LOCAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF EXCLUSION: favela as an economic subject

favela como subjetivo econômico

Abstract

This paper discusses the favela not as an urban anomaly, but as a functional element within a model of unequal development that shapes regional and local dynamics in Brazil. From the perspective of Economic Geography, it critically analyzes the favela as a strategic space for the functioning of the formal city, even as it is consistently neglected by policies of inclusion and territorial justice. Although stigmatized and institutionally rendered invisible, the favela also constitutes an economic subject—that is, a territory exploited, appropriated, and commodified by the urban-capitalist system, while its inhabitants are not fully recognized as rights-bearing subjects or as agents of development. The central aim of the article is to highlight the structural role of the favela in the process of Brazilian urbanization, showing how these territories are incorporated into the urban fabric in a subordinate yet essential manner. It seeks to denaturalize the idea of marginality by demonstrating that the favela not only resists the logic of the formal city but also sustains it, both economically and socially. In doing so, the authors call for a shift in perspective: from viewing the favela as an “urban problem” to recognizing it as a space of value production and reproduction of life. The methodology adopted is qualitative and theoretical, based on bibliographic review and critical analysis informed by the contributions of Economic Geography. The discussion draws on both classical and contemporary authors to interpret the role of the favela in the dynamics of urban capital, considering the unequal appropriation of territory and the processes of exclusion and accumulation that characterize urbanization in the peripheries of capitalism. In a deliberately non-conclusive approach, the paper acknowledges that the favela, as an economic subject and a territory of contradictions, resists definitive analyses. Its complexity challenges linear responses and calls for multiple, situated interpretations that remain open to ongoing revision.