Moradia estudantil e o direito à cidade: análise do caso da casa do estudante do Ceará

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between the right to the city and popular student housing through the case study of the Casa do Estudante do Ceará (CEC), located in Fortaleza, Brazil. Grounded in critical theoretical perspectives—particularly those developed by Henri Lefebvre—and supported by the legal framework of the City Statute (Law No. 10,257/2001), the research seeks to understand how student housing can function as a concrete mechanism for the realization of social rights and the democratization of urban space. In the Brazilian context, despite the formal recognition of the right to the city and the right to housing by the 1988 Federal Constitution, their effective implementation remains limited by structural factors such as real estate speculation, gentrification, and persistent socio-spatial inequality, which disproportionately affect vulnerable students migrating from rural areas. Within this framework, the Casa do Estudante do Ceará emerges as a singular experience of collective resistance, ensuring not only access to housing but also material conditions for university retention, social inclusion, and civic participation in a central urban area. The analysis further highlights the role of popular student residences as community-based responses to the insufficiency of public housing policies, representing concrete forms of urban territorial appropriation by marginalized groups. It is concluded that the CEC exemplifies the substantive realization of the right to the city by fostering belonging, participation, and effective access to urban infrastructure, reinforcing housing as a fundamental component of citizenship.