Public spaces, living conditions and the pandemic

a review of urban research in Brazil

Abstract

This article reviews the impact of Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, focusing on the debate on public space and living conditions of the population, by analyzing dossiers published between 2020 and 2022 in national urban sociology journals, as well as relevant contributions from urban anthropology. The analysis was conducted in three stages. In the first stage, studies on new forms of urbanity and the crisis of public spaces during the pandemic were reviewed. In the second stage, the concepts and empirical frameworks used by the authors in their productions on the dilemmas of social distancing, denialism, and uncertainties in dystopian urban life in Brazil were examined. In the third stage, the concepts and themes aimed at deepening the understanding of processes involved in the increase of urban inequality and the worsening of living conditions for a large part of the Brazilian population were analyzed. It is concluded that, despite the suspension of face-to-face interactions, social distancing measures have revealed new possibilities for action through virtual spaces of sociability, work, study, consumption, and access to public services via digital technologies, becoming an essential part of the “public-private” daily life of the city. However, the pandemic has also exposed existing social and economic inequalities, highlighting significant disparities in access to housing, health care, transportation, and increase in informal and precarious work, as well as decline in income among urban population with lower purchasing power.