Ocupações e Defensoria Pública: performances compartilhadas de mobilização do direito na luta por moradia no centro de Vitória

Abstract

In April 2017, there was a large occupation in the city of Vitória, involving about 500 families. As an offshoot emerged, in an unprecedented way, a cycle of occupations of abandoned properties in downtown Vitória, a process that involves both the historical actors in the struggle for housing in Espírito Santo, as well as the new actors recently emerged in the state of Espírito Santo. The occupation cycle also had several external supporters, among them the Public Defender’s Office of the State of Espírito Santo and the Union. An approximation of these variable actors and supporters results in the formation of new collectives and a conflicting coalition around the application of the law to housing and to the city in Vitória. This coalition gave various law mobilization repertoires and performances, both coordinated and conflicting, that were carried out not only in the territory of the city center, but also in various institutional spaces, among them: the justice organs, the legislative houses, the executive offices, the universities and colleges. In this sense, whether in the occupied territories or institutional spaces, the rights to housing and to the city were mobilized in various ways. Thus, starting from the law mobilization theory whose precursor is Michael McCann, as well as from cultural and microsocial approaches to collective action, are analyzed the various uses of law in the conflicting coalition under study. Similarly, the role of the Public Defender's Office as a mobilizing agent of law is also investigated, both broadly from its institutional aspects, and more specifically from the action of public defenders in the specific case. Once I act as a public defender in the researched phenomenon, to conduct this case study, I used the participant observation method, such as interviewing, document analysis, and mobilization process mapping.