Chile: what happened to the pobladores?
During the 1960-73 period, squatter movements for better housing were active and effective. Brutally suppressed during the dictatorship, they have never regained their importance. Malcolm Boorer went to one, Herminda de la Victoria, to find out why.
Brazilian women in London’s delivery sector
Arts project and exhibition Who’s Behind Your Order? focuses on showing the overlapping types of exploitation faced by migrant women in the delivery sector.
Body-mapping in Rio’s favelas
Violations of territories affect women's bodies, just as the violations of women's bodies affect territories. From this premise, women from the Maré favelas of Rio de Janeiro resisting urban violence on a daily basis have found empowerment through the practice of body-mapping.
Buenos Aires – a riverside for the rich?
Buenos Aires' right-wing dominated city council has endorsed two major riverside developments which would reserve huge tracts of land for private luxury apartments and offices. Opposition is mounting.
Building self-sufficient communities in Rio’s favelas
The favela community of Vale Encantado in Rio de Janeiro are using a biosystem for sewage treatment and solar panels to make their neighbourhood economically and environmentally self-sufficient, while facing down a long-term threat of eviction.
Colombia: Cali’s community libraries
In summer 2021, a three-month national strike against Ivan Duque's right-wing government proved a remarkable time for movement-building and social change. Silvia reports on the libraries constructed by and for local communities in Cali during this period.
The homeless street: São Paulo during Covid-19
Homelessness has increased dramatically during the Covid pandemic in São Paulo. A film and exhibition explore the way homeless people convert the street into a place of semi-permanent dwelling.
Poisoned city: Brazil’s forgotten environmental disaster
Hundreds of tons of carcinogenic agrochemicals, including DDT, were abandoned by the Brazilian government at a factory near an orphanage on the outskirts or...
Creativity is vital in environmental research
The key question of the day was how creativity, imagination and play can help researchers both to carry out and communicate environmental research to the public. How, we asked, can collaborations between researchers and artists deepen our understanding of today’s ecological challenges?
Brazil: Nothing by Accident
Alistair Clark reviews Damian Platt's book about organized crime in Rio de Janeiro and asks whether it reflects Brazil more widely.