Between alleys and stairways: mobility, territory, and aging in Brazilian favelasAbstract
Aging in Brazilian favelas is shaped by structural inequalities that produce precarious living conditions and heterogeneous everyday experiences. Drawing on the 2022 Census (IBGE) and field research (interviews and observation) in Morro da Providência and Jacarezinho (city of Rio de Janeiro), this study examines spatial practices developed by older adults – from adapting stairways and alleyways to creating alternative mobility routes – that challenge stigmatizing stereotypes about peripheral territories. These practices reveal aging experiences that counter hegemonic narratives (which often equate aging with decline or passivity) and are sustained through local sociability networks. The findings suggest that urban policies attuned to these dynamics could both expand existential possibilities and transform the paradigms that historically invisibilize such experiences.
Keywords:
aging; favelas and urban communities; intersectionality; mobility; urban accessibility
Resumo
O envelhecimento em favelas brasileiras é atravessado por desigualdades estruturais que conformam condições precárias e produzem experiências cotidianas heterogêneas. A partir do Censo 2022 (IBGE) e de pesquisa de campo com entrevistas e observação nas comunidades do Morro da Providência e Complexo do Jacarezinho (RJ), analisam-se espacialidades desenvolvidas por idosos: desde intervenções em escadarias e vielas até a circuitos alternativos de mobilidade, desconstruindo estereótipos sobre territórios periféricos. Essas práticas revelam velhices que contestam narrativas hegemônicas – especialmente as que associam envelhecer à decadência ou passividade –, sustentando-se em redes locais de sociabilidade. Os resultados sugerem que políticas urbanas sensíveis a essas dinâmicas podem tanto ampliar possibilidades existenciais quanto ressignificar paradigmas que historicamente invisibilizam tais experiências.
Palavras-chave:
envelhecimento; favelas e comunidades urbanas; interseccionalidade; mobilidade; acessibilidade urbana
Introduction
Population aging in Brazil is marked by profound socioeconomic and regional inequalities (Neumann & Albert, 2018). In urban contexts, changes in the age structure and individual aging trajectories intersect with factors such as race, class, gender, and urban precariousness (Campelo & Paiva et al., 2021; Silva, 2019a). Within this setting, Brazilian favelas and urban communities – home to more than 16 million people – receives increased attention in both official statistics and academic research, due to the multiple challenges associated with legal insecurity, inadequate public services, self-built housing, and their location in environmental risk prone areas (IBGE, 2024a). Thus, this article analyzes the interface between aging, mobility, and urban accessibility, focusing on the experiences of older adults living in Brazilian favelas and urban communities (FUCs).
The analysis is grounded in two premises: (1) being old is a time and space phenomena, varying according to socioeconomic and cultural contexts; and (2) the material structures of urban peripheries produce specific forms of the corporeality of ageing. The study centers on the cases of Morro da Providência and the Jacarezinho Complex, in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), seeking to understand how infrastructure conditions, lack of accessibility, and urban violence affect older adults’ quality of life and everyday mobility.
In this context, the article discusses urban mobility and accessibility in light of population aging in favelas and urban communities of the Global South. Although aging has been widely studied in countries of the Global North – where access to social security systems and efficient urban infrastructure is relatively consolidated (Skinner, Cloutier & Andrews, 2014) – this gap is particularly evident in the Global South, where unequal urban conditions and informality challenge traditional models of active aging. The central objective, therefore, is to explore the dynamics experienced by older adults living in Brazilian favelas, within contexts marked by informality, socioeconomic inequalities, and fragile urban infrastructure.
To this end, the analysis adopts an intersectional perspective (Calasanti & King, 2015). We examine the interactions between gender, race, and class in experiences of aging and mobility, and also how these variables amplify difficulties to access basic services such as transportation and healthcare. This approach seeks to understand how territory reproduces social and spatial inequalities, directly shaping experiences of aging and individual autonomy. The methodology is qualitative, based on semi--structured interviews and field observations, valuing the voices of older adults themselves into public policies discussions.
The interlocutors are presented through their memories, reconstructing their life histories, perceptions of aging, spatial experiences, and understandings of how their communities developed over time. The interviews reveal that the favela, as revisited through memory, is perceived beyond a physical space, but as a territory of social and affective transformation. The conversion of space into a place imbued with meaning enabled interviewees to recall significant events from their life trajectories. Place thus assumes a central role in the construction of narratives, as memory is deeply connected to spaces endowed with symbolic value (Bosi, 1994).
The intersection between memory and old age invites an investigation into how older adults’ experiences are intertwined with the favela context, highlighting the importance of space in the construction of identities and in shaping ways of aging. The reconstructed trajectories demonstrate the possibility of moving beyond reductionist views of old age, presenting older adults as active subjects with future oriented perspectives, engaged in struggles for housing and in everyday practices that sustain community life.
The narratives reinforce that understanding aging goes beyond biological and demographic perspectives. The older adults interviewed reflects aging as shaped by social and biological markers, such as the ability to perform daily and productive activities – whose loss is often perceived as one of the most evident signs of old age. Other elements, including hair graying, wrinkles, reduced physical strength, and the exercise of family roles, composes a plural perception of aging.
Pseudonyms inspired by elements of nature were used to preserve participants identities. Those symbolized trajectories of resistance, adaptation, and rootedness. This choice reinforces the connection between life stories and the symbolic strength of nature – which, like older adults themselves, confronts adversity and continues to flourish, even in challenging contexts.
