Bryan D. McCann

My project studies the neighborhood association movement in Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s-1980s, analyzing attempts made by elected associations from middle-class neighborhoods and adjacent favelas to bridge the gulf that has long divided them, through political dialogue and urban reform. I use three case studies to elucidate the patterns of urban planning and local political activism that enabled this initiative to succeed in isolated cases while failing in the majority. I place these cases in a comparative framework, analyzing the peculiar growth of this democratic movement in the context of military dictatorship and its transformation after redemocratization. I explore the implications of this movement for the study of urban inequality throughout Latin America.