Critique of Rocinha Accessibility Options: Developmentalist vs. Capabilities Approaches

 

London School of Economics & Political Science, Department of Sociology, City Making: The Politics of Urban Form

Critique of Rocinha Accessibility Options Bronwyn Kotzen April 2014

PART 1: PROJECT PRESENTATION Launched in 2007 by then President Lula da Silva, the Growth Acceleration Program or PAC is a national program of the federal government of Brazil, consisting of both economic policies and largescale federal and state infrastructural investment projects with the goal toward increasing Brazil’s economic growth over three periods, totaling US$1.2214 trillion investments (catcomm.org). Targeted investment projects for the 2007 – 2010 period, had a total budget of US$349 billion (Loudiyi, 2014) which were matched by monetary policies. Infrastructure development was the central focus including construction, sanitation, energy, transport and logistics (Fig.1). Having incorporated the urbanization of slums or favelas as a major objective, four favelas in Rio de Jainero received funding for public housing, sport facilities and a gateway bridge in Rocinha (Fig.2), an elevator and housing in Pavao- Pavaozinho, housing and a cable car in Complexo de Alemao and education and sanitation upgrades in Manguinhos (catcomm.org). PAC 2 was continued by President Dilma Rouseff’s administration between 2011 – 2014, with estimated investment of US$526 billion, and a further US$346.4 billion for the post-2014 period (Loudiyi, 2014). Similar to PAC 1, investments were focused around the areas of logistics, energy and social development, organized under six major initiatives: Better Cities, Bringing Citizenship to the Community, My House, My Life, Water and Light for All, Energy and Transportation (Selvanayagam, 2010). An investment of US$118 million was declared to assist developments in three favelas in the city, with Rocinha set to receive the bulk of the investment of US$71.4 million: including 4900m of drainage works, 7800m of sanitation works, 6800m of water supply, waste collection, housing units, road widening, street lighting, community facilities, public space and relocation of families in risk areas ((Elliot, 2013; MundoReal, 2013). The project further includes the planned construction of a highly controversial cable car over Rocinha’s steep hillside, a project which will appropriate the majority of the funding costing an estimated US$37.5 million (Rivera, 2009).

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Fig.1 PAC 1 INVESTMENTS = US$ 349 billion INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT

2007-2011 (US$ billions)

Energy oil and gas, power generation, renewable fuels

122.7

Social Infrastructure & Urban housing, sanitation, lighting

76.26

Transport Logistics highways, railways, ports, waterways

26.03

PAC for Children sports academies, libraries, educational programmes

1.29

Source: Selvanayagam, 2010

Fig.2 PAC 2 INVESTMENTS = US$ 526 billion INFRASTRUCTURE

2011 - 2014 US$ billions

Better City sanitation, urban planning, roads

31.2

Bringing Citizenship to the Community health and daycare centres, school, police stations

12.6

My House, My LIfe low-income housing

152.5

Water and Lights for All increase access to electricity and water

16.6

Transportation improve highways, ports, airports and waterways

57.3

Energy improve electricity generation, renewable energy

255.3

Source: Selvanayagam, 2010

The cable car system is set to include 6 stations and two transport lines, and spans 2,5 km which will connect with the metro system. The cars will have a capacity of 30 000 passengers daily, costing R$1 per 11 minute trip (Riviera, 2009). Seen to be the ‘flagship’ for improvements (Freitas, 2014) in the area, the said ‘failure’ of the cable car in Complexo Alemao (Fig.3 & 4   ) upon which the proposal is based, has raised doubts around the actual motivation behind the investments in Rocinha. In the lead up to the 2014 Soccer World Cup and 2016 Olympics, the project has been criticised as a show of modernisation and economic growth in city marked by inequality and poverty, arguing its inability to foster economic growth in the favela itself and turning the focus away from more pressing issues of health and education, as the members of Rocinha Without Borders and Rocinha 100% Sanitation contend – all of whom unanimously objected to the cable car (Monteiro, 2014).

