Opportunities and Deprivations in the Urban South: Poverty, Segregation and Social Networks in São Paulo by Eduardo Cesar Leão Marques (review)

While the megacities of Latin America have long served as centers of political power, social privilege, and capital accumulation, they have also attracted legions of impoverished migrants and generated zones of concentrated socioeconomic deprivation. The juxtaposition of wealth and poverty has endowed the burgeoning cities of Brazil with particularly high rates of inequality. In this innovative study of metropolitan São Paulo, Eduardo Marques examines how social networks and residential patterns influence people’s reproduction or, alternatively, reduction of poverty. Situating his research midway between the micro-level study of individual attributes and behaviors (such as “culture of poverty” and underclass debates) and the macro-level of broad economic dynamics (such as neoliberal labor markets, unemployment, and informality), the author focuses on the intermediate-scale intersections of urban space, sociability, and poverty in Brazil’s largest city-region.

In the book’s introduction, Marques presents his central argument “that societal midlevel elements associated with the relational pattern within which individuals are embedded have great importance in the understanding of poverty” (p. 2). Chapter 1 proceeds to elaborate on the relevant theoretical approaches to poverty, social capital and social networks, and urban segregation on which the study rests. Chapter 2 explains the project’s research design, socio-spatial context, and site selection. The research team surveyed 209 individuals in poverty, along with 30 middle-class people for comparative purposes. Among those in situations of poverty, approximately 30 open-ended questionnaires in each of seven locales explored the effects of urban segregation on social networks. Chosen in a spatial gradient from the metropolitan center to periphery, the study sites encompassed a variety of populations and housing types, ranging from central-city slums, informal communities of self-constructed favelas, public housing projects, and irregular housing subdivisions. The second chapter’s historical, geographical, and social profiles provide a sense of place for the tenements of downtown São Paulo; the favela of Vila Nova Jaguaré, located in the city’s expanded center; the large southwestern favela of Paraisópolis, located adjacent to the wealthy Morumbi district; the small favela of Vila Nova Esperança on the western metropolitan periphery; a complex of housing projects in Cidade Tiradentes on the east side; Jardim Angela, a mixed area of peripheral favelas and irregular settlements on the southern peri-urban fringe; and finally the favela of Guinle, located in the eastern industrial district of Guarulhos, near the International Airport.

Chapters 3 through 7 interpret the survey results. The third chapter reviews the attributes of individuals in poverty and their social networks. Among those interviewed, the poor were overwhelmingly migrants to the city and suffered from a precarious participation in labor markets. Relative to their middle-class counterparts, those in situations of poverty had more localized, smaller, and less cohesive networks with more restricted sociability. These traits become increasingly pronounced among those living in more isolated locates. As explained in Chapter 4, despite significant variations, types of networks depend largely on the size, structure, locations, and sociability patterns of residential areas. The fifth chapter investigates how networks influence access to goods, services, and employment. While income correlates with schooling and the number of people residing at home, it also reflects “… individuals’ relational patterns, the size of their networks (for those with stable income sources), as well as the variability of their sociability (for those resident in segregated areas)” (p. 118). Chapter 6 shows how relational networks can mitigate social deprivation through personal exchanges not subject to market forces, thereby helping to provide care for children and the elderly; small loans, food, tools and appliances; and emotional support. The seventh chapter addresses how variations in social networks influence the ability of individuals to cope with everyday problems related to housing...