The Impact of Urban Planning on Poverty and Crime in the Film City of God
The film City of God (2003) co-directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund explores the impact of urban planning and urban environment on the social and cultural behaviors of urban residents. The movie portrays urban planning as a factor in the allocation of resources to different urban neighborhoods, and how this allocation promotes the development of two social classes- the poor and the rich. Secondly, the film attributes urban planning to social decadence as the marginalization of poor neighborhoods through government policies that limit resource allocation creates the perfect social environment for crime, moral decadence, and socialization of a whole generation into criminal activities.
City of God is set in the sprawling slums of Rio de Janeiro, in a poor urban neighborhood built in the 1960s to host the city’s poor inhabitants. Lins Paulo, the author of the book of the same title on which the movie is based, describes a grim picture of the slum in its early years. He writes, “the new residents brought garbage, bins, mongrel dogs”… (Paulo 6), depicting the poverty of those who moved into the slum. The favela (the slum) is located far away from central Rio, in what can be interpreted as an attempt to create a as comfortable as possible distance between the rich who frequent and live with the main city, and the poor residents who present a security threat to businesses and Rio’s upper class society. This design of urban planning in which authorities go to great lengths
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It demonstrates that poor urban planning promotes the growth of urban slums and the creation of a social environment that encourages lawlessness and decadent behaviors. It links urban planning to the unequal allocation of resources, and its consequences such as poverty and
The urban setting can instantly be recognized as an antagonist to anyone who faces it. The imagery of the city reveals its formidable nature. The
In ‘City of God’, Meirelles is attempting to highlight the issues surrounding life in the favelas and the impact that poverty and crime is having on individuals, and ultimately the country as a whole, through his use of themes such as poverty. Similarly, Kassovitz is attempting to highlight the social division between authoritarian
WESTERN, and CHRISTOPHER MULLER. “ RECONSIDERING THE URBAN DISADVANTAGED: THE ROLE OF SYSTEMS, INSTITUTIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS; SPECIAL EDITORS: MARIO L. SMALL AND SCOTT W. ALLARD: SYSTEM: Mass Incarceration, Macrosociology, and the Poor.”
This investigation is based on the assumption that gentrification with all its troubles can’t be prevented and is an inherent part of every city. What are the negative impacts of gentrification? What are the underlying mechanisms that feed these impacts? What drives these mechanisms? What would be an alternative scenario?
In this article, Squires and Kubrin argue that place, race, and privilege interact and combine to play a large role in the unequal opportunities that different citizens have in metropolitan areas across the United States. They first explain the existence of “bad” neighborhoods in these metropolitan areas and attempt to describe their development over time. They discuss how place has played a role in this. For example, they discuss sprawl, which they define as “a pattern of development associated with outward expansion, low-density housing and commercial development, fragmentation of planning…, auto-dependent transport, and segregated land use patterns” (48). They explain how sprawl has negatively affected inner-city neighborhoods. Additionally, the authors discuss the impact of race on the formation of unequal life opportunities. Racial minorities do not have access to the same opportunities as white people in America today. Although improving in recent years, the United States remains a highly segregation nation. This segregation, which is both a cause for and result of sprawl, is an example of how place and race interact in the formation of bad neighborhoods and unequal opportunities. Finally, the authors define how privilege affects inequality. Living in an area of large concentrated poverty as well as family social status, being born into either extreme wealth or poverty, have a large effect on the opportunities that one will have in life.
When the City of Atlanta is mentioned, individuals automatically associate the city with its positive attributes, such as, the beautiful lights, family activities and tourist attractions. The crime that occurs often goes unmentioned; however, it is increasingly becoming an issue. Forbes ranked Atlanta as the sixth most dangerous city in the US with a violent crime rate of 1,433 per 100,000 residents. The city’s crime rate correlates with its poverty levels and low education rates. Beccaria’s believed punishment should be swift, severe and certain. However, Beccaria’s ideas are often difficult to execute properly.
The film City of God is based in the slums of Brazil , also called “favelas” where crime and delinquency dominate the neighborhood. The main characters of the film exhibit deviant behaviors in which different theories can be applied to explain their actions. The four theories best used to explain this behavior are concentric zone, social strain, differential association , and social bond theory. The group of characters come from a poor and crime infested neighborhood called the City of God. The characters of discussion are Lil’ Ze, Benny, Rocket, Knockout Ned, and Carrot which are the main players throughout the film. The types of criminal behavior conducted in the neighborhood are theft, murder, drug dealing, and rape.