Fig.3 ALEMAO CABLE CAR FACTS 117 million 152 train carriages (10 passengers each) 30 000 daily passengers 3.5 km length 2 stations, integrated with rail

PART 2: INFORMATION BASE

16 minute travel time

A. Geographic Context

2 free journeys (roundtrip)

A.1. Rocinha: Rio’s Largest Favela Rio de Jainero is a city as famous for its carnivals, soccer and beaches as it is for its hillside slums and neighbourhoods of extreme poverty. Located between the popular beaches of Ipanema and Leblon, the wealthy neighborhood of Gavea, and the Barra da Tijuca residences, Rocinha is a slum settlement or favela, which represents the nakedness of the city’s wealth divide. The 1980’s marked an era of drastic change for favelas in Brazil as the discourse of forced eviction began to decrease and urbanization programs were introduced. Extensive growth and increasing investment by residents into their properties have permanently etched these settlements into the geography of the city. As one of the first favelas to be recognised as a legitimate neighbourhood by the state in 1986, Rocinha later became an administrative region in 1993, divided into 14 distinct subneighbourhoods (Fabricius, 2008). Today Rocinha is considered to be the largest, most urbanised and most densely populated favela in Rio with unofficial figures estimating a population of over 200 000 residents living in conditions of tremendous deprivation, insecurity and stigmatization (IBGE 2010; Mundo Real, 2013).

residents = R$1 tourists

= R$5

CRITIQUES 1.

Expected to be the main mode of transport in Alemao, however daily demand only 9,000-12,000. Less than half of the predicted usage . Even at full capacity it would only serve 50% of Alemao’s population.

2.

Does not meet basic needs of mobility, promote social integration or improve quality of life.

3.

Seen as a major attraction for ‘exotic tourism’, leading up to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics - not to the benefit of the community.

4.

Transport is not the greatest need, as there are already minivans and motorcycle taxis. Doesnt solve more pressing needs of health and education.

5.

Has not contributed to local economy (Freitas, 2013).

B. Macro-Economic Growth, Despite Widespread Disparity B.1. Brazil: A Global Economic Powerhouse Brazil is the world’s seventh largest economy with a recorded GDP of US$2.090 billion in 2012 (UNdata. org). The Brazilian economy incurred a significant slow down between 2011 – 2012 as GDP growth declined from 7.5% in 2010 to 2.7% in 2011 and 0.9 in 2012 (UNdata.org), coupled with the pressures of a growing population. This resulted in dramatic affects for industrial output and investment demand. Set to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016, these mega-

Fig.4 Source: noticias.band.uol.com

 

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events have been used as catalysts to engage in urban development and large-scale infrastructural improvements, such as the PAC Program, in an effort to increase labour demands and therefore create jobs; a process which has seen a decrease in national unemployment rates to 5.5% in 2012 (ILO). Despite reportedly low unemployment rates, this figure is only in relation to economically active population reported at 69.88% (ILO 2012). What becomes striking then is the discrepancy between formal and informal employment sectors, which measure at 57.7% and 42.3% respectively (ILO 2012). B.2. Rio de Jainero: Toward a Post ‘Third World’ City As Brazil exited a major economic recession in 2003, the country enjoyed its most sustained period of growth since the late 1970’s - most notable was Rio de Janiero’s economic turnaround. In an effort to transform the city, the ‘city project’ consists of a range of investments to increase development, beyond large-scale urbanization of the 1950’s and 60’s which left parts of the city lacking basic infrastructure and services, to become what Matthew Richmond (2013) refers to as the ‘post Third World city’. Today, the city accounts for three-quarters of the state of Rio’s population and is the 2nd largest urban economy with a 5.1% share of the national GDP (brookingsinstitute.com); experiencing a consistent growth rate of 1.1% over 2010 and 2011 (IBGE). As one of the largest employment nodes in Brazil, Rio’s 5.3 million workers account for more than 6% of national employment. The unemployment rate was recorded at a low of 5.5% amongst the 53.8% of those who are economically active (IBGE 2010; rionegocios.com 2009). A combination of recent offshore pre-salt oil findings and the city’s involvement in the aforementioned mega-events have brought a significant amount of foreign investment to Rio (brookingsinstitute.com), a primary aim of its urban authorities. Yet despite such economic prosperity, the city shows great inequalities with over a quarter of the urban population living below the poverty line (CIA World Factbook 2006) compared to the national level of 21.4% (IBGE 2009). Both the national and city level HDI represent much lower rankings than more developed countries around the world. What becomes critical then in assessing development impacts, is to understand those territories in which the cities poorest people eke out an existence. B.3. Rio’s Favelas: Territories of Deprivation Although urban development is associated with economic growth and market-based income opportunities, the urbanisation of poverty, in cities like Rio de Jainero proves otherwise. The spatial logic of the city presents a collage of over 700 favela territories (Fig.5) built between mountainous hillsides near the coastline and low lying inland areas, recognisable by their densely packed and makeshift architecture. Considered to be partially developed or ‘informal’, these areas are most often segregated from their wealthier neighbours by infrastructural boundaries. Despite the country’s economic wealth and stable growth, increasing wages, and growing middle class, the favela population in Rio de Janiero has increased by 27.5% from 2000 - which showed 18.65% of its inhabitants living in favelas (IBGE). Today, 22% of the city’s population