Thus, this article engages with aging in both its individual dimensions (associated with increased longevity) and its structural dimensions (linked to changes in the population’s age composition), contributing to the literature on aging, mobility, and urban accessibility. It argues that demographic transformations and the specific territorial conditions of favelas shape experiences of aging and give rise to everyday practices of resistance and adaptation.
The article is organized into four sections. The first presents the demographic profile of aging in Brazil. The second discusses how territory interferes with experiences of aging. The third describes the methodological pathways, the processes of accessing interlocutors, the observed spatial practices, and the characterization of the territory based on a qualitative approach and attentive listening. The fourth section analyzes urban mobility in these contexts, considering the social environment, physical barriers, and strategies of socio-territorial reproduction. Finally, the concluding remarks synthesize the results, contributions, and limitations of the discussion, and point to directions for future research.
Demographic transition, aging and intersectionality
As a result of demographic transformations, the proportion of the older population in Brazil has grown steadily over recent decades. This process has been driven by declining fertility rates, increased life expectancy, and improvements in health and sanitation conditions (Camarano, Kanso & Mello, 2004). It is estimated that the share of individuals aged 60 and over rose from 3.2% in 1900 to 15.8% in 2022 – a structural shift with significant implications for urban and social planning, particularly in unequal territories with lack adequate infraastructure (Table 1).
Aging does not occur homogeneously across the country. Figure 1 presents changes in age groups over 60 years old in each Federative Unit (state), starting in 1970. In addition to the general trend of an increasing proportion of older adults, recent data confirm the feminization of old age and the expansion of the population aged 80 and over (Camarano, Kanso, and Mello, 2004; Cepellos, 2021).
– Proportional distribution of older adults by sex and age groups, Federative Units (states), 1970-2022
Moreover, there are clear regional inequalities, as well as disparities between urban and rural spaces, which contribute to diverse ways of experiencing old age in Brazil. States such as Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul have higher proportions of older adults, while states in the North and Northeast regions still have predominantly young populations, although they are also undergoing an aging process (IBGE, 2024). Furthermore, up to 2010 (the most recent year with available data on urban and rural populations by age group), disparities between these spaces are evident. The states of Amazonas and Pernambuco, for example, showed similar proportions of older adults in rural and urban populations: 5.7% in Amazonas and 6.1% in Pernambuco, compared to 10.6% for both populations combined. In other federative units, however, the proportion of older adults was higher in rural areas, as observed in Rio Grande do Sul (17% and 13%), Goiás (12.2% and 9%), and Rondônia (8.4% and 6.8%).
In this context, the different life stages that comprise old age also shape the aging process. The heterogeneity of this population is usually analyzed by classifications of older adults into younger-old (aged 60–79) and oldest-old (aged 80 and over), taking into account issues related to well-being, urban accessibility, and public health. The former group is generally characterized by greater functional autonomy and social participation, whereas the latter tends to present a higher prevalence of frailty, cognitive decline, and increased dependence in daily activities (Lee et al., 2018; Navarro et al., 2015).
Differences are also pronounced between the population living in favelas and urban communities (FCUs) and the total population. As shown in Figure 2, FCU population is undergoing a less intense aging process in comparison with the overall population, although it already includes groups corresponding to different stages of old age. With the exception of Pará, in all Federative Units the percentage-point differences between the age groups that compose the older population favor those not residing in favelas. Overall, these disparities are more pronounced in Federative Units with more advanced aging profiles, such as Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro. In these contexts, the feminization of old age is also evident, alongside differentiated patterns of concentration.
– Older population in favelas and urban communities and in the total population (excluding favelas and urban communities), 2022
Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, and Minas Gerais show the highest levels of aging within FCUs, while the Federal District and Roraima present the lowest values. The interpretation of these data must therefore be linked to an understanding of space as a central analytical category. The experience of aging is deeply connected to the territory in which individuals live. Conditions related to housing, urban mobility, public safety, access to healthcare, leisure, and collective facilities vary widely across Brazilian cities, particularly in favelas and urban peripheries, which are shaped by long- -standing historical inequalities.
Therefore, better comprehend aging in Brazil requires careful attention to territorial contexts. Old age is experienced in distinct ways. It depend on the urban and socio and spatial conditions that shape everyday life, such as access to infrastructure, transportation, public services, safety, adequate housing, and opportunities for sociability (Campelo et al., 2021). These variables mediate, facilitate, or constrain the right to age with dignity. In territories marked by structural inequalities, the experience of aging tends to be shaped by challenges that go beyond the individual or biological dimensions of old age (Batista, Proença & Silva, 2021), revealing the centrality of space in the constitution of possibilities – or constraints – for living longer and better.
Considering the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS) and challenges of social protection for older populations in contexts of crisis and counter-reforms, Campelo and Paiva et al. (2021) emphasize that race/ethnicity, gender, and social class are inseparable. The intersectional perspective proposed by the authors highlights how patriarchy, structural racism, and economic inequalities – whether through ownership of the means of production or dependence on labor power – directly influence experiences of aging. In addition to these social markers, the spatial context – expressed through place of residence, housing conditions, and access to public services – constitutes a central element in shaping the living conditions of older adults (Antunes et al., 2023). Absences and presences within these territories directly affect how favela residents perceive living and aging in such spaces.
