One of the classic Urban Sociology books in Latin America has just been published in English. “Urban Spoliation” by Lúcio Kowarick, was translated into English by Matthew Richmond, geographer and professor at the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University. The edition, which marks the 45th anniversary of the book’s publication in Brazil, was launched on August 8, at a roundtable discussion at the 14th Meeting of the Brazilian Association of Political Science (ABCP) in Bahia. The Center for Metropolitan Studies (CEM) and ABCP supported the project to translate and publish the book in English, which is available for free download on the CEM website.

In addition to Richmond, the following speakers were Eduardo Marques, director of CEM and professor in the Department of Political Science at the School of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences at the University of São Paulo (DCP-FFLCH/USP), and Maria Cristina da Silva Leme, professor at the School of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU) at USP. The panel was coordinated by Rebecca Abers, deputy executive secretary of ABCP and professor at the Federal University of Brasília (UnB). In addition to discussing the book itself, the speakers will also talk about the importance and legacy of Lúcio Kowarick not only for Sociology, but for several fields of knowledge, such as Political Science, Geography and Urbanism.

Analytical innovation of “Urban Espoliation” and why it was translated

The book deals with several aspects related to the city of São Paulo, still in the context of the military dictatorship in the late 1970s. Eduardo Marques highlights an essential element of this work: the way in which Lúcio Kowarick managed, through the study of a single city, to shed light on macro processes that impact the urban environment and its inhabitants, and are not restricted to the capital of São Paulo alone. “This book can be considered a kind of birth certificate of Brazilian Urban Sociology, as it is the first one to connect the political regime, the economic structure and the living conditions in the city with urban space production itself”, he adds.

In the Preface to this English edition, Marques emphasizes that this combination “resulted in an elegant and precise analysis of the production of space, favelas, and self-construction as survival strategies. The order behind the apparent disorder of the production of space in the metropolis of São Paulo became visible, as did urban inequalities, poverty, and precariousness,” he points out.

The English translation was an idea of ​​Richmond, who got in contact with Kowarick’s writings while doing a postdoctoral fellowship at CEM. In the introduction he wrote for the book, he points out the current relevance of several arguments by Kowarick, despite the time distance and the changes that Brazil has undergone since its original publication.

“Kowarick’s influence remains palpable in Brazilian urban studies and significant throughout the Latin American region. However, his name rarely appears in English-language analyses of Brazilian cities, much less in broader urban debates,” writes Richmond in the Translator’s Preface. “This is worrying at a time when Anglophone urban research is full of claims to ‘decolonize knowledge’ and ‘theorize from the periphery’, but still seems to want to do so on its own terms,” he warns in the text.

The English edition also includes photographs by Antônio Saggese, which were also present as important part of the edition in Portuguese. The renowned photographer kindly provided the material for reproduction in the English work.

Brief biography of Kowarick

Lúcio Félix Frederico Kowarick was a retired professor at DCP-FFLCH/USP when he passed away on August 24, 2020. He graduated in Political and Social Sciences from the Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo in 1961 and obtained his master's degree in Social Sciences in 1967. He joined USP as a professor in 1970, where he defended his doctoral thesis “Urban Marginality and Development: Theoretical Aspects of the Phenomenon in Latin America” in 1973. He worked at USP as a professor, advisor and researcher in the areas of social movements, urbanization, cities, citizenship and urban policies.

In addition to “A Espoliação Urbana” (1979 - Editora Paz e Terra), he published many other books that are references in Social Sciences research, such as “Viver em Risco", "Escrito Urbanos" and "Social Struggles and the city".
 

About CEM
Created in 2000 and beginning its activities in 2001, the Centre for Metropolitan Studies (CEM) is one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centres of the São Paulo State Research Foundation (Cepid-Fapesp) and recently also became a Special Research and Innovation Centre of the University of São Paulo (CEPIx-USP). The CEM brings together scientists from various institutions to carry out advanced research, knowledge dissemination and technology transfer in the Social Sciences, investigating issues related to inequalities and the formulation of public policies in contemporary metropolises. Based at the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo (FFLCH-USP) and the Brazilian Centre for Analysis and Planning (Cebrap), CEM is made up of a multidisciplinary group that includes researchers who are demographers, political scientists, sociologists, geographers, economists and anthropologists.. 

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