Fig.5 Source: noticias.band.uol.com

 

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now live in them (riotimesonline. com). This is in sharp contrast to the city’s population growth rate which only increased by 3.4% over the same period (IBGE), both of which consequently mean an increased labour force. Poverty in relation to residents monthly median income measures at approximately a quarter of that earned in areas outside of the favela at US$269.58 (IBGE 2010); an income too low to purchase that which is needed for ‘long-term survival and advancement’ (Mitlin, 2011:3). This reflects the lack of employment opportunities, low wages and low returns on informal activity. Difficult living conditions compound low-incomes – the lack of resources and access to basic facilitates such as the low-levels of municipally piped water, sanitation and electricity are measured at a mere 4.8% (PCRJ 1996). The poor are forced to attain services ‘off-thegrid’, using gatos - unofficial and illegal connections made to legal sources of water and electricity. These are often charged at much higher prices than in the city’s wealthiest suburbs (Fabricius, 2008). Although Rio de Janeiro shows figures of a relatively well educated population ranking fourth for those among 16% of residents aged 25 and older who have completed tertiary education and third for its literacy rate at just over 97% (brookingsinstitute.com) - the city’s favela population show incredibly low levels of literacy at 20.64%, and only 1.07% of the population with more than 15 years of education (Municipality of Rio). Although the country has enjoyed significant growth at a national level, this indicates that little trickle down has been achieved at an urban scale and even less so in the city’s most marginalised areas.

C. Rocinha: Seeing Challenges Beyond Mobility Rocinha is set to receive US$37.5 million of federal funding from the PAC program for the proposed cable car project. While such transport interventions draw on the success of projects implemented in cities around South American to find affordable solutions to the challenges of urban mobility, an outline of other deficits faced in the neighbourhood are important to gain an understanding of the transformative effectiveness of such development projects. The geographic location of Rocinha presents a difficult terrain to negotiate in terms of mobility. Small passenger vans provide the fastest and often only mode of transport for people who live in more isolated positions, providing connections to the rest of the city (Fabricius, 2008). Despite the aims of the cable car to improve Rocinha’s accessibility options, the following data illustrates the urgency of other issues such as housing, sanitation, health and education as detailed by Mundo Real researchers. Residents live in conditions of extreme poverty in small and often multistoreyed shanties (Fig.6 & 7) as tall as 11 stories. Most houses in Rocinha have basic sanitation, plumbing, and electricity, although these services are predominantly illegally connected, as phenomenon which is similar to other favelas in the city (Fig.8 & 9). Within the 126 official administrative regions in the municipality of Rio de Janiero, Rocinha ranked 6th worst-off on the city’s HDI Index in 2000. A 2008 government census found that the favela also ranked significantly lower than the average HDI index of the 510 slums surveyed, despite its

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From top to bottom: Fig.6,7,8 & 9 Source: noticias.band.uol.com

location between two of the country’s wealthiest nieghbourhoods of São Conrado and Gávea; inequalities that are exacerbated by the favela’s lack of resources and services. An IBGE census estimated a minimum of 6000 residents in the favela who have at least one health related disability, a figure thought to be much higher than official figures estimate, and one which is further exacerbated by an excess of over 28 open sewages (Fig.10). Rocinha also shows very low education levels, with an average of only 4.1 years of formal education, and less than 1% of its adult population having achieved tertiar education. The imbalances of basic resources including sanitation and education are testament to the economic situation in the area where people have little access to funds; proof of high levels of unemployment despite large-scale infrastructural investment. The key challenge for Rocinha is how then to explore the favelas potentiality - using large-scale infrastructure investment such as the PAC cable car project - to promote transformative social and economic development within a community which suffers from resource and service deprivation, extreme poverty and a general need to be integrated into the urban economy.