Data from the Demographic Census (IBGE, 2022) reveal the contradictions inherent in these territories. Regarding access to sewage networks, 61.39% of households in favelas are connected, compared to a national average of 64.69%. Water supply through the general network presents a paradoxical scenario: coverage is higher in favelas (86.38%) than in the country as a whole (83.88%). A similar pattern is observed for solid waste collection, which reaches 96.73% of households in favelas, compared to 91.71% of the national average. This apparent advantage, however, conceals everyday challenges such as service intermittency, informality, and low quality, frequently reported by residents in field research. As resident of the Manguinhos Complex – a community near Jacarezinho, declares: “The city government places dumpsters in certain locations, but they are not able to accommodate all the waste produced in this territory, because there are so many people” (Barbosa, 2024).
These structural deficiencies indicate that, beyond statistical indicators, the precariousness of public services in favelas constitutes a systemic and historically entrenched phenomenon (Pinheiro, 2022). Problems such as irregular water supply, open sewage, and energy instability are not exceptions, but chronic conditions that span generations, as evidenced by recurring complaints from residents. The combination of deficient infrastructure and insufficient public management reinforces a scenario of institutionalized neglect.
An interview conducted in 2024 summarizes those questions:
Here, garbage piles up for days, the electricity goes out every month, and the water disappears without warning. […] Several factors reduce the quality of life of people living in favelas. While people in other parts of the city have access to doctors and health services, we face a life of neglect. (Primavera, 67 years old – Jacarezinho).
This illustrates the overlap between material deprivation and territorial inequalities: the lack of access to basic services severely compromises the conditions for dignified aging and reinforces the social determination of the process (Teixeira, 2020).
Moreover, prolonged exposure to environmental risks – such as contact with untreated sewage, accumulated waste, and the constant presence of disease vectors – intensifies chronic illnesses and respiratory problems, reducing healthy life expectancy among this population (Cardiano, 2022). Far from being a natural condition, this dynamic reflects a political project of territorial exclusion that normalizes precariousness as the fate of urban peripheries. As a woman from the Morro da Providência reports:
Look! I walk calmly in the area where I live. The only problem is when I have to go straight down to Gamboa – the space is very narrow. For a motorcycle to go down, you have to lean against the wall to see if it can pass. Now, stairs – not so much. Since I live down below, there are only one or two small stairways, which aren’t very high. But for those who live further up, I think it’s more complicated, because the motorcycle only goes as far as the square’s staircase. From there on, whoever lives above has to climb on foot. My ex-daughter-in-law, for example, lives up there. I’ll tell you, it’s very difficult. There’s sewage, garbage, rats passing by. Goodness gracious! And all of this exposed. (Sucupira, 60 years old – Morro da Providência)
These disparities materialize territorial inequalities and intersect with environmental racism and the State’s historical neglect of urban peripheries. Life trajectories marked by racial, class, and gender discrimination result in aging processes shaped by multiple deprivations (Campelo & Paiva et al., 2021). The precariousness of urban mobility, especially in favelas, further reinforces the isolation of older adults living in vulnerable territories. Aging, therefore, is not merely a biological process, but a profoundly social one (Teixeira, 2020). In societies shaped by neoliberal logics, inequalities accumulated over the life course tend to intensify in old age (Campelo & Paiva, 2014), particularly among those who rely exclusively on public policies.
The example of waste collection – apparently more efficient in favelas – clearly illustrates this contradiction: even when public services improve, exclusive dependence on them reveals the absence of alternatives and deepens cycles of marginalization. Thus, aging in favelas means engaging in everyday resistance to the absences of the State and to the barriers imposed by the city, transforming living and aging into a continuous act of resistance and reinvention.
The weight of territory on the aging bodies
To deepen the understanding of how the structural context of favelas and urban communities (FCUs) is materialized in concrete experiences of aging, this study adopts a geographical perspective inspired by the theory of systems of objects and actions proposed by Milton Santos (1996). This framework allows the analyses of aging through the interrelation between the material elements of territory – the objects – and the social practices of subjects – the actions. From this perspective, urban space is understood as a complex totality in which technologies, social relations, and history intertwine to shape the heterogeneous experiences of old age in favelas.
Within this analytical framework, we seek to understand how spatial components and social dynamics influence the aging trajectories of older adults living in these territories. We propose a conceptual framework that articulates spatial forms, social contents, and the interactions between them, revealing how infrastructures, cultural facilities, and housing are connected to everyday practices, political struggles, and networks of sociability present in favelas. The main elements of this network are presented in Table 1. Particular emphasis is placed on the active role of residents in the production of space and practices of sociability, resistance, and territorial adaptation. The materiality of urban objects – such as stairways, alleys, public facilities, and self-built housing – represents both constraints and possibilities for older adults’ mobility, health, and social interaction. At the same time, everyday practices ranging from collective work efforts and care networks to festivities and political mobilization resignify the territory, reinforcing the autonomy of aging subjects.
In this context, the older body is understood as a personal space in which physical limitations interact with the roughness of space, such as difficulties of access in steep areas and the absence of adapted facilities. This line of reasoning resonates with the work of Simone de Beauvoir (1976) and Guita Debert (1999), who conceive old age as a socially constructed condition, shaped by markers of class, race, and gender. From this perspective, we introduce the spatiality of aging, understood as a set of practices and structures that give rise to multiple ways of growing old.
