Activist and academic circulations: Extending the struggle into municipal governance. Interview with João Sette Whitaker Ferreira

For this issue of Participations devoted to urban co-production in France and Brazil, we wanted to interview João Sette Whitaker Ferreira. Currently Director of the Faculty of Architecture, Urban Planning, and Design at the University of São Paulo, he is co-director of the Franco-Brazilian CoPolis research program, which has enabled comparative work and action-research to be carried out in both countries in precarious and working-class neighborhoods. João Sette Whitaker Ferreira is a perfect illustration of the circulation of practices and ideas between academic, anti-globalization, and critical professional circles. In this interview, he describes how the democratic contract is embodied in the municipal management of socio-spatial inequalities, in particular around access to housing. He also shows how, over the last thirty years, deep links have been forged between social movements and certain professionals and academics through the “extension” and circulation with left-wing urban governance, which he himself embodied as Municipal Secretary for Housing in the City of São Paulo. Through the various positions he has held, he has embodied and facilitated practices of co-production of the city, where researchers, association activists, and institutions cooperate to promote spatial justice. This interview is therefore also a testimonial.