PART 3: PROJECT CRITIQUE A. Situating The Project In Developmentalist Framework Developmentalism is a distinctively modern philosophy - both theoretical and applied - which is premised on the assumption of the universality of social, cultural and political progress through industrialization, urbanization and material advancement (Escobar, 1997). Since the inception of the post-war development project, remedies for poverty and lack of development in the ‘Third World’ aimed at progress through planned action in order to improve capacities of governance, service provision and productivity (Watts, 2009; Robinson, 2004). As James Scott (1996) argues in his book Seeing Like a State, this goal has been most often achieved through ‘high modernist projects’, or what Arturo Escobar (1997:91) describes as large-scale, comprehensive and top-down technocratic projects ‘which treat people and cultures as abstract concepts‘ in accordance with ‘First World’ economic and cultural practices. He goes on to argue that development is therefore a construction of the underdeveloped as universal, entailing the homogenization and the erasure of difference. The irony of such development, is that is it said to cause the underdevelopment which it aims to negate. The developmentalist framework draws on John Maynard Keyes economic theory which suggests that the best vehicle through which to achieve economic growth is via a ‘developmental state’ – or as Watts (2009:123-4) describes, a centralized and interventionist state authority that ‘consciously governs the market and shapes the process of capitalist accumulation’. In other words, in order to stabilize the fluctuations of

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Fig. 10 Source: rioonwatch.com

 

unfettered market operations of over accumulation, Keynesianism argues for centrally planned state-led development in order to stimulated the economy through a dual process of monetary policy - by reducing interests rates to encourage spending -, and through fiscal policy government investment in infrastructure, which injects income into the economy by creating economic opportunities, employment and demand, in an effort to increase economic development and therefore reduce poverty (Felix, 2004). A.1. Rocinha Cable Car Project 
In a city of ‘uneven, incomplete or partial development’ as Daniela Fabricius (2008:1) explains, the spatial logic of Rio de Janeiro displays urban areas of ‘extreme social differences and poverty’ which urgently require improvement. As part of one third of the world’s urban habitation (UNHabitat 2001), informal territories are seldom recognized for their networks of relationships, economies and social practices which are rich in transformative opportunties. Rather, as the State and the City of Rio become more involved in favela upgrading, ‘high modernist projects’ are implemented with a goal toward economic development, ignoring the needs of local residents in favour of the State’s. The Rocinha Cable-Car project, as a deliverable of the national PAC Program, arguably illustrates one such example which will be critiqued in the following writing. A.2. Critiquing Output Based Developmentalism The 1990 Human Development Report outlines development as the aim to create an enabling environment for optimum well-being, yet as Robert F. Kennedy once said, ‘a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile’. When GDP was instituted over 70 years ago, as Robert Costanza (2014) outlines, it was a relevant marker of progress; increased economic activity was credited with providing employment, income and goods. The critique of the PAC cable car project is therefore two-fold. Firstly, I criticize the use of GDP as a guide for development and well-being which focuses on developing Brazil’s national economic growth following its dramatic slow down from 7.5 – 0.9% between 2010 and 2012 (IBGE). Applying this logic to the implementation of the Rocinha cable-car project highlights the assumption that delivery of a ‘good’ will automatically reduce other kinds of poverty. I argue that projects of this nature fail at a local scale as they foster little growth in the areas in which they are implemented and therefore do not achieve genuine change for its citizens. Despite the fact that Rio ranks as the country’s 2nd largest economy (brookingsinstitue.com), over 700 densely populated favelas (Fig. 5) (Fabricius, 2008) bear testament to the increasing wealth divide that the failure of such developments reproduce. Furthermore, these models blind the potential opportunities multimillion dollar investments present for more-sustainable models of development - which leads to the second criticism. Although resources and income have a powerful effect on what humans can do or be, these factors are dangerously inadequate measure of quality of life. It must be recognized that the narrow assessment of development in monetary terms alone imposes a singular idea of progress and

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therefore fails to ‘focus on a radical notion of modernity that includes the cultural specificities and socio-political dynamics’ (Navaro-Sertich 2013:187-193) of individual and group achievement based on peoples values which could achieve long term development rather than shortterm job employment on infrastructural projects. I therefore turn to economist Amartya Sen’s conceptualization of the capabilities approach as an alternative framework through which to evaluate the realized development benefits of the cable car project for Rocinha and its residents, with a shift in focus beyond economic and resource terms alone.

