Citizenship for the urban poor? Inclusion through housing programs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

"Social exclusion" has been identified as one of the largest problems affecting Latin American cities today. That is, the marginalization of classes of individuals from formal political, economic, and social spaces of the city. With upwards of 40 percent of a city's population living in shantytowns and other irregular settlements, in some cases, attempts to reverse social exclusion have taken center stage in social policy in the last decade. This study examines one such approach, embodied in a series of housing programs known as the Favela-Bairro Housing Upgrading Initiative. This program aims to end exclusion by "extending citizenship" to the urban poor. However, rather than serving as an opportunity to include these populations into decision-making structures, the state defines citizenship narrowly. Based on interviews with the residents of three irregular settlements, government officials, and representatives of non-governmental organizations, I argue that the state uses the language of citizenship in order to manage demands from and expectations of residents.; Furthermore, rather than being "included" into the Brazilian polity, residents are inserted into the formal market for goods and services, deemed full citizens on the basis of consumption and contribution of taxes. As a result, the broad ideals of equality and democracy inherent in citizenship are replaced by more instrumental uses.