Mobilização, organização e confronto em movimentos sociais urbanos: o caso da Resistência Vila Vicentina, em Fortaleza - Ce

Abstract

The objective of this thesis was to analyze the organization and emergence of collective action for the right to housing. The question analyzed refers to collective mobilizations that arise more intensely in the urban context, with emphasis on the housing problem. We tried to account for contemporary dynamics of mobilization, based on an empirically supported study. The empirical cutout of the research was the movement Resistance Vila Vicentina, headed by residents of Vila Vicentina da Estância, located in Dionísio Torres, an affluent neighborhood of Fortaleza-CE. The Vila consists of 45 houses, occupied by low-income families, and was built in the late 1930s, on land donated to a philanthropic institution. Over the years, the area becomes the object of interest of real estate agents, who exert pressure for the residents to leave the houses, so that the land can be occupied by apartment buildings. In 2016, in the midst of negotiations to sell the place, a repossession action occurs, which led to the demolition of the houses of residents who had agreed to leave the Vila, in exchange for compensation or receiving another property located in a peripheral municipality in the Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza. The truculent action revolted the residents who wished to remain in the Vila and got together to form the movement in question. The research about this movement had the following specific objectives: to verify which resources To verify which resources were used for the defense and permanence of the residents, identifying the strategies of action and confrontation that proved to be efficient; to describe situations and contexts that offered favorable circumstances for the formation and organization of the movement, situating the origin of the place and its occupation in the context of Fortaleza's urban expansion process; understand how problems are formed that conquer a public arena, from the mobilization of different actors in support networks and common causes; understand the definition of the identity field, as well as the construction of leaderships, forged despite conflicts and tensions that exist within a movement, relating to the context lived. The research was qualitative in nature, characterized as a case study, with semi-structured interviews, field diary entries, questionnaires, and systematic observation of the movement's actions. The fieldwork was carried out from October 2016 to January 2020. The appeal to the legal-political instruments of tombamento and the regulation of the Special Social Interest Zone (ZEIS) proved to be efficient, guaranteeing partial and significant victories for the movement. As other strategies of mobilization and confrontation, the 13 movement used diverse resources, which included the use of Internet social networks and recreational and creative actions. The investigation of collective action was done in light of theories about social movements, with emphasis on Charles Tilly's category of confrontational repertoires. Among the field findings and contributions of the research is the understanding of the tensions and circumstances related to the formation of collective action and its maintenance, bringing out the dispute for housing in qualified urban centers. The procedural construction of political-identity markers of belonging adds conditions to the understanding of collective action, making strategic the recourse to the Village's toppling and the fight for the regulation of the Special Zone of Social Interest (ZEIS) - measures which involve the maintenance and preservation of material and symbolic spaces in the city and the promotion of the right to decent housing.