{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/139873"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/139873","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Commoning the Public: Federal Land as a Site of Housing Struggle in Rio de Janeiro","abstract":"The state of Rio de Janeiro concentrates the largest number of public lands and buildings under federal ownership in Brazil, a legacy of the former colonial, imperial, and federal capital status of the eponymous city. Many sit vacant, failing to fulfill their constitutionally required social function. In this context, federal-owned public property emerges as a critical site of housing struggle. Contesting the dispossessory logics of ownership mobilized to exclude poor and working class residents from these spaces — bounded and policed against uses and users deemed improper and unproductive — housing occupations inscribe a new logic of collective use through everyday practices of “commoning the public.” In re-imagining public property and the ways that people might relate to it beyond claims to ownership, I suggest that these practices work toward shifting the governance of public property in a more deeply democratic direction. These imaginings are not relegated to the realm of abstraction. Rather, they provide a roadmap for building out robust public policies that see to the transformation of disused public properties in central urban areas into social interest housing.","abstract_html":"The state of Rio de Janeiro concentrates the largest number of public lands and buildings under federal ownership in Brazil, a legacy of the former colonial, imperial, and federal capital status of the eponymous city. Many sit vacant, failing to fulfill their constitutionally required social function. In this context, federal-owned public property emerges as a critical site of housing struggle. Contesting the dispossessory logics of ownership mobilized to exclude poor and working class residents from these spaces — bounded and policed against uses and users deemed improper and unproductive — housing occupations inscribe a new logic of collective use through everyday practices of “commoning the public.” In re-imagining public property and the ways that people might relate to it beyond claims to ownership, I suggest that these practices work toward shifting the governance of public property in a more deeply democratic direction. These imaginings are not relegated to the realm of abstraction. Rather, they provide a roadmap for building out robust public policies that see to the transformation of disused public properties in central urban areas into social interest housing.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Hoffman, Ava R."],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":"Master","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Rajagopal, Balakrishnan"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-09","date_published":"2021-09","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:21:25Z","subjects":[],"languages":[],"rights":["In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted","Copyright retained by author(s)"],"rights_urls":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139873","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Rajagopal, Balakrishnan"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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Many sit vacant, failing to fulfill their constitutionally required social function. In this context, federal-owned public property emerges as a critical site of housing struggle. Contesting the dispossessory logics of ownership mobilized to exclude poor and working class residents from these spaces — bounded and policed against uses and users deemed improper and unproductive — housing occupations inscribe a new logic of collective use through everyday practices of “commoning the public.” In re-imagining public property and the ways that people might relate to it beyond claims to ownership, I suggest that these practices work toward shifting the governance of public property in a more deeply democratic direction. These imaginings are not relegated to the realm of abstraction. 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Many sit vacant, failing to fulfill their constitutionally required social function. In this context, federal-owned public property emerges as a critical site of housing struggle. Contesting the dispossessory logics of ownership mobilized to exclude poor and working class residents from these spaces — bounded and policed against uses and users deemed improper and unproductive — housing occupations inscribe a new logic of collective use through everyday practices of “commoning the public.” In re-imagining public property and the ways that people might relate to it beyond claims to ownership, I suggest that these practices work toward shifting the governance of public property in a more deeply democratic direction. These imaginings are not relegated to the realm of abstraction. 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