Sob o céu escarlate: racismo urbano e agencidades negras em São Luís (MA) no século XX

Abstract

This research investigates how coloniality structures urban planning and proposes the concept of "Agencity" (in English, "urbancy") as an analytical category of the subaltern production of space: a technology of resistance that merges architectural fixation (settlements) and urban mobility (flows) to institute a decolonial urbanism. Based on decolonial theory and authors such as Rolnik (1989; 1997; 2023), Lara (2018; 2021; 2022) e Carneiro (2005; 2023), the paper discusses the colonial structures of urbanism and popular culture as an insurgent tool to combat coloniality and urban racism. The temporal focus emphasizes the first decades of the 20th century in relation to hygienist projects and the peripheral occupation of the city. The main areas addressed in this work are the settlements formed on the outskirts of the city's urban perimeter and near the mangroves. The study problematizes the erasure of urban and architectural experiences in the production of alternative and counter-hegemonic urbanizations, articulating a critical reading of modernity embedded in various scales of collective and everyday life. By intersecting race, gender, and urbanism, this research proposes a critical reading of modernity materialized in urban planning in São Luís, expanding the debate and emphasizing racial perspectives.