50 YEARS OF "THE RIGHT TO THE CITY": RETHINKING THE (RE) PRODUCTION OF HOUSING PROJECTS OF SOCIAL INTEREST IN BELO HORIZONTE

In 2018, 50 years after the publication of the manifesto entitled "The Right to the City" by Henri Lefebvre, one of the most significant publications of 20th century urban theory. More than celebrating, professionals working with urban space must reflect on the breadth of Lefebvre's ideas. The purpose of this article is based on Lefebvre's criticism in the book "The Right to the City", to analyze the urbanization process of part of the northwestern region of Belo Horizonte, in the form of large housing projects of the Minha Casa Minha Vida Program. It is intended to demonstrate the perenniality of Lefebvre's critique. For the development of this article, a documentary research was carried out in the book mentioned above and also in other publications of renowned critics of the urban question, as well as in administrative processes of housing complexes, destined for the population of lower purchasing power, implemented in Belo Horizonte, from 2010. It can be concluded that, despite decades of publication of the book "The Right to the City", its ideas must be revived and rediscussed, since interventions sponsored by privileged groups and on guardianship of the State with the modernizing discourse and that exclude the majority of the population, still dominate the urban practices, mainly in Belo Horizonte. In this way, areas are urbanized by the state, large social housing units are built far from the city center, urban equipment and services, destroying diversity, urbanity, with a discourse to improve the quality of life that conceals the real meaning of domination and expansion of capital.