Recreating Communities: The Formation of Community in a Brazilian Shantytown
Author(s)
Shirley, Robert W.
Abstract
Studies of modernization and urbanization frequently assume that modern cities develop to the detriment of community and family organization. Recent studies have shown that the situation is much more complex than that. This paper, based upon field work in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, shows that residents of poor squatter settlements may recreate community structures as mechanisms of self help. Such communities are built by the people concerned and their forms and leadership may have rules very different from the law of the modern city.
