The place of the urban poor in cities has a long and contested history since the early 20th century. It has had to do with the capitalist expansion of the city, migration, colonialism, urban planning techniques, types of state intervention in informal settlements and other elements. It has had to do with the agency of urban poor populations in building their homes, their communities and their illegal/informal/squatted part of the city. In this website I provide glimpses of this history in the Portuguese-speaking landscape, related to cities such as Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Maputo, Bissau and Macau. Click on the city images and find out more.
