The dispute for centrality and the social movements for adequate housing in the old Center of Salvador/BA

Abstract

The article sheds light on the praxis of social movements for adequate housing in the Historic Center of Salvador (CAS), aimed at confronting the various predatory and violent actions associated with operations driven by market interests and usually orchestrated by the state. For this purpose, information was gathered from interviews with some of the main leaders who are part of the Articulation of Movements and Communities of the Old Center of Salvador in order to understand how the right to centrality is invoked and the meanings present in the disputes in defense and maintenance of the ways of life of the popular territories within the Center. It is evident that these actors objectively emphasize the importance of the territory, both symbolically and physically, as essential for the preservation of life itself. Through occupation processes, they resist and demand rights that should be guaranteed by the state through specific public policies. The set of elements that support living in the Center, the result of the fight for the right to housing and the intricacies of individualities and social interactions in their daily actions as a community, coexisting and resisting specifically in that territory, shapes centrality as a value that fuels the struggles in defense of the right to the city.