– Socio-spatial networks of objects and actions in favelas: dimensions of the experience of aging
The marks of sociospatial segregation – such as the lack of accessibility and adapted facilities in hillside areas – impose differentiated rhythms of aging that contrast with the accelerated temporality of modernization policies. This analysis operates across multiple scales: the micro scale, centered on the aging body and its alternative forms of mobility; the meso scale, in which the favela territory functions as an arena of tension between state abandonment and community solidarity; and the macro scale, which understands population aging as a global phenomenon with diverse local expressions.
This study demonstrates that aging in favelas – an increasingly present process – constitutes an act of resistance. Older adults transform personal spaces, such as backyards and rooftop terraces (lajes), into places of memory and care, while simultaneously leading struggles for rights and challenging stereotypes of passivity. In these communities, being old and aging entail a complex network of relationships between material conditions, social practices, and the capacity of subjects to resist, revealing that vulnerabilities coexist with innovative forms of territorial resistance.
Methodological pathways: access to participants and spatial practices in the territory
Fieldwork was structured as a form of situated listening, guided by ethical commitment and the gradual construction of trust-based relationships. Being present in the territories required negotiating presences, silences, and apprehensions (Beaud & Weber, 2007), demanding sensitivity to the social dynamics of the Jacarezinho and the Morro da Providência. Entry into the field occurred progressively through contact with different institutions: Centro de Referência de Assistência Social Caio Fernando Abreu (CRAS), Instituto Entre o Céu e a Favela, Legião da Boa Vontade, Eu Amo Jacarezinho movement, and community leaders. Letters of introduction, participation in meetings, and accompanied visits were essential to legitimize the research and enable access to interlocutors.
Initially, mediation by local residents facilitated the mapping of the territories and contributed to trust construction. The Informed Consent Form ensured the voluntary and informed participation of all individuals involved.
Between the second half of 2024 and the first half of 2025, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 older adults from the territories. Participant selection followed the snowball sampling technique, which is appropriate for hard-to-reach groups and for research involving sensitive experiences (Bockorni & Gomes, 2021; Vinuto, 2014). The network of participants expanded from key informants until theoretical saturation was achieved.
Older adults were included if they had life experiences related to the use, formation, or transformation of the territories and possessed the physical and cognitive conditions necessary to participate. Individuals with severe cognitive impairment or advanced chronic illnesses that could hinder communication or compromise their well-being were excluded.
The qualitative methodological approach proved suitable for capturing perceptions, memories, and spatial practices not readily apprehended through quantitative methods (Minayo, 2001). Three main procedures were employed: semi-structured interviews, observations recorded in a field diary, and analysis of secondary data from the 2022 Demographic Census (IBGE, 2022), which supported the contextualization of the territories. The location of the analyzed areas is presented in Figure 3.
Prolonged immersion in the field reinforced the importance of researcher positionality (Haraway, 1995) and ethical responsibility in interpreting narratives. The interviews enabled the reconstruction of individual trajectories, memories related to the formation of the favelas, work experiences, support networks, and perceptions of socio- -spatial transformations. The research followed the stages outlined by Beaud and Weber (2007), including negotiation of participation, interview conduction, transcription, and occasional follow--up contacts for clarification.
The interview guide addressed dimensions related to life histories, current routines, future expectations, spatial practices, aging processes, and senses of belonging, making it possible to apprehend everyday dynamics, continuities, and ruptures in aging within popular territories.
Despite its proximity to major transportation routes, such as the Linha Amarela expressway, Jacarezinho faces urban precariousness and fragmented public policies. The favela complex has only three health units serving the entire population, while chronic sanitation problems persist. For older adults, mobility is further constrained by the absence of internal transportation and by the instability generated by armed conflicts and police incursions, which restrict circulation routes and schedules.
The local history dates back to the 18th century, when the area was part of the Engenho Novo dos Jesuits. Occupation intensified from the 1920s onward, consolidating Jacarezinho as one of the largest favelas in the city. Despite access to basic services, their quality remains poor, marked by open sewage and overburdened infrastructure.
In the port area, Morro da Providência is home to approximately 4.8 thousand inhabitants living in around 1.8 thousand households. The steep topography, characterized by narrow stairways without handrails, imposes daily barriers to mobility, especially for older adults, many of whom rely on motorcycle taxis. The cable car, inaugurated in 2014, operates irregularly, compromising mobility and access to essential services.
Recognized as the first favela in Brazil, Providência was initially occupied by Black former soldiers after they return from the Paraguayan War and the Canudos War. Over time, the area underwent successive removal processes, intensified by urban revitalization policies in the port zone, such as the ones associated with mega-events (World Cup and the Olympic Games). Despite structural limitations and low socioeconomic indicators, 82% of residents report liking to live in the area, highlighting strong affective ties and consolidated community networks.
On-site observations complemented the narratives, allowing the identification of spatial interactions and dynamics that were not always verbalized. Quantitative data supported the sociodemographic characterization of the interlocutors and contextualized their individual experiences within the broader urban landscape.
The participants were between 62 and 84 years old, nine women and one man, all of whom had lived in the studied territories for more than three decades. For analytical purposes, a distinction was made between younger older adults (60-79 years) and the oldest-old (80+), whose conditions of mobility and autonomy reveal significant differences in their relationship with space.
In summary, the field research demonstrated that experiences of aging in favelas are inseparable from territorial conditions, social networks, and forms of everyday mobility. Listening to the narratives made it possible to understand how space is lived, traversed, and re-signified in the process of aging, articulating ethical, affective, and socio-spatial dimensions present in older adults’ daily lives.
