Favelas at the Vanguard: Rethinking Our Assumptions in Sustainable Development (With Film)

Since 2010, Catalytic Communities’ Executive Director, Theresa Williamson, Ph.D., has given lectures at universities across the United States on a range of topics related to favelas and issues of urban development in Rio de Janeiro. This is one of the ways that she disseminate information, support research efforts and build awareness of important issues affecting Rio’s favelas.

In her various events, she tries to facilitate discussion around questions such as, how is Rio’s “coming of age” unfolding? What is the role of the two mega-events in this process? What is happening in the city’s 600 plus favela communities? What exactly are favelas? And how is the city currently handling these communities and its deep historic divides? Could the sustainable development of Rio’s favelas offer a housing model for the world? How has community media and creative organizing affected this scenario? And finally, how could Rio transform the present state of affairs–increasingly seen as dark and chaotic–into a unique opportunity to grow and consolidate its economy without compromising its unique cultural heritage, and in a way that reduces inequality?

In past years, Dr. Williamson has given talks at the following universities: American, Berea, Brown, Carroll, Columbia, Georgetown, Georgia State, Goucher, MIT, NYU, Pratt, Roger Williams, Stanford, St. Joseph’s, Swarthmore, U. Colorado-Boulder, U. Delaware, U. Pennsylvania, Vassar, Villanova, Wellesley, West Chester, and Yale.

This presentation offers a deep look at favela qualities/assets from a sustainability orientation, introducing the concept of LEED-UP (applying LEED sustainable design principles to upgrading informal settlements); then quickly contrasting this to what is actually happening in Rio’s favelas today [this can be accompanied by our 26-minute Favela as a Sustainable Model film and an explanation of how the film was made].