B. Capabilities Approach as an Alternative Framework for Wellbeing The central thesis of the capabilities approach as argued by Sen (in Mitlin 2011:10), is that poverty reduction and social justice can be understood through considering ‘the capabilities that a person has; that is substantive freedoms he or she enjoys to lead the kind of life he or she has reason to value’, a deprivation of which Sen considers to be poverty (Robeyns, 2005). In other words, the framework argues that the ends of well-being, justice and development should be conceptualized in terms of people’s capabilities to function; the distinction of which lies between the possible and the realized, between achievements and freedoms or substantive opportunities from which one can choose the options that they value most (Robeyns, 2005). Developmentalism, as Scott (1996) attests, sees all people as the same and therefore considers that a certain resource would yield similar freedoms for all. Antithetically, capabilities recognizes human diversity; people with identical capability sets are likely to end up with different types and levels of achieved functionings as they have different ideas of a good life. The following section begins to unpack the difference between means vs. functionings, and capabilities in order to assess the cable car project’s real impacts. B.1 Means vs. Functionings and Capabilities A key distinction in the capability approach from the developmental framework is the difference between what economist Ingrid Robeyns (2005:95) refers to as the ‘means and ends of well-being and development’. Where developmentalism is driven by an output-based focus, capabilities focuses on opportunity; in other words it deals with the distinction between the means, such as goods and services, and functionings and capabilities. In the developmentalist context, the Rocinha cable car provides a means or good, which is considered the ends of development for the favela. Evaluated within a capabilities framework, this good is seen rather as the means through which to achieve ones valued functioning’s - here the functioning is seen as the end achieved through individual capabilities. The question then is if the cable car increases resident’s capabilities in order to achieve well-being? Robeyns (2005) explains a good as that which has certain characteristics that enable a resident to reach certain locations quicker than walking; the functioning of access. The relation between a good and the functioning to achieve certain ‘beings’ and

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‘doings’ is influenced by three groups of conversion factors defined as personal, social and environmental. In Rocinha, although all three factors play a role, I will argue here the environmental conversion factor first. Let us use the example of the Alemao cable car as a reference, the project on which the Rocinha cable car proposal is based. Despite the fact that the Secretariat of Works states that improving accessibility is one of the pillars of the PAC Program, the cable car has done little to better the quality of life for its residents (Fig.4) as it does not provide a solution to the challenges of mobility and access (Mundo Real, 2013; Frietas, 2013, Monteiro, 2013). Considering that the cable car stations are geographically located atop a steep hill and the distance necessary to reach them takes a considerable amount of time, coupled with the difficulty to commute and carrying items on the slopes - as would be the case for the Rocinha - it becomes much less desirable to walk, presenting a challenge to reach the cable car stations (Frietas, 2013). Further to this end, personal conversion factors, such as the difficulty for disabled people in wheelchairs to reach these locations and their quick boarding system, make travelling aboard the cable car almost impossible. The result is that people action their substantive freedoms to make use of alternative existing methods of travel, such as Rio’s informal passenger vans (Fabricius, 2008). Although van trips cost up to three times as much as public bus trips (US$1.2) and up to nine times as much as the cable car (US$0.45), they provide superior access to narrow streets and isolated areas in the favela due to their small size. Their efficiency is evidenced in that the fact that the quantity of vans grew from 600 vehicles in the early 1990’s to a fleet of over 10 000 today (in contrast to the public bus fleet of 7366) and transports over 600 000 riders throughout the city per day (Fabricius, 2008). Rio’s government has estimated that it loses around $R19.773 million per year on public transport fares as people choose to use this mode of transport instead (Fabricius, 2008). Given that individuals have the ability to progress, Scott (1996) argues against the state’s assumptions that whole societies are equally able to progress when large-scale infrastructural projects - such as the cable car are imposed unilaterally upon their populations. This system of centralised planning removes multiple sources of innovation, progress and change that emerge from local elements in favour of a single all powerful and knowing guiding body that determines the output, consequently failing to investigate the opportunity or ability to turn existing resources (such as the vans) into actualised functionings. The argument here is that simply providing a good and assuming its inherent properties to meet needs for mobility and access is not enough to establish its useful functioning. Where developmentalism expects to provide improvement for all as a neat formula, the capability approach takes human diversity into account. It understands the multiplicity of functionings and capabilities as a point of evaluation, accounting for the conversion factors which need to be achieved in order for commodities to be turned into functionings (Robeyns, 2005). Although the availability of commodities or means are important for well-being, they are not the ultimate ends as Developmentalism suggests. Dr’eze and Sen (in Robeyns 2005:94) explain this:

