By TADEU ALENCAR ARRAIS*
It is a mistake to imagine that Marçal's success is located solely in the domain of social media dynamics.
“If they kill me, they will not easily find another who, by the order of the god, is as attached to the city as (although the comparison may seem ridiculous) a fly is to a large, well-bred horse, which needs to be awakened by the flies, because the fat makes it sluggish” (Plato. Apology of Socrates).
Historian Gustave Glotz (1980), based on a reference to the Greek orator Demosthenes, teaches that an idiot was someone who remained silent in Athenian assemblies. We know that public affairs took precedence over private matters in the polis. Idiots, from this perspective, were those who distanced themselves from public affairs. When we think of democracy and popular participation in matters of collective interest, at least from a Western perspective, the image of the polis is very common.
It is difficult to find any parallel between the cities of São Paulo and Goiânia and the Athens that judged and condemned the philosopher Socrates in an assembly in the Agora. Our cities, demographically, territorially, socially and administratively, are, in every way, distinct from those cities whose urban sites were protected by the continental topography and the Aegean Sea.
The distant similarity, if we can say so, can only be found in the democratic ambition. Democracy, both there and here, assuming all possible anachronisms, also appears in the speeches of those who intend to administer Brazilian cities. The reference is not gratuitous. Democratic management, in the very Statute of Cities, Law 10.257 of 2001 (Brazil, 200), is understood in the context of urban policies. As stated in Art.2:
II – democratic management through the participation of the population and associations representing the various segments of the community in the formulation, execution and monitoring of urban development plans, programs and projects.
Something other than apathy has made it difficult for people to participate in public affairs. This is a phenomenon inherent to the production of contemporary urban space. A common feature in urban history is that demographic growth has been followed, to varying degrees, by the spatial expansion of urban areas. Of course, this is not a mechanical rule, since we must also consider the evolution of technical systems, especially transport, energy and communication networks.
The history of the suburbs would be enough to prove this line of reasoning. But something very important would still be missing, especially when we relate these demographic increases to the determinations of industrial capitalism. Reading The situation of the working class in England, by Friedrich Engels, is enough to prove the hypothesis that the demographic increase of that “light infantry of capital” (2015, p. 778) coming from the countryside, to remember Marx (2015), would definitively change the way cities are organized.
The bourgeoisie's responses to recurring urban problems, faced with ungovernable cities and workers, oscillated between two logics: to remove the poor or to remove oneself from the poor. The first motivated the set of reforms of urban centers, in what Engels (1979, p.48) called the “Haussmann method”. The second motivated the construction of garden suburbs, a romantic perspective whose most elaborate project was described in detail by Ebenezer Howard (2002), in his well-known book Garden Cities of Tomorrow.
The point that interests us, in both cases, is to never forget that the new social division of labor required a new spatial division of the city. The urban history since then is well known. However, the hypothesis that this form of spatial organization, fragmented spatially and functionally, presents some particular challenges is less explored, among which we highlight:
(i) The challenge of understanding the production of the city from a fragmented perspective. We experience the city from our neighborhood and from a dynamic that involves, broadly speaking, daily commutes to work and school that consume a considerable fraction of the day. This makes it difficult to understand the global nature of urban problems. A significant portion of the urban population is unaware of the dynamics of drainage systems or even the places where urban waste is disposed of.
(ii) The challenge of understanding, due to social and economic complexity, the characteristics that involve the public administration of cities. A considerable part of the population is unaware of the existence of urban land use policies, as well as the system of municipal budgets. They are also unaware of the responsibilities, from the point of view of public services, of municipal administrations, including the forms of financing.
Figure 1. Summary of information about the cities of Goiânia and São Paulo
| County | Population 2022 | Population Density | Area (Km2) | Current Revenue 2023 | Approximate linear distance (km) between East-West extremes |
| Goiânia | 1.437.366 | 1970,9 | 729.296,00 | 8.230.766.441,00 | 30 |
| São Paulo | 14.511.999 | 7.528.26 | 1.521.296,00 | 85.647.940.027,80 | 46 |
The two challenges are experienced, to varying degrees, by people in Brazil’s 5.570 municipalities. Approximately 46 km separate the east-west extremes of the municipality of São Paulo and 30 km separate the east-west extremes of the municipality of Goiânia. The social, economic and environmental profile that we encounter along this line reveals the complexity of the historical forms of occupation of urban space.
In this same profile, we find neighborhoods with frighteningly asymmetric household incomes. The asymmetry in income reveals the patterns of housing and home comfort. The analysis of the same line demonstrates the selectivity of the actions of municipal governments in the provision of public education and health services. Following the line more closely, we can verify the tax curves, especially the collection of taxes such as IPTU (Urban Property Tax) and ISSQN (Tax on Services of Any Nature).
I have no doubt that the late Paulo Maluf, former mayor of São Paulo, and Iris Rezende, former mayor of Goiânia, would have known, based on this East-West approach, how to describe the set of priorities and communicate them to voters in São Paulo and Goiânia. There is no nostalgia for populism here. It is simply an observation that, by all indications, knowledge of the geography of these cities seems increasingly irrelevant in municipal succession debates.
