Lazer e o direito à cidade: a ludicidade no espaço urbano de Belo Horizonte

Abstract

We start from a first observation of recent dynamics that has taken place in Praça da Estação and its immediate surroundings. To analyse those dynamics we chose three movements that had the Square as their nest and were responsible for attracting other cultural, artistic and resistance initiatives to the region of the Square. Therefore, we seek to investigate how the ludic character of leisure can be used as an instrument of struggle in favor of offering more democratic spaces in Belo Horizonte. Thus, we try to reflect, through this work, on ludic actions in public spaces from the perspective of leisure as a political manifestation for the right to the city, based on the activities listed above, which had as their starting point the region of Praça da Estação. Finally, we will analyse the influence of these forms of use and appropriation of space in the refunctionalisation (or restructuring) of the region of Praça da Estação, in Belo Horizonte. As for methodological issues, the procedures included bibliographic, documentary (mainly collaborative blogs and collaborative news) and empirical research (research-participant type). The research was written in the form of essays on the themes leisure and the right to the city, and within this universe we deal, in a theoretical way, on the relationship of leisure with space and time, focusing on capitalist/modern society; we approach the possibilities of socio-spatial changes through the subjects' revolutionary role in the territories; and finally, we analyse the movements of Praça da Estação. We believe that the Duelo de MC’s, Praia da Estação and the Carnaval de rua in Belo Horizonte are shown as possible ways to build “unconventional” urban resistances; as well as opening up the possibility of new ludic daily lives in especially symbolic spaces in the city. We identified, in these movements, the importance of the subjects' role as producers of resistance to the processes of intensification of the neoliberal model in spaces.