Author(s): Keyla Alpes; Joao Lutas Craveiro; Teresa E. Leitao
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Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: The French sociologist Henri Lefebvre, author of the well-known work “the right to the city”, presents the conception of space in three dimensions: through its apprehension (through the senses, and instruments, which account for its materiality), through its planning (through professionals and techniques) and their appropriation (which goes back to emotions, desires, needs, life stories, belonging and spatial identity ties). This conception of the space makes it possible to consider not only the so-called objective components, but also the subjective components. Those components are essential in the analysis and proposition of successful solutions to complex problems (wicked problems), namely socio-environmental problems. In the field of complex problems, worsening water scarcity stands out, in a close relationship with other factors such as the human densification of urban spaces, soil contamination or loss of water quality, or even the variations and disturbances in the precipitation regime, among other climate change impacts. This paper aims to address the relationships of interdependence between social and environmental systems, exploring the expansion of the right to the city, implying a right to life, under the essential availability of water resources, in adequate quantity and quality, in the sense of authentic development, human, sustainable, which, unlike elements that can be measured by quantitative indicators of consumption and economic growth. It calls for a change in lifestyles, categorizations and indicators that take into account other ways of being, transforming and being in the world, as well as their narrow connection with social, environmental and economic sustainability.
Year: 2024