Ideologies, tensions and urban agreements: the middle classes and the housing policy in the city (São Paulo, 1893-1915)

Abstract

This project aims to understand the performance of small and medium-sized real estate owners in the city of São Paulo between the years 1893 to 1915, focusing on housing developments. These owners, also known as "small business owners," still remain a historiographical problem, notably because they are not understood in the light of a group, as belonging to the middle sectors of the city. In this sense, we seek to bring to the debate the fact of sociological (and even historical) literature, not to dwell on an understanding of this sector, especially in what concerns its political action and the municipal representation bodies, such as councilors. Accompanying the debate, our interest seeks to draw a panorama of the ethnic-national identification of these subjects, since little attention was also paid to the role that immigrants played in the construction/urbanization process of São Paulo and how they invested their capital by exploiting the rentier real estate market. The lack of a better definition of the middle sectors, especially those that were dedicated to the real estate market, is a way that we understand to be pertinent to understand the political and social relations of modernity. Our research is based on the analysis of different documentary series that establish common connections: the Private Works Series, allows us to understand the requests for construction and reforms submitted by private individuals to the City Hall, in addition to the opinions of the city professionals involved in this process. The plans allow us to glimpse the possible destination of the property to certain social strata. Along with legislation and debates among city councilors, our intention is to uncover the attention of the public power in areas where the capital of real estate owners acted, which will be done with the help of the GIS Geographic Information System (GIS). (AU)