Decolonial cities: Considering the potential of the periphery in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Augustine has long set the ‘gold standard’ for any theology of the city. However, in the Americas, Thomas Aquinas’ De regimine principum exerts a greater practical and political influence as it was the basis for the instructions of Spanish and Portuguese crowns to the conquistadores. Colonial city architecture and urban planning followed Christian medieval principles and deliberately excluded indigenous villages, enslaved peoples, the urban poor and other religions from urban imaginaries in the Americas. This medieval (colonial) theology of the city has failed the peripheries of the Americas, as it has trapped theology in an instinctively negative attitude towards the city. This essay, firstly, establishes the legacy of colonial Christian imaginaries of the city in the Americas and explores the Christian political contributions to that worldview. Secondly, it presents a decolonial concept of the city in the Americas (specifically through a presentation of the city of Rio de Janeiro) – fostering an inclusive and just imaginary – based on the potential of the peripheries and insights from liberation theology. This potential of the periphery resists racist, authoritarian and exclusionary definitions of the periphery which are instinctively negative in the theological literature.

Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article presents a decolonial critique of the Thomist city. It draws on resources from theology, history and the social sciences and presents strategies for future reflection in urbanism (urban planning) and architecture.