“I FEEL SUFFOCATED HERE”: TIME AND ECONOMY IN A HOUSING COMPLEX OF THE “MINHA CASA MINHA VIDA” PROGRAM

Abstract

This paper examines the resettlement experience of those evicted from Rio de Janeiro’ favelas, focusing on the economic transformations that impact their lives. The “Minha Casa Minha Vida” program (PMCMV) produces new economic configurations, insofar as labor venues and house budget management are affected by the new housing conditions. Interruption of productive activities practiced in the favelas, new taxes and bills to pay, added to a context marked by crisis, unemployment and no-salaries, create a feeling of uncertainty, translated as “suffocation,” experienced by the subjects in their daily life. From an ethnographic standpoint, this paper discusses the creative strategies developed by the subject’s imaginative capacities in the process of making a life (“to improve one’s life,” “give one’s kids a future”), including projects for the future.

Keywords: Eviction; Resettlement; Suffocation; Economy; PMCMV