Degenerate bodies, degraded territories:

homelessness and the struggle for land in the Holiday Building, Recife

Abstract

In this paper, we are interested in studying a dual phenomenon, which is our overall objective. On one hand, we intend to discuss the technologies of producing an urban degradation stigma associated with the Holiday Building in Recife, from its foundation to what is publicly projected as its decline. On the other hand, we seek to understand the perspectives of the right to the city in the statements of the residents who were removed up to three years after the court order that executed the evacuation of the building. To this end, we are interested in understanding the complexity of the notion of displacement that involves this case. How is the social production of eviction taking place in the Holiday Building? As methodological resources for these objectives, this work collects two types of materials: newspaper publications about the Holiday and its “decline” in the city; and the statements of the removed residents.