ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to examine the condition of public life in Brazilian cities – or, more specifically, the conditions for projecting the so-called 'public sphere' into the urban space – and to understand how a political city can emerge and be put into practice: the urban experience as political experience. Manifestation of the public sphere in everyday life has occurred historically via the urban space. David Harvey speaks opportunely of the 'collective power of bodies in public space', converting it 'into a political commons – a place for open discussion and debate', a reclaiming of the public space as political space. Different definitions of politics range from the building of momentary consensus to the conflicts and expressions of the social and the permanent creation of rights. Politics is conceived 'as based on the State or state institutions, the form of governments, the existence of political parties or the presence or absence of elections'.
