Notes on the implementation process of the Brazilian urban reform agenda

Abstract

This paper describes the process of urban reform in Brazil from the perspective of the legal and institutional innovations that have taken place in the country since the promulgation of the 1988 Federal Constitution, including the 2001 City Statute and the creation of both the Ministry of Cities and the National Council of Cities in 2003. The paper analyses the progress made so far and the pending questions regarding the promotion of urban reform. From this perspective, the paper stresses the need for the combination of legal reform, institutional change and renewed social mobilization at all levels so as to make the most of the new political spaces created by the urban reform process, thus reversing the process of sociospatial exclusion that has characterized urban development in Brazil over the last decades.