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‘We have tended to judge development by the expansion of substantive human freedoms — not just by economic growth...or technical progress, or social modernization. This is not to deny...that advances in the latter fields can be very important, depending on circumstances, as ‘instruments’ for the enhancement of human freedom. But they have to be appraised precisely in that light — in terms of their actual effectiveness in enriching the lives and liberties of people — rather than taking them to be valuable in themselves.’ Dr`eze and Sen, 2002:3

It is therefore evident that the cable car does not present improved wellbeing for Rocinha, as the underutilization of the Alemao cable car project proves. As people make use of existing infrastructures to achieve the functioning of access, their existing capabilities or freedoms to attain job opportunities etc. are not facilitated. The result is a landscape of relative stagnance for individuals, and in turn local development, despite a US$37.5 million public investment. What becomes relevant then is the need to know about a person and the environment within he or she resides through what Scott (1996:313) refers to as ‘metis’ – ‘a wide array of practical skills and acquired intelligence in responding to a constantly changing natural and human environment’. In other words, we should not only evaluate peoples capabilities or opportunities but the context in which social interactions and economic production occur and whether circumstances in which people choose from opportunity sets are able to improve their general well-being (Robeyns, 2005); leading to the second criticism framed in this paper. B.2. Recognising Functionings of Value Situated within a developmentalist context, the highly interventionist state which will drive, supply and maintain the Rocinha cable car results in residents individual choices being disregarded due to the State’s lack of ‘metis’, favouring standardized models of intervention for development instead. Compromised by the lack of participation despite the City Statute Law, which requires public participation and agreement in decisions regarding government interventions (Mundo Real, 2013), within a capabilities framework, the cable car project should be envisaged as a partnership between state and local stakeholders. Accounting for local knowledge would mean giving local people a voice in the process of development, giving way to the otherwise top-down process of infrastructure and service delivery. As Rocinha resident and community organizer Melissa Silva says, ‘...no one asked for the cable car, no one asked the people what they wanted’ (Elliot, 2013). Rocinha ranked 6th worst off on the city’s HDI index in 2000 (IBGE), representative of its great deficiencies. Not only are there exceptionally low-levels of education with a mere average of 4.1 years of schooling, it is also home to grave public health issues with over 28 open sewages - that investments in sanitation could begin to address (Mundo Real, 2013). The capabilities approach would therefore ask ‘whether people are being healthy, and whether the means or

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resources necessary for this capability are present, such as sewage pipes, clean water, access to doctors, protection from infections and diseases, and basic knowledge on health issues’ (Robeyns, 2005:96). The project has raised questions around where best to direct public funds, as highlighted by health and education deficits evidenced by protestor slogans which read ‘basic sanitation yes, no white elephant’ (Fig. 11); seen as more pressing than transport infrastructure. By providing goods that people actually want we allow individuals to achieve valued funtionings such as being healthy, which will in turn lead to individual development and therefore increase peoples capabilities – being in good health is a functioning, but also a means to the capability to work or be educated in order to move beyond the meagre US$269.58 monthly average income and therefore further individual capabilities. It is only here that improved mobility might be of real value for people in Rocinha. Where peoples valued functionings are not considered, improved capabilities are diminished which ultimately fails to foster individual well-being and therefore misses the goal of long-term poverty reduction.

