ABSTRACT
An informal transport network has been developed in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro during the 20th century. If until the 1990s public authorities carried out repressive policies in order to eradicate it, a paradigm shift subsequently happened due to the network persistence: how can one attempt to eradicate a transport system when it is the only one serving peripheral and/or difficult access regions, such as sloping favelas? This chapter shows that informal transport at the Alemão Complex is a complementary and necessary service for the residents to move back and forth from home to work. It also points out that their decision to go on living in their own neighbourhoods reveals a deep attachment to their place linked to aspirations and specific practices of ways of living, moving, and living together. In this sense, the research argues that the integration of informal districts would not go through a traditional process of urbanization, but rather by the valuation of the urban condition, which is specific to them and the self-organizing systems that govern them.
