Dados is one of the most widely-read social sciences journals in Latin America. Created in 1966, it publishes innovative works, originating from academic research, by Brazilian and foreign authors. Edited by IESP-UERJ, it aims to reconcile scientific rigor and academic excellence with an emphasis on public debate based on the analysis of substantive issues of society and politics.
Dados vol. 32 n. 2 Rio de Janeiro 1989
Abstract
A survey conducted among residents of the Realengo Housing Complex, located on Rio de Janeiro's west side, is the point of departure for a discussion of aspects of working-class culture. As the Brazilian-government Industrial Workers Retirement and Pension Institute's (IAPI) first experience in building popular housing, the Realengo Complex was intended to respond to the growing habitational crisis faced at the end of the 1930's. It would further serve as a form of intervention in conditions for the reproduction of the working class, and thus IAPI not only built housing units at subsidized prices but also invested in a worker "standardization" project. By intervening in different ways in their Iiving space, this effort, which the Institute referred to as "social engineering", sought to make "model workers" of IAPI members chosen to occupy the Realengo Complex. The experiment's most significant aspect was that the workers/dwellers targeted by this housing policy did not remain mere passive recipients but rather constructed themselves as a politically active community, earning the nickname Little Moscow [Moscouzinho], in reference to the Soviet capital. Inspired on English social history, the present research project attempts to reconstruct the Little Moscow experience through fieldwork focused on the "first-generation residents" who survived the decharacterization which marked the community following the 1964 coup d'état.
Lembranças de Moscouzinho (1943-1964): Estudo de um Conjunto Residencial Operário
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