With approximately 31 thousand inhabitants living in 12 thousand households, Jacarezinho is located in Rio de Janeiro’s northern zone. Its predominantly flat terrain – except for areas such as Azul – facilitates territorial expansion (0.381 km2) but results in extremely high population density (78,130 inhabitants/km2). Composed of 14 communities, the territory expresses significant socio-spatial complexity.
Urban mobility in favelas
When analyzing aging in favelas, it is essential to consider the territorial conditions that shape older adults’ quality of life. The specificities of each favela - from mobility constraints to the lack of basic infrastructure- are decisive for residents’ strategies of resistance and adaptation. In territories such as Jacarezinho and Morro da Providência, structural limitations impose daily challenges that demand practical and often informal solutions. The following discussion examines how these conditions affect residents, especially older adults, and how they seek ways to resist and adapt.
Mobility in favelas constitutes a central dimension of urban life and reflects the structural inequalities that permeate these territories. More than mere physical movement, it encompasses social, political, and symbolic dimensions directly related to the right to the city, belonging, and residents’ quality of life.
Silva et al. (2016) propose an expanded approach to the concept, distinguishing two types of movement: physical movement, related to people’s circulation within territories, and social movement, associated with processes of socioeconomic upward or downward mobility. For the authors, mobility should be understood as a process of encounters and belonging in the city, also encompassing residential, labor, and migratory dimensions. This perspective makes it possible to analyze mobility in favelas not only as an infrastructure issue, but as a everyday experience shaped by spatial perceptions, social ties, and differentiated degrees of autonomy.
– Dimensions of aging in favelas: a comparative overview between Jacarezinho and Morro da Providência1
Santos (2015) and Santos and Gonçalves (2017) emphasize that favelas located on hillsides and in areas of high building density, such as Morro da Providência, present specific challenges to circulation, conditioned by topography, environmental risks, and limited road access. In these contexts, mobility is shaped by urban form and social inequality, expressing both physical and symbolic barriers.
In Rio de Janeiro, the growth of favelas reflects socio-spatial, cultural, and economic processes that have transformed the city’s landscape and urban structure. Izaga and Pereira (2014) highlight that urban mobility has become a central axis of urbanization policies in recent decades, particularly through the Favela-Bairro Program (1993) and the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC, 2007). These initiatives sought to integrate favelas into the formal urban fabric, expanding their physical and symbolic connectivity with the rest of the city. However, interventions carried out in territories such as Rocinha, Pavão-Pavãozinho/Cantagalo, and the Alemão Complex revealed important limitations: although mobility was treated as a condition for citizenship and access, many solutions – such as stairways, inclined planes, and cable cars – prioritized the technical aspects of construction without fully considering residents’ modes of movement and everyday practices. Thus, understanding mobility in favelas requires recognizing its articulation among urban morphology, public policy, and lived experience.
In a convergent perspective, Legroux, Britto, and Benetti (2019) analyze mobility as one of the major contemporary urban challenges, especially in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, where state limitations and morphological specificities – self--built housing, high density, and road networks composed of alleys, narrow paths, and stairways – impose significant restrictions on mobility rights. The authors stresses the importance of two distinct and interdependent dimensions: internal mobility, related to circulation and access to services within the territory, and external mobility, associated with connections to the formal city and broader urban opportunities. Among older adults living in favelas, these physical and symbolic barriers become even more pronounced. Precarious accessibility, rugged topography, and deficiencies in urban services directly affect autonomy, sociability, and well-being, making mobility a fundamental axis for understanding experiences of aging in these territories.
This experience manifests across multiple scales. At the urban level, uneven sidewalks, limited transportation, and lack of accessibility reduce older adults’ social participation, revealing how urban design reproduces inequalities in access to services and opportunities. Within favelas, steep stairways, narrow alleys, and insufficient infrastructure – such as irregular waste collection and failures in water and electricity supply – turn mobility into a continuous physical and social effort. At the domestic scale, the verticalization of housing and the absence of ramps transform stairs and steps into permanent obstacles to autonomy. Mobility thus emerges as a multiscalar phenomenon that spans the urban, community, and domestic realms, proving decisive for understanding inequalities and vulnerabilities in aging. Unadapted stairways, lack of ramps, pronounced level changes, absence of handrails, and poorly maintained pathways make everyday movement harder, especially in the context of precarious public transport and basic services.
Beyond physical barriers, the social environment also conditions mobility. Urban violence and recurrent police operations also restrict motilities rights, generating fear, confinement, and insecurity (Bueno, 2018). The circulation of older adults becomes even more limited in territories with armed conflict and lacking territorial protection policies. Under these conditions, mobility and security intertwine, directly affecting belonging and dignity in aging.
Faced with these constraints, residents develop strategies of socio-territorial reproduction that reveal agency and adaptive capacity. These include the reorganization of daily routines, reliance on local care networks, and the use of alternative modes of transport – such as vans, motorcycle taxis, and kombis. Although essential for mobility, these often operate under precarious conditions, without regulation or accessibility guarantees. This informality exposes older adults to additional risks and confirms the absence of State presence.
These practices demonstrate an active dimension of aging and point to forms of resistance and permanence in the territory. However, such strategies are neither definitive solutions nor substitutes for State responsibility in promoting urban accessibility. As Laws (1994) and Schwanen, Hardill, and Lucas (2012) argue, the right to mobility is a structuring element tom maintain aging with quality of life, especially when considered in articulation with social inequalities and environmental conditions of popular territories.
