Urban Development and Societal Issues

Urban studies examines how cities grow, how space is organized, and how those arrangements shape everyday life for the people who live within them. In Brazil, rapid urbanization has produced sharp contrasts between formal and informal settlements, deepening social segregation while also generating powerful grassroots movements that contest who controls land, resources, and public infrastructure. Researchers are working to understand how spatial planning and environmental justice concerns can be brought into alignment, particularly as peripheral communities bear disproportionate costs from both development pressures and ecological degradation. Open questions center on whether sustainability frameworks can be extended meaningfully to low-income urban and rural territories, and how local social movements translate collective demands into durable policy change.

Works

130,985

Total citations

91,360

Keywords

UrbanizationSocial MovementsTerritorialitySustainabilitySegregationRural Development