ABSTRACT
This chapter explores ecologies of design and urban activism in Sao Paulo, Brazil, by examining outburst of such activist events in the city in 2012-13, and by revisiting, in 2018, the ecology that gave rise to and emerged out of those events. It argues that although the early cases of design and urban activism addressed the "right to the city" concerning use of public spaces, they also reproduced existing power relations between center and periphery. The chapter looks at design and urban activism events in Sao Paulo performed by designers, architects, and artists' collectives to explore how a series of events take place, are negotiated, and affect one another over time. Whereas social urban movements such as Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Gezi helped to realize global protest against neoliberal government claiming the right to the city, the design and urban activism events of 2012 and onwards illustrate how governing geometries of power are contested and gradually changed over time.