The interviewees reflections on alternatives to improve infrastructure and mobility in favelas highlight initiatives that emerge from within the territory itself. These actions – often informal, yet deeply necessary – express forms of collective organization and spatial appropriation through which residents mobilize to overcome structural limitations and enhance their living conditions. Nevertheless, they emphasize that the state must assume a more active role in this process, recognizing and incorporating the community-based solutions already developed.
When following the everyday routes and trajectories taken by older adults, stairways emerge prominently in their narratives, assuming an ambiguous meaning. On the one hand, they represent a historical achievement of residents, who transformed paths and level differences into functional passages; on the other, they constitute one of the main obstacles to the mobility of older adults - especially the oldest-old - pregnant women, and people with disabilities, given the lack of accessibility and the poor maintenance of these structures:
Improve the stairway. Have handrails, conditions to go down and up without having to pay someone. Because many times older people don’t have money or anyone to help. I’ve seen people unable to leave their homes, at risk of dying while waiting for help. The ambulance takes a long time, sometimes more than an hour. (Alecrim, 84 years old – Morro da Providência)
The complexity of mobility intensifies when territorial design interferes with the domestic scale. In Arruda’s case, for example, access to the bedrooms (on the second floor) and to the laundry area (on the third floor) occurs exclusively via stairways. Her mother, aged 89 and bedridden, remains isolated due to spatial constraints and the absence of alternatives for movement within the home itself.
Access from my house to the city is via the stairway. Going down, God helps. Going up, it’s suffering. Sometimes I need to pay someone to help, as with my mother. She can’t go up or down on her own. To get down there, where cars can reach, it’s difficult. And to come back up, it’s the same. That stairway kills anyone. I have to go up and down several times. Carrying weight, then, only by paying someone to help. When I don’t have money, it gets complicated. (Arruda, 72 years old – Morro da Providência)
These accounts reiterate the multiscale character of mobility, which spans from the urban level – marked by architectural barriers and precarious transport – to the domestic sphere, where stairs and level differences hinder autonomy. Chart 4 deepens this discussion by addressing these scales, contextualizing aging in these territories and highlighting the connections among subject, space, mobility, and living conditions.
From an intersectional perspective, the framework above also demonstrates how gender, race, and social class shape experiences of aging, amplifying difficulties related to mobility and access to basic services. In an inseparable manner, it is understood that the objects and actions materialized in the urban structure and built environments of favelas - expressed through everyday practices, spatiality’s, memories, and subjectivities - are fundamental to the reproduction of life and social relations within these territories.
In this sense, by recognizing how such dimensions structure daily life and shape the possibilities of movement for older residents, it becomes essential to observe how the physical configuration of favelas itself conditions and often restricts mobility. The available infrastructure, feasible pathways, and accumulated urban barriers within the territory constitute central elements for understanding mobility, revealing how aging becomes intertwined with forms of access, routes used, and limitations imposed by the built environment.
In Jacarezinho, Travessa Iza symbolizes the daily mobility challenges faced by older adults. This steep and narrow stairway connects the center of the community to the Azul sector, one of the highest areas. Residents identify this passage as one of the main constraints on circulation for older adults, pregnant women, and people with reduced mobility, including wheelchair users.
The fragility of Travessa Iza is evident, with uneven steps, a steep incline, and the absence of basic infrastructure such as handrails, proper leveling, and adequate lighting. In addition to being difficult, the passage is also dangerous. Although it represents an improvement compared to the past, when access was via dirt paths, its current configuration remains challenging for a significant portion of the aging population. During the research, interlocutors reported that mobility problems are not limited to this passage but are widespread throughout the territory, marked by narrow pathways, level differences, and improvised stairways. Even so, these stairways are perceived as a historical achievement of the community, replacing earlier improvised solutions such as using house walls for support.
During the fieldwork, we also observed socio-environmental issues that are directly intertwined with everyday mobility in the communities. Several problems were mentioned, such as irregular waste collection, exacerbated by the absence of dumpsters, which compromises public health and favors the spread of diseases. The local electricity network is highly fragile, with frequent power outages caused by overloads, particularly affecting bedridden residents, people with chronic illnesses, and older adults who rely on refrigerators to store medications and essential equipment. Added to this are recurrent water shortages and an insufficient drainage system – conditions that severely affect health, well--being, and even the daily mobility of many residents.
The insufficiency of basic sanitation, visible in different areas of the favela, exacerbates public health risks. The proximity of housing to the contaminated river – often without any protective barriers – exposes families to disease vectors such as rats and mosquitoes, affecting physical and psychological well-being and limiting safe circulation in surrounding areas.
These elements reveal deep territorial inequalities, in which the absence of public infrastructure policies is intertwined with the invisibility of the most vulnerable populations. When the presence of the State becomes perceptible, it is concentrated primarily on public security actions, without equivalent advances in leisure, sports, and cultural provision. Community leaders emphasized the need to invest in cultural and organizational initiatives that promote local development, such as the creation of spaces for social interaction, cultural activities, and community projects capable of strengthen social ties and reduces isolation.
