Unequal transformations of urban socionature: a study from Favela do Sapé, São Paulo
This dissertation aims to investigate the unequal transformations of urban socio-nature resulting from public interventions between 2000 and 2023 along the Sapé River in the western zone of Sao Paulo. In addition, the research involves a critical analysis of urban drainage and slum upgrading projects. The study focuses on identifying the social, spatial, and public policy dynamics that explain disparities in environmental quality, and appropriation of the river and its banks between the Favela do Sapé area compared to the external areas. Urban Political Ecology offers a critical lens analysis for these socio-environmental transformations from the perspective of those who benefited and those who were harmed by public interventions, while also seeking to understand the context and reasons for the identified socio-environmental inequalities. UPE argues that the process of nature's metabolization is influenced by power relations occurring under specific political and socio-economic structures, resulting in the unequal production of socio-nature. The Sapé case illustrates the partial distribution of positive impacts, the maintenance and reinforcement of inequalities for some residents, and the complex array of actors influencing and fragmenting socio-nature spatial. Finally, this research aims to contribute to an understanding that the environmental dimension is intrinsically linked to social conditions and that a critical understanding of the current social, spatial, and public policy context can develop agendas for struggles and improvements in future policies that move toward more just and sustainable urban socio-nature.