Mapping of chance: pathways adrift in the Candelária imaginary, the Mangueira favela, RJ

Abstract

This research reveals an unusual and little visited part of the city: the favela. We will get through the alleys, houses, avenues and go up the big pink viaduct that exists in Candelaria, Mangueira, to talk to hill’s residents which will reveal the meaning of community sociability. We go on a field survey in order to understand the imaginary present to this place and in the act of sharing the space in the city. These singularities can reveal peculiar logics of space appropriationin the “urban acting,” which are re-builded in the sphere of everyday life and let us “see-the-city” and think the favela. The “street” proves to be an urban vital communicational category that establishes a “placeness” where uses, senses and meanings can be apprehended as a way of aestheticizing space. From this it is possible to identify the urban layout modeler flows that print a particular mapping of chance inspired by the dynamic network of sociability. MichelMaffesoli in several works reminds us that the network serves as a support. It is soft, but does not suggest fragility. It can sustain and be the matter of social cohesion.