By showing how mobility in Jacarezinho is profoundly conditioned by environmental conditions, limitations in urban infrastructure, and historical inequalities that permeate the territory, it becomes possible to broaden the analytical lens to other areas of the city where similar challenges manifest in particular ways. This comparison is fundamental to understand how different urban configurations – whether flat terrain or hillsides – shape everyday mobility experiences of older adults. It is through this analytical movement that the discussion advances to Morro da Providência, where the relationship between topography, infrastructure, and aging produces a specific set of mobility barriers and strategies.
In Morro da Providência, stairways represent a constant challenge, especially due to the absence of handrails and adapted ramps. Residents depend on the cable car for longer trips and, when the system is out of operation, to seek informal alternatives such as motorcycle taxis. Overall mobility conditions on the hill highlight the need for inclusive urban policies that ensure full accessibility and adapt public space to the demands of population aging.
The mobility of older adults depends both on alternative transport options and on physical effort. In 2025, fares charged by vans and motorcycle taxis ranged between R$4,00 to R$5,00 per trip; even so, access to higher areas requires navigating narrow passages, steep stairways, and uneven steps.
The Cruzeiro Stairway, with its 162 colorful steps, is the main access to the upper part of the community, flanked by houses anchored to the slopes. The topography prevents vehicle circulation, making the route accessible only on foot. While the stairway enables mobility, it also imposes significant limitations on older adults, people with reduced mobility, and wheelchair users.
In the Pedra Lisa area, contiguous with Morro da Providência, accessibility conditions are equally challenging. Stairways with uneven steps, the absence of handrails, and narrow passages pose constant risks. Dona Umbu, aged 72, reported having suffered three falls in 2025 due to the precarious condition of the stairs. Although there have been isolated improvements - such as the installation of a few handrails - the community still lacks broader adaptations to ensure safety and well-being
Mobility emerges as a central axis in older residents’ narratives, revealing how territorial design directly shapes everyday experiences. Steep stairways, the lack of handrails, uneven steps, and the absence of shade along certain routes create situations of insecurity, especially for those with physical limitations.
Arruda, for example, points that the walk to the city center is preferentially made by the Travessa da Felicidade stairway, as it is the only one in Pedra Lisa equipped with handrails: “When I need to go downtown, the main access is the stairway. When the sun is strong, I go down through Morrinho because there’s more shade. When it’s cloudy, I go by the stairs” (Arruda, 72 years old – Morro da Providência).
Similarly, Alecrim reported that on the Morrinho Stairway – without handrails – she needs to take strategic pauses to rest and, in certain sections, adopts the habit of walking sideways to cope with the uneven steps. These bodily adaptations illustrate how small variations in infrastructure transform the experience of aging and residents’ autonomy.
Limited access to public services reinforces overlapping vulnerabilities. Alecrim also shared the difficulties of caring for her 89-year-old mother, who is bedridden on the second floor of the house and depends on neighbors’ assistance for any movement. These experiences show that mobility is not limited to physical barriers, but also involves domestic, collective, and symbolic dimensions of lived space. At the same time, forms of solidarity and cooperation emerge that mitigate the restrictions imposed by the territory. Community maintenance of stairways, support for neighbors with reduced mobility, and assistance in emergency situations constitute local networks that sustain everyday life and reinforce the relational character of mobility – moving is also a social act.
Another relevant aspect is the influence of housing location on the experience of mobility, especially in hillside favelas. Umbu, who lives in the lower and flatter area known as Campo, faces fewer stairways but contends with uneven ground marked by potholes and poor maintenance of pathways:
I, who live down here, don’t suffer as much because everything is flatter. But I have friends who live higher up and have to go down and up stairs every day - it’s exhausting, because of the sun and the tiredness. Imagine still having to carry weight and groceries. It’s not easy. (Umbu, 70 years old – Morro da Providência)
She also highlights urban insecurity as a factor that restricts circulation, especially during police incursions, which interrupt services and generate fear (Bueno, 2018). This symbolic dimension broadens the debate on mobility, showing that obstacles to movement go beyond physical barriers and are rooted in dynamics of conflict and territorial control.
In sum, the accounts reveal the duality of Providência: the strength of community networks and a sense of belonging; as the persistence of urban inequalities. Despite some recent improvements – such as the installation of handrails and the repair of certain stairways – conditions of mobility and accessibility remain structural challenges, particularly for older adults, whose experience of space is marked by effort, resilience, and everyday reinvention.
Results and discussion
In the state of Rio de Janeiro, the 2022 Demographic Census revealed that 13.3% of the state population lives in 1,724 favelas and urban communities, totaling 2,142,394 people. In the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, this proportion is even more pronounced, reaching approximately 21% of the city’s population. Jacarezinho, with 30,498 inhabitants, and Morro da Providência, with 4,736 (IBGE, 2022), exemplify territories where aging unfolds amid urban contexts marked by historical and structural vulnerabilities.
As discussed throughout this article, aging in these territories is shaped by material and symbolic inequalities. Limited infrastructure, potholed streets, stairways without handrails, and the absence of signage restrict older adults’ mobility, exacerbating difficulties imposed by urban violence, police operations, and armed conflicts that result in involuntary confinement. These barriers directly affect quality of life; however, aging in these territories transcends the physical dimension, encompassing affective ties, collective memories, and community bonds that sustain practices of resistance and belonging.
Such resistance manifests in residents’ everyday strategies. Mutual aid networks among neighbors and creative solutions – such as establishing alternative routes or informally installing handrails – compensate for the absence of effective public policies. Ipê finds his “place in the world” in the samba school, while Jatobá turns his small bar into a space of solidarity and social gathering. Far from being isolated actions, these practices constitute forms of resistance and collective care, reaffirming the political value of community-based practices.
