduct archival research to become familiar with the history of housing policies, urban renewal, and squatter settlements (favelas) in Belo Horizonte. In the following phases, the researcher will conduct in-depth interviews with urban renewal experts and favela residents before and after relocation to new public housing units, and observe at participatory planning meetings where both experts and residents are present. The researcher also will collect visual documents, such as hand-sketched drawings of houses, photographs of interior domestic spaces, and aerial maps, which he use to elicit ideas about the city and use of space from informants.The research will shed light on how governments can work more effectively with residents of squatter settlements, and whether relocation to public housing provides a channel for traditionally marginalized residents to acquire more rights and legitimacy as citizens. It thereby will contribute to social science theories of place, space, urban governance, and citizenship. The research also will contribute to the education of a graduate student.