The young man from Goiás, Pablo Marçal, 37 years old, aims to run one of the most important cities on the planet. He is proud of his lack of knowledge of the history and geography of the city of São Paulo. Perhaps this brings him closer, unfortunately, to a considerable fraction of those who live in the city of São Paulo. Pablo Marçal believes, and makes thousands of others believe, that the complex problems of the capital of São Paulo will be solved with motivational strategies. Two of the few proposals present in the 2024-page Government Plan (Marçal, 100), described as São Paulo 2028, are sufficient to prove the hypothesis of the replacement of politics by spectacle:
“39. Cable Cars Install cable car systems in hard-to-reach areas and regions with high population density, connecting these areas to strategic points in the city and facilitating daily commuting. Ensure that cable cars use clean and sustainable energy.”
“50. São Paulo as a Reference Capital São Paulo is a national powerhouse, with the largest GDP in Brazil, and stands out as a major business hub. To further strengthen its position as a world-class metropolis, we propose, over the next four years, to position São Paulo as a global center of business and culture. To consolidate this image, in partnership with the private sector, we plan to build the tallest building in the world, measuring 1 km high. This building will be an architectural landmark and a symbol of innovation and progress. São Paulo will be a model in terms of mindset, governance and innovation, serving as an example for the rest of Brazil.”
Pablo Marçal bets on the spectacle as a method of replacing politics. There is little interest in discussing the objective problems that influence the reproduction of the lives of millions of São Paulo residents. Pablo Marçal wants “A São Paulo of people who dream, who are self-governors” (Marçal, 2024). Marçal inaugurates anarcho-urbanism. There is something new in all this. It is no longer, or at least not only, the consensus of strategic planning deciphered by Otília Arantes, Carlos Vainer and Ermínia Maricato, in The city of single thought.
It is not just the hegemonic model of the company dividing up and selling off pieces of the city. Cities have failed in some way. They have concentrated, and São Paulo is a symptomatic example, the socially produced surpluses in the hands of heirs and rentiers. The legion of poor will be left with incarceration or compulsory hospitalization. This is, without a doubt, the new neoliberal urban frontier. It is no longer the the lump or any other category that regulated, as before, the supply of labor and, therefore, wages. Neoliberalism, contrary to what the lucid Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira believes, did not fail.
Ultimately, the neoliberal city depends on the uninterrupted production of idiots. People who do not waste time on public affairs and who therefore have little regard for democracy. The less time they spend thinking about the city's problems, the more time they will have to compete in the city. The questioning of philosophers like Plato and Aristotle about who would be best prepared to administer the polis makes no sense at the current stage of history.
It is Marçal, and not Boulos, Tabata, Nunes or Datena, who voices the legitimate desire for prosperity of the most impoverished. It is a mistake to imagine that Marçal's success is located solely in the domain of the dynamics of social networks. From here, in Goiânia, amidst the soot of the fires, I can only thank the people of São Paulo for welcoming Pablo Marçal from Goiás so warmly. Better there than here.
* Tadeu Alencar Arrais He is a professor at the Department of Geography at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG).
References
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Arendt, Hannah. the human condition. Rio de Janeiro, University Forense, 2014.
Aristotle. Politics. Brasilia, UNB Publishing House, 1985.
Brazil. Statute of Cities. In:https://www.planalto.gov.br/CCIVIL_03/////LEIS/LEIS_2001/L10257.htm#:~:text=LEI%20No%2010.257%2C%20DE%2010%20DE%20JULHO%20DE%202001.&text=Regulamenta%20os%20arts.%20182%20e,urbana%20e%20d%C3%A1%20outras%20provid%C3%AAncias.&text=Art.,Par%C3%A1grafo%20%C3%BAnico. Acesso em 09/09/2024.
Engels, F. The housing issue. Belo Horizonte, Global Village, 1979.
Engels, F. The situation of the working class in England. New York, 1985.
Glotz, Gustave. The Greek city. New York, 1980.
Howard, Ebenezer. Garden Cities of Tomorrow. 2nd Sao Paulo, Hucitec, 2002.
IBGE. @ Cities. In: https://www.ibge.gov.br/cidades-e-estados. Accessed on 09/09/2024.
Marçal. Government Plan. In: https://divulgacandcontas.tse.jus.br/candidaturas/oficial/2024/SP/71072/619/candidatos/250001978066//pje-planodegovernopablomar%C3%A7al.pdf. Accessed on 06/09/2024.
Marx, Carl. Capital. Book I, Volume II. 29th . Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian Civilization, 2015.
Plato. Apology of Socrates. Sao Paulo, Martin Claret, 2009.
São Paulo. Transparency Portal. In: http://transparencia.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/receitas-despesas/. Accessed on 09/09/2024.
TCM – Goias. Citizen Portal. In:https://www.tcmgo.tc.br/pentaho/api/repos/cidadao/app/index.html?=undefined&bookmarkState=%7B%22impl%22%3A%22client%22%2C%22params%22%3A%7B%22paramMunicipio%22%3A%22Goi%C3%A2nia%22%7D%7D#. Acesso em 09/09/2024.
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