Mobility in the favela is not defined solely by physical barriers but also by social factors – such as gender, income, and family support – that delineate older adults’ spaces of circulation. Women, in particular, face double workloads, balancing caregiving responsibilities with informal work to supplement retirement income. Moreover, territorial stigma persists, leading many to conceal their address on résumés for fear of discrimination. As noted by Bueno (2018), urban violence, combined with the precariousness of health and security services, intensifies these vulnerabilities and reinforces isolation.
The research also brought to light experiences related to disability in peripheral areas, as evidenced in the accounts of Bambu, a 72-year-old blind man, and Mandacaru, a 62-year-old woman with chronic osteoarthritis. The intersection of aging and disability amplifies everyday difficulties, especially on poorly paved streets and steep stairways.
Mandacaru reports: “I have to walk that whole distance… What tires me, what makes it difficult, is my knee and the pain.” Bambu adds: “I depend on my family to leave the house. I feel like a burden.” These narratives reveal how disability intensifies territorial barriers and deepens the inequalities experienced in later life.
The findings underscore that aging in favelas entails coping with multiple deprivations that require integrated, place-based responses. The absence of public policies focused on older adults in these areas contributes to their marginalization and exclusion. Accordingly, inclusive policies must not only address structural shortcomings – such as installing handrails, ramps, and undertaking urban improvements – but also recognize and strengthen existing practices of solidarity and resistance within communities.
Final considerations
Aging in favelas is a growing and complex phenomenon, marked by the interaction between material and immaterial factors. The precariousness of urban infrastructure, limitations on mobility, and restricted access to public services intersect with dimensions of memory, affect, and belonging, shaping a distinctive and often invisible experience.
The research demonstrates that limited access to public services not only compromises older adults quality of life but also perpetuates inequalities and exclusion. Even so, the interviews reveal capacities for adaptation and resistance. Everyday mobility in favelas is a constant negotiation with space, in which community solidarity and territorial knowledge become means of survival and dignity.
Far from a linear process, aging in contexts of vulnerability is an ongoing struggle against urban inequalities. Older residents of these communities do not merely endure; they reinvent everyday life, maintain community ties, and create practices of collective care. This resilience, while noteworthy, should not obscure the structural deficiencies that demand urgent public intervention. Policies addressing aging must incorporate the territorial and social specificities of these populations. Dignity in old age cannot be a geographic privilege. Isolated measures – such as installing ramps or expanding transport services – are necessary but insufficient in the face of systemic inequalities. Ensuring dignified aging in favelas requires structural transformations that guarantee mobility, health, safety, and the full exercise of citizenship.
The irregular provision of public services – such as water supply, waste collection, and electricity – creates daily challenges that constrain choices and affect residents’ quality of life. Situations of urban insecurity and the weakening of community ties can intensify these conditions, while local solidarity networks become important sources of emotional and material support, even though they do not replace the State’s responsibility to guarantee basic rights.
As a limitation, this study focused on two specific territories and adopted a qualitative approach, without claims of generalization. Nonetheless, it points to directions for future research that incorporate comparative analyses across different favelas and intersectional perspectives of gender, race, and class, combining qualitative and quantitative methods.
In sum, aging in peripheral territories transcends biological and demographic dimensions, constituting a situated social and spatial experience deeply marked by inequality. Older adults in favelas are not mere spectators but active agents of resistance, who sustain families, maintain care networks, and preserve collective memories.
Older adults as pillars of family stability: beyond caring for grandchildren – thereby enabling parents’ participation in the labor market – they contribute to domestic work and the transmission of knowledge (Camarano, 2021). During the Covid-19 pandemic, retirement income proved vital: in 2020, 34% of Brazilian households depended on 70% of older adults’ income, and in 21% of households this income accounted for 90% of total family resources (Camarano, 2020).
So, in Brazil, to ensure that aging is accompanied by structural policies that promote equity and dignity, regardless of place of origin, is crucial. Aging in favelas is, above all, an act of resistance and a call for urban justice – one that requires rethinking the right to the city and recognizing older adults as rights- -bearing subjects.
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Note
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1
According to data from the 2022 Demographic Census conducted by IBGE, the Complexo do Jacarezinho has an official population of 30,498 residents. However, it is important to note that this count incorporates other communities that appear separately in the results of the universe of favelas and urban communities, such as Tancredo Neves (549 residents) and Malvinas (183 residents). In addition, local community leaders contest these figures, arguing that the actual population exceeds 80,000 residents. In this sense, the same procedure was applied to Morro da Providência, incorporating data related to Pedra Lisa (575 residents and 202 households), a locality adjacent to the favela.
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Data availability statement:
All data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.
Edited by
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Editors:
Lucia Bógus and Luiz César de Queiroz Ribeiro
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Organizers of this issue:
Ana Marcela Ardila PintoCarlos Fernando Ferreira LoboNatália Villamizar Duarte
All data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.
Source: IBGE – Population Census (1970,1980,1991, 2000, 2010, 2022).
Source: 
Source: prepared by the authors, in 2025.
Source: photo by the authors, in 2025.
Source: photo by the authors, in 2025.
Source: authors photographs, in 2024.
Source: authors photographs, in 2024.
Source: authors photographs, in 2024