1 Entry for the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE CITY, edited by Roger Caves FAVELAS – by Vicente del Rio Originating in Rio de Janeiro, ‘favela’ is the commonly used word for *squatter-settlement, *gecekondu or shanty-town in Brazil. It originally meant a group of poorly built shacks of mud, wood and recycled materials, settled on land with no legal titles; generally no public services –piped water, sewage systems or electricity– was available. Typically, the ‘favelados’ (favela dwellers) occupy areas in the city that are well located and may be easily occupied: for example, government controlled land – railroads rights-of-ways, leftovers from highway projects, or preservation areas– or private property left unoccupied over legal disputes are likely target areas ‘favelas’. The ‘favela’ may result from an informal and timely squatting process, from collective social movements, or from overnight invasions planned and led by strongmen, political or religious leaders, in which case they are also called ‘invasion’ – particularly when in non-urban areas. While the act of squatting must be done quickly in order to preserve locational rights, upgrading a house and the ‘favela’ usually results from a lengthy self-help process that largely depends on the needs and possibilities of the ‘favelado’, and on the collective capabilities of the community. Because the construction industry in Brazil is largely dependable on unskilled labor, this working experience is common in ‘favelas’. Community based initiatives and self-help solutions are capable of incredible achievements –such as collective water tanks and complete piped water and sewage systems. At times ‘favela’ communities provide support to local politicians or parties in exchange of their influence in getting public services and utilities installed. As the earlier ‘favelados’ tend to achieve a higher standard of housing due to a gradual upgrading and betterment process, and the settlement mature over time and consolidate into better living conditions, the internal structure of ‘favelas’ tend to reproduce the land-market rationale and social stratification of the formal city. There are ‘poorer’ and ‘richer’ areas, differentiated land values, commercial “strips”, apartment units built for rent, home industries, specialty shops, etc. Land values in a ‘favela’ also reflect its locational assets within the city. A good example is Rocinha, one of the oldest and largest ‘favelas’ in Rio with a population over 80,000. It is very well located next to expensive residential districts and to the beach, and enjoys a high degree of urbanization. It’s strong residents’ association has been pivotal in building and managing various facilities: schools, nurseries, a garbage disposal system, theatre groups, local newspapers, computer training centers, and even an internet site – many of the community generated projects are supported by local politicians, governmental and non-governmental organizations. These conditions made of Rocinha a dense popular neighborhood with apartment buildings up to six-stories, and with real-estate prices high in the informal market. The first ‘favela’ was started in the mid XIX Century in Rio de Janeiro by former slaves drafted by the army to fight a rebellion in the Northern state of Bahia. Upon their return housing was unavailable and they were allowed to settle with their families on a hill next to the military garrison, nicknaming their settlement after ‘fava’ (a bean common in the savannahs of Bahia). This temporary solution became permanent, as new shacks were added by other former slaves arriving from rural areas, and by low-income families evicted from inner-city slums by the 1875 Public Works and Sanitation Plan. In the first decades of the XX Century ‘favelas’ began to appear in larger cities due to rural-urban migration, to the birth of industrialization, and to new restrictive city codes, sanitation and beautification projects. They reflected the expansion in the capitalist mode of production and the realization that urban land was a valuable commodity. While Brazil’s developmental efforts of the fifties resulted in growing rates of industrialization and rapid *urbanization, they inflated the accelerating demand for affordable housing. Until the early sixties this shortage was largely ignored, ‘favelas’ were