C. Conclusion: Big Spending, Little Local Gain Arturo Escobar (Escobar 1997) argues that understanding the investment in the ‘Third World’ by Western forms of knowledge and power, presents a way to shift the focus from economic development in order to achieve genuine poverty alleviation. Where mega events, such as the World Cup 2014 and Olympic Games 2016, are used as Steinbrink (2013:124) suggests, to ‘shake off the stigma of underdevelopment and cross the ‘threshold’ into leading industrial nations’, the Brazilian State is able to regain control of the ‘underdeveloped’ favela through top-down projects which claim to be in the best interest of the city (Richmond, 2013). But the impacts of developmentalist projects such as the Rocinha cable car beg whether real well-being has been achieved for the individual and the community beyond national economic development? As Scott (1996) suggest, macroeconomic structural adjustment reforms, quick ‘shock therapies’ and large scale projects show little success as ‘high modernist designs’ for life and production diminish skills, agility, initiative and morale of their intended beneficiaries. Rapid centralised economic growth - without articulation of internal markets to satisfy the needs of the majority - through highly centralised capital investments with short-term project based labour, do not offer the resources needed for an alternative imagination of development pathways which work with the existing local activities, or help foster links between national, city-wide and neighbourhood level economic growth. Without recognising the multiple-dimensions of deprivation, as Jennifer Robinson (2005) writes about developmentalism, urban interventions continue to narrowly address the inequalities which stretch across and between cities, sustaining poverty within them; not to mention the extreme national fiscal stress that such approaches impress on national funds. Rather than following large-scale comprehensive schemes which consider goods as ends rather than as means, evaluating the project in terms of the

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Fig. 11 Source: rioonwatch.com

 

capabilities approach allows their redundancy (lower than expected use) as I argue the Alemao cable car evidences - to be avoided by building on resources that exist, such as local vans in Rio’s favelas, instead of large sums of capital investment in infrastructure. What becomes critical to question then is whether such projects effectively increase people’s capabilities or substantive opportunities by providing functionings which are of value to local residents. The capabilities approach presents a tool through which to evaluate valued individual functionings, in this case health and education over access, in favour of state valued functionings which are aimed at increasing GDP to attract international investment. To this end, we could better learn from local knowledge and deal with contingency by adopting plans that are flexible and able to react to local human action through participation. Increasing individual capabilities increases people’s substantive freedoms which in turn influence economic production and social change, in contrast to a demand driven approaches. Therefore capability and not achieved functioning should be the political goal, beyond the developmetalist project of resource implementation alone. Despite Brazil ranking 7th in the global economy and Rio’s economic wealth, the multimillion dollar Rocinha cable car capital investment presents little actualized local development in an area which requires poverty alleviation the most. Amidst wide scale urban poverty, a more humanist approach to development is necessary. Constanza (2014:285) succinctly writes that ‘it is often said that what you measure is what you get’. Isn’t it time then that we start to measure development in terms of people having the ‘freedoms or opportunities (capabilities) to lead the kind of lives they want to lead, to do what they want to do and be the person they want to be’ (Robeyns2005:96) if we hope to negate the failures of state-led developmentalism and effectively reduce poverty in the kinetic, dynamic and complex processes of city making today.

