Political emancipation and the struggle for the right to the city

Abstract

This article seeks to understand the history of the struggle for the right to the city in Brazil and the limits placed by historical-structural determinations to the political emancipation of the city. It is a theoretical study using a bibliographical review of the relevant scholars with a background in social sciences to reflect and elucidate the obstacles and the challenges to the full materialization of the right to the city in a country of dependent capitalism, such as Brazil. As a result, it was possible to understand that the anti-capitalist struggle becomes vital for the real materialization of democratic, just, and sustainable cities. The urban struggle must intend, beyond the conquest of political emancipation (fundamental in unequal societies such as Brazil's), to adopt a socially driven critical directions when providing for the needs of the working class and in building a new social order.