Exploring risk management in the São Paulo metropolis
How can one live in the immense São Paulo metropolis where risks are omnipresent? How can one restore the diversity of risky situations experienced by the residents? How can one analyze what living with risk means by emphasizing inhabitants’ experience and agency? To begin to answer these questions, we will use the social worlds theory to analyze three emblematic risk situations of cities within the metropolis: Cajamar, an unstructured industrial city composed of favelas; São Sebastião, a coastal town dominated by the first oil terminal in South America; and Condominío Barão de Mauá, a residential complex built on a contaminated area. Our research reveals a contradictory process. Risk shapes the living environment and degrades it more often than not. Meanwhile, residents make multifaceted efforts to maintain and develop the livability of that environment which has been transformed by the social production of risk.