The making of environmental marginality: Sanitation and risk perception in a Brazilian neighborhood.

This study evaluates a sanitation project in Felipe Camarao, a low-income neighborhood in the city of Natel, in Northeast Brazil. Based on archival materials and interviews with the local population and state officials, the complex causes leading to the deterioration of the project are analyzed. It was found that while the project was promoted as affordable, only the wealthiest residents chose to participate. It is argued that the mere implementation of innovative sanitation technologies cannot solve a problem which is essentially the result of misguided state policies. Likewise, "community participation" cannot make up for infrastructure and institutional deficiencies. Further, the study explores why Felipe Camarao residents do not organize to stop the environmental degradation created by the failed sanitation project and by a number of local industries. Environmental hazards are interpreted by neighbors as personal problems for which only personal solutions exist, thus deflecting group action. At the same time, practices of patronage by state and local authorities preempt any genuine collective mobilization. Finally, the congruence between developmental and environmental goals is viewed from the perspective of the urban poor. The cultural transition that accompanies urbanization makes those segments of the population most vulnerable and least prepared to confront environmental hazards.PhDNatural ResourcesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/103068/1/9303731.pdfDescription of 9303731.pdf : Restricted to UM users only