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REFERENCES Beyazit, E. 2011. ‘Evaluating Social Justice in Transport: Lessons to be Learned from the Capability Approach in Transport Reviews, 31(1) pp. 117-134 Catalytic Communities, 2013. Growth Acceleration Program (PAC). Available from http://catcomm.org/pac/ Date of Access: 19 April 2014 Costanza, R., Kubiszewski, I., Giovannini, E., Lovins, H., McGlade, J., Pickett, K., Ragnarsd\’ottir, K., Roberts, D., De Vogli, R. and Wilkinson, R. 2014. ‘Development: Time to Leave GDP Behind’ in Nature, 505(7483) pp. 283-285 Elliot, M. 2013. Rocinha Questions PAC 2 Spending Plan. The Rio Times. Available from http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/riopolitics/rocinha-questions-pac-2-spending-plan/ Date of Access: 9 April 2014 Escobar, A. 1997. ‘The Making and Unmaking of the Third World through Development’ in The Post-Development Reader pp. 8593 Fabricius, D. 2008. ‘Resisting Representation: The Informal Geographies of Rio de Jainero’ in Harvard Magazine, 28 Available from http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/images/content/5/5/553233/28fabricius.pdf Date of Access 22 April 2014 Felix, D. 2004. ‘Keynesian Consequences’ in Society, 41(6) pp. 58-62. Freitas, C. 2014. Rocinha and Alemão Plan to Sue the State Over Cable Car. Rio on Watch. Available from http://Rocinha and Alemão Plan to Sue the State Over Cable Car Date of Access: 9 April 2014 Loudiyi, I. 2014. Brazil Announces Phase Two of the Growth Acceleration Program. Available from http://blogs.worldbank.org/growth/brazil-announces-phase-twogrowth-acceleration-program Date of Access: 21 Apil 2014 Mundo Real. 2011. Rocinha Meets with Surrounding Communities to Discuss Development. Available from http://1mundoreal.org/rocinha-community-board Date of Access: 9 April 2014 Mundo Real. 2011. Rocinha Sem Fronteiras Available from http://1mundoreal.org/rocinha-sem-fronteiras Date of Access: 9 April 2014 Mundo Real 2013. A Critical Look at Cable Cars from Experts and Allies, with Rocinha’s PAC Planning Process in the Spotlight. Available from http://1mundoreal.org/critical-look-at-cable-cars-fromexperts-rocinhas-in-spotlight Date of Access: 9 April 2014 Mundo Real. 2013. The Teleférico is Coming to Rocinha, a Benefit or Burden?. Available from http://1mundoreal.org/theteleferico-air-tramway-is-coming-to-rocinha-a-benefit-or-burden Date of Access: 9 April 2014 Navarro-Sertich, A. 2011. Favela Chic. Berkeley Planning Journal, 24(1) Patriciasendin. 2014. Not Only About Architecture: The Multipurpose Cable Car of Rio’s Largest Favela. Available from http://www.patriciasendin.com/2014/01/the-multipurpose-cable-car-ofrios.html Date of Access: 9 April 2014

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Riding, A. 2010. Reinventing Rio. Smithsonian, 41(5) pp. 72-81. Richmond, M. 2013. Reflections After a Year of Protest: Rio de Janeiro as ‘Post-Third World City’ or ‘City of Exception’?. Rioonwatch.org. Available from http://rioonwatch.org/?p=12860 Accessed: 9 April 2014 Mitlin, D. 2013. ‘Endowments, Entitlements and Capabilities: What Urban Social Movements Offer to Poverty Reduction’ in European Journal of Development Research, 25(1) pp. 44-59 Monteiro, S. 2014. Rocinha Residents Unite Against Cable Car. Rioonwatch.org. Available from http://rioonwatch.org/?p=9563 Date of Access: 9 April 2014 Rivera, P. 2009. Favela’s in the 21st Centure City: Mobility Infrastructure Experiments and the Image of the City in Rio de Jainero. UCL Bartlett School of Planning. Available from http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/dpu/metrocables/dissemination/alemaomedellin.pdf Date of Access: 9 April 2014 Robeyns, I. 2005. ‘The Capability Approach: A Theoretical Survey’ in Journal of Human Development, 6(1) pp. 93-117 Selvanayagam, R. 2010. Brazil’s Growth Acceleration Programme. Brazilinvestmentguide.com. Available from http://www.brazilinvestmentguide.com/blog/2010/04/brazils-growthacceleration-programme-programa-de-aceleracao-do-crescimento/ Date of Access: 9 April 2014. Sen, A. 1997. Editorial: Human Capital and Human Capabilities in World Development 25(12) pp. 1959-61 Steinbrink, M. 2014. Festifavelisation: Mega-events, Slums and Strategic City-staging: The Example of Rio de Janeiro in DIE ERDE-Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin, 144(2) pp.129-145 UN-Habitat. 2003. Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. The Challenge of Slums, Earthscan, London; Part IV: Summary of City Case Studies pp.195-228 Willis, A. 2012. PAC Program Stalls in Rocinha Favela, The Rio Times. Available from http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/riopolitics/pac-programs-stall-in-rocinha-favela/ Date of Access: 9 April 2014 Watts, M. 2009. ‘Developmentalism’ in Kitchin,R. & Thrift,N. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Elsevier: Oxford pp.123-130 Scott, J. 1996. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed. 1st ed. New Haven: Yale University Press Veríssimo, A. 2013. Four Decades of Urbanization of Slums in Rio de Janeiro. Lsecities.net. Available from http://lsecities.net/media/objects/articles/four-decades-of-urbanizationof-slums-in-rio-de-janeiro/en-gb/ Date of Access: 22 April 2014

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