Paul Schweizer

This paper asks to what extent urban agriculture projects based on principles of Solidarity Economics are in a position to develop new economic forms based on solidarity—rather than competition—thereby posing an alternative model to neo-liberal capitalism. It seeks to understand how solidarity economies function concretely, what motivations, interests and goals move people to establish and participate in such initiatives, and what utopias they associate with such projects. It focuses on the Swiss gardening cooperative ortoloco, which can be defined as a peri-urban organic farm organised on principles that go beyond the supply of food to embrace explicit political aims and to realise an alternative economic model. For two years of existence, ortoloco has successfully applied these principles on its economic practice, but also constantly questioned them and developed them further. Extending the diversity of products and activities, and intensifying practical and theoretical cooperation with similar projects, the activists hope to apply the tested models on an ever-broader range of economic activities and spheres of living together in general. Whilst neo-liberal policies are presented almost worldwide as natural and without alternative, these projects are living proof that other ways of thinking and acting are possible.

RESUMO
No presente artigo discutimos a pixação como uma das tantas
manifestações da cultura popular brasileira no contexto específico da
metrópole na virada do século XX para o XXI. A partir de uma concepção
do pixo como cultura popular brasileira, apresentamos alguns aspectos
da criminalização de algumas expressões de cultura popular no início
do século XX. Nas sessões seguintes desenvolvemos uma análise da
criminalização do pixo no contexto dos discursos midiático, político
e criminológico, enunciando as rupturas no no discurso, bem como
nas políticas criminais e urbanas. Esse trabalho resulta de uma análise
parcial do intercruzamento de nossas pesquisas de campo sobre a
pixação durante os anos de 2013 a 2015 na cidade de São Paulo e tem
como referencial teórico a criminologia crítica e cultural, bem como a
geografia urbana crítica. Através da combinação da pesquisa etnográfica,
com entrevistas semiestruturadas e material midiático, procuramos
desenvolver uma reflexão crítica do processo de criminalização da
pixação desde a metade da década de 80 até os dias atuais.
Palavras chave: Pixo. Pixação. Criminalização da cultura popular.
Metrópole do século XXI.

ABSTRACT
In this article we discuss pixação as one of the many manifestations of
Brazilian popular culture in the specific context of the metropolis at
the passage from the 20th to the 21st century. Conceptualizing pixo as
popular culture we call in mind some aspects of the criminalization of
some expressions of popular culture in the early 20th century. In the
following sections we develop a historical outline of the criminalization
of pixação in the context of media, political and criminological
discourse. This work is result of a partial analysis of the interbreeding
of our field research on pixação in the city of São Paulo during the
years 2013-2015. Its theoretical background lies in critical and cultural
criminology, as well as in critical urban geography. By combining
ethnographic research, with semi-structured interviews and media
material, we seek to conduct a critical reflection of the process of
criminalization of pixação since the mid-1980s.
Keywords: Pixo. Pixação. Criminalization of popular culture. 21st
century metropolis.

Brazil is widely discussed as an emerging economy or “threshold country”. In this context
São Paulo, is prominently presented as the pioneering city. Contrasting the threshold-narrative
we follow Caldeira (2001), focusing our research on its condition as a “city of walls”,
divisions and closures.
 
Over the last decade, São Paulo has become the very symbol of Brazil's 'developedness'.
Mainstream media and politicians are not getting tired of representing the city as having
achieved “Western standards” of “(world) city-ness” and “urban economic dynamism”
(Robinson 2002). This achievement is often connected to and mediated through a literally
cleaning of the city. Dirt, deviance and even the bodies of the poor are being dragged and
pushed to the very outer limits of the city, into invisibility.
 
In this paper, we highlight one practice of opposition to these policies of cleansing, which
visually intervenes on walls in São Paulo's public space. Pixação is a typical style of graffiti
writing in Brazilian cities, originally practiced by marginalized youth in São Paulo in the
1980s. The simple line, muddled typography, commonly painted with black latex ink, evades
hegemonic aesthetics. Pixação writers aim to spread their signatures, generally not containing
explicit political content, across the whole city, but particularly to representative places such
as the centre's skyscrapers' facades.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork and a discourse analysis, we show how Pixação is
discursively framed as “sujeira” – dirt, filth, visual pollution – in mainstream media. As such
it calls into question São Paulo’s status as a modern world city. The city's authorities, as well
as private real estate owners put enormous efforts in fighting Pixação through harsh policing,
legally prosecuting writers and large scale grey-painting. After giving a brief historical survey
of policies of “hygienizing” São Paulo's public space, we show how recent policies, such as
the “clean city” program, now especially focus on Pixação as one of the most important
threats to São Paulo.
 
In contrast to this framing of Pixação, we propose to understand it as the fight of marginalized
groups for recognition of, across and through difference, in a context, where urban theory and
policies largely tend to deny the right to difference. To conclude, we argue that it is first of all
necessary to overcome role models based on Western modernist aesthetics in urban studies,
planning and policy making to be able to acknowledge heterogeneity and difference within
the 21st Century metropolis (Roy 2009).