ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ambivalent spaces and social identities shared by municipal intellectual and technical groups in So Paulo during the 1930s. The technical work and urban interpretations of municipal officials offer a window onto the construction of social identity in So Paulo during the 1930s. It describes the vital, elusive intermezzo between the two acts. RAM created a special section in its pages devoted to the culture department (DC) social documentation section, where Lowrie published the essay on the origins of children registered in the So Paulo municipal park schools' project. In June 1938, the first RAM of Maia's administration contained the last article that Lowrie published in Brazil. The work of DOP and DC officials reflected both the technical basis of their urban politics and the political basis of their urban interventions. The process was non-linear and non-rhythmic but, over time, it led to the self-conception of So Paulo as the middle-class, professional centre of modernizing Brazil.
