Luta por moradia e conflitos urbanos em São Luís-MA: a disputa da Vila Maranhão frente à expansão da malha ferroviária

Abstract

Brazilian cities are historical products of social relations, marked by structural inequalities present since the colonial period, which consolidated an urbanization model that keeps significant portions of the population excluded from access to decent housing and basic urban rights. This dynamic is particularly evident in São Luís, Maranhão, whose urban space was shaped by large industrial,

port, and logistics projects, which guided the occupation of the territory and accentuated socio- spatial segregation. Within this context, the Vila Maranhão Community, located in a strategic area

for the flow of goods and crisscrossed by transportation corridors, has become the center of a land dispute with Transnordestina Logística S.A., which seeks to double the railway network and threatens dozens of families with eviction, revealing the ongoing tension between the affirmation of rights and the logic of capital reproduction. This dissertation analyzes how social struggles for housing in São Luís, Maranhão, with an emphasis on the land conflict in Vila Maranhão, constitute forms of claiming and realizing the right to housing. The research adopts a historical and dialectical materialist perspective, engaging with authors such as Lefebvre (1969; 2001), Harvey (2012; 2014), Santos (2000), Maricato (1999; 2002), Rolnik (2015), and others, and combines bibliographic and documentary analysis with field observations and interviews. The results indicate that the dispute over territory is not limited to physical occupation, but involves collective practices of urban insurgency, the production of new forms of citizenship, and the construction of alternatives for permanence. This study contributes to understanding the interactions between law, urban space, and social struggles, situating the Vila Maranhão conflict within the broader context of capitalist urbanization, socio-spatial inequalities, and the struggle for the right to the city in contemporary Brazil.