Preface

Flying from London, where I was a master's student in global politics at the London School of Economics, I frst landed in Rio de Janeiro in March 2005 to visit my then boyfriend, who had recently returned to live in Rio.Afer getting to know a bit of Rio, we spent several days in a small caiçara community in Ponta Negra -a community combining descendants of Africans, Indigenous people, and Europeans -on the coast halfway between Rio and São Paulo.Although far from the reality of Brazil's cities that I would later become fascinated with, the community perfectly epitomized the contradictions inherent in Brazil.As a whole, these contradictions combine, for instance, high degrees of social inequality alongside sophisticated industry and high rates of digital literacy.As Modeen (2021) suggests in refecting on the lived experiences of caiçara communities in Rio State, the contrasts between traditional knowledge and rapid change are readily apparent.That frst visit to Brazil instigated my ongoing interest, which continues to today.Later that year, afer learning some Portuguese, I returned to Brazil, where I wrote my master's thesis on a participatory housing budget (orçamento participativo da habitação) in Belo Horizonte, and then began working as an intern at UN-Habitat's Regional Ofce for Latin America and the Caribbean. Immediately preceding my work on my master's thesis, I met Edésio Fernandes in London; his work over the years on the Brazilian urban