Evictions, floods and critical perspectives on cities and their "sacrifice zones"

Abstract

Pantanal is the informal name of an intermunicipal area in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (RMSP), located along the banks of the Tietê River, on the far eastern edge of the city of São Paulo. Because it lies along an unchannelized stretch of the river, the neighborhoods that comprise the area experience annual flooding typical of floodplain environments. Since 2025, the region has been affected by a public project that foresees the eviction of more than 4,000 families. Based on urban studies and climate justice scholarship, this research investigates the relationships between risk, climate change, and urban governance. It draws on the hypothesis that risk is socially produced, mobilized, and contested by different actors around specific interests. Understanding historical neglect as an active form of governance in Pantanal, we propose a discussion of the urban-planning notion of a “sacrifice zone” and its analytical possibilities and limitations, drawing on an ethnography of territorial governance and the reproduction of inequalities.