Urban Development

An underreported aspect of Viktor Orbán’s rule is the harm Fidesz is doing to the environment. Due to urban development projects all over Budapest, thousands of healthy trees are in danger of being cut down.

Cities change and evolve constantly, and they do not act as a coherent entity. They are “co-produced.” To think of co-production as a concept should help us to think of a sustainable urban policy and action - shaped and developed by constructive conflict.  

The conference “Habitat III: Co-producing sustainable cities?” addressed the conditions for sustainable urban development. This was the look specifically on the relationship between civil society and City Government. On the Conference report.

Why communities want to co-produce with the state? The experience of communities in the global south is that it is important not to pass over responsibility to the state, because if citizen’s involvement is reduced it is unlikely that the services will be maintained. Diana Mitlin explores a radical concept of participation.

One question that concerns many Brazilians is about the true cost of the 2014 World Cup. The data gathered by the NGO PACS shows where investment money for the World Cup comes from and where it is going. It proofs how companies profit from billions of public money.

The rural community of São Lourenço in Recife was chosen as the place for the construction of a stadium and a real estate mega-project named World Cup Village. Hundreds of families were transferred without any alternatives or financial compensation.

The Four Sisters, Brazils largest construction companies, are the big donors to political campaigns. And also they are the big winners, as a study showed: for every dollar donated the companies recieved 6.5 half dollars back in public works contracts.

One the most symbolic cases of Brazil's protest movements against relocation, was the resistance of Vila Autódromo. The historical fight of the community located in the west of Rio de Janeiro, enormously spread around the country.