ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to shed light on Varjao's development, arguing that its underlying force has been constituted by the close entanglement between territorial stigmatisation and governmental reactions. The development of the Varjao may be understood as the outcome of the intermingling process of territorial stigmatisation and governmental reactions, resistance and agency from below, as well as gentrification. The gentrification process that the Varjao shares with other irregular settlements in valued locations in the Brazilian capital almost always begins with governmental attempts at removing irregular settlements in their entirety. In Brazil, gentrification processes are happening in urban centres as well as in valued locations in the periphery of large cities where an increasing demand puts pressure on the housing supply in urban areas. The plan to remove the migrant workers from Brazil's Northeast to localities situated far outside the city had already been made when Brasília was still under construction.
