ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we seek to present what is referred to here as ‘conflictual planning,’ based on a reflection of the elaboration process of the Vila Autódromo People’s Plan and its contribution to the battle against the removal of residents threatened by the construction of the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro. We initially discuss the role of conflict in social theory and the clash between two perspectives: the one that emphasizes the place of conflict prevention and mediation practices as a new social technology; the other one, its critical interpretation presents conflict as something virtuous and, potentially, the builder of new collective actors and new historical possibilities. After a brief discussion of the popular planning processes in Brazil, we next examine the Vila Autódromo People’s Plan, its place in the confrontation strategies for residents and their main dilemmas, including the search for a dialogue with Brazilian and international critical literature. Finally, it will be emphasized that planning can, in certain contexts of conflict, operate as a process through which collective actors are created who experience the possibility and potential of an urban utopia: the self-managed city, which projects in its spaces the life, yearnings and collective resistance of those who do not submit.
