TOWARDS A CIVIC CITY: FROM TERRITORIAL JUSTICE TO URBAN HAPPINESS IN RIO DE JANEIRO

Abstract

Nowadays in Brazil researchers are trying to define a WBB (Well-being Brazil) indicator. In
this context, territorial justice and urban happiness are terms of our critical spatial perspective
to discuss the civic city concept passing beyond preeminently normative discourses on the
just city. In this work we approach the relationship between Geography and Ethics through
the assertion of urban rights – emphasizing especially the right to the place – in Rio de
Janeiro. We intent to clarify how applied ethical values could be designing some local urban
structures which mean canopies to the convivial everyday life. Often, the nexus between
justice and happiness doesn’t comprise a geographical approach in order to decode the local
civility challenges and to overcome the opportunity civic costs. We assert the idea of
happiness could point us to an all-inclusive assessment of an urban condition. Our
methodological standpoint: happiness theorizing can be a significant extended component of
urban policies and we also suggest that civic spaces - contrasting to the oppressor spaces -
become geographical evidences of the urban well-being. Our empirical study: a square
located in the suburb of Rio de Janeiro in which people practice codes of civility and
empower the idea of good life and urban happiness.