Inner City Communities are often areas which are both densely populated and deteriorating(quote). The areas and its residents have strongly been correlated with social and economical disparity. Residents of inner city communities have been plagued with problems including: “high unemployment, poor health care, inadequate educational opportunities, dilapidated housing, high infant mortality, and extreme poverty” (Attitudes and Perceptions, n.d). Though the inner city communities have been stricken with
In my essay I will discuss the differences between national cinema and Hollywood cinema by using Rio de Janeiro¡¯s famous film City of God. There will be three parts in my following main body, the first part is a simple review of the film City of God, I will try to use the review to show the film structure and some different new points from this, show the how did the ¡®Shocking, frightening, thrilling and funny¡¯ (Nev Pierce) work in the film. The second part is my discussion parts; I will refer some typical Hollywood big name films such as Gangs in New York, Shawshank¡¯s Redemption, and Good Fellas to discuss the main differences between City of God and other national films. The third part is my summary, I will use my knowledge to analyse why there have big different between both kind of films and their advantages.
While crime is abundant throughout our world, it’s image is often magnified in urban cities. In the book, There Are No Children Here, Alex Kotlowitz describes the striking story of two brothers, Lafayette and Pharoah, struggling to survive in the community of Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex on the West Side of Chicago disfigured by crime and neglect. With their mother’s permission, Kotlowitz follows the lives of the brothers for two years, taking note of their disappointments, joys, and tragedies along the way. Throughout the book, the environment that the boys are forced to live in acts as a predictor for their potential crime-filled future. Using environmental theories, such as James Wilson’s broken windows theory, we, as readers,
When the City of Atlanta is mentioned, individuals automatically associate the city with its positive attributes, such as, the beautiful lights, family activities and tourist attractions. The crime that occurs often goes unmentioned; however it is increasingly becoming an issue. Forbes ranked Atlanta as the sixth dangerous city in the US with a violent crime rate of 1,433 per 100,000 residents. The city’s crime rate correlates with its poverty levels and low education rates along with Beccaria’s ideas of punishment being swift, severe and certain.
A raw glimpse of desperation, poverty and violence, the 2002 film City of God showcases the brutal and harsh realisms of Brazilians living in the oppressive confines of favelas. The story is told through the eyes of the main character, Rocket, a poor, black youth who grows up in the hostile environment of the hood but manages to break away to become a professional photographer. Oddly, the way of life in the City of God is anything but heavenly. The violent and fast paced film begins in the 1960s when Rio de Janeiro was just a new housing project and the main characters were children and petty thieves. The story then ends in the early 1980s when the favela is a war zone where most of the protagonists are either dead or engrossed in bloody drug war. Life in the favelas, urban poverty, violence and gender roles demonstrate a great deal of importance to the overall message of City of God. Although the film fails to propose an alternate way of life, it gives viewers a glimpse of the gruesome truths of a world they would have never imagined existed.
Zukin, Sharon. "Gentrification: Culture and Capital in the Urban Core." Annual Review of Sociology 13(1987): 129-147.
Chris Abani's quotes perfectly sets the tone for the chapter. Davis starts this chapter by referring to "The Challenge of Slums," a report published by the UN-HABITAT. He dedicates the first two paragraphs to build credibility and validity of the report. Davis (2006) writes that the report is a "truly global audit of urban poverty" (p. 20). In the 'A Global Slum Census' section, Davis provides factual data and figures to portray the staggering rise in urban slum population, particularly of least-developed countries. He writes that only six percent of the city population of the developed countries includes residents of slums, while 78.2 percent of urbanites in the least-developed countries resides in
In the United States there are specific areas that have been overwhelmed by the infestation of crime and violence and it appears to be at its peak in areas where poverty is high. Therefore, in this essay I will examine the connection between poverty and crime and attempt to prove relationships of the two. The link between poverty and crime is not a new discussion. In fact it has been an extremely controversial subject among many over the years. There have been arguments made stating that poverty does not have a direct link to crime based on countries that have very high poverty, however ...