Historic
The scientific journal CIDADES has its origins associated with the creation of the Urban Studies Group (GEU), the brainchild of Ana Fani Alessandri Carlos (USP). This group brought together, at the beginning of the first decade of the 2000s, professors from several universities: Jan Bitoun (UFPE), Maria Encarnação Beltrão Sposito (Unesp), Maurício de Almeida Abreu (UFRJ), Pedro de Almeida Vasconcelos (UFBA), Roberto Lobato Corrêa (UFRJ) and Silvana Maria Pintaudi (Unesp). Soon after, Marcelo Lopes de Souza (UFRJ) joined them.
Some ideas then stimulated the composition of the group. The construction of an environment for debate and criticism, focused on reading the processes of urbanisation and transformation of cities, was the main leitmotiv. Although there was clarity about theoretical and methodological differences between the group members, the understanding prevailed that the debate would enrich the construction of each one's ideas, encouraging the group to expose ideas, listen, diverge, and transform itself through dialogue.
This objective was associated with the creation of CIDADES journal as a means of disseminating reflections and research, for which the first conversations took place in 2002. Some principles were associated with this publication: autonomy, which is why it was not linked to any institution in particular; own funding, through donations, mainly from its creators, so that autonomy was safeguarded; critical spirit, as a way to build the new, in scientific and social terms; dialogue between the differences, so that, between its founders and between them and the authors of texts, there was the possibility of change; interdisciplinarity, which was considered indispensable for the reading of contemporary urban life.
Other factors probably stimulated the realization of a work around this collective and public project, but those mentioned were those that had greater weight in the conduct of decisions and actions that were embodied in the publication of this magazine. Friendship, camaraderie and mutual respect encouraged the completion of the work. Conversations between GEU members flowed both in the meetings in which the texts produced were the subject of debate and behind the scenes of the meetings of the CAPES Geography Commission for the Brazilian national Postgraduate Evaluation process, of which three members were part at the beginning of the years 2000's.
Several names were thought of in order to baptise the project and there was a lot of doubt between the two proposals that garnered more sympathy – Cidades and Urbanicidade. If the second nomenclature was more sophisticated, playing with the combination of more than one concept that are of interest to urban research, the first seemed more appropriate due to the simple way it favours communication about the processes under analysis. The first issue was released about two years after the birth of the idea, in 2004, in Recife, at UFPE, during the Brazilian National Symposium on Urban Geography. Maria Encarnação Beltrão Sposito assumed the editorial coordination and exercised this role until 2014. Here was the result of a collective work that was, at the same time, quite artisanal. The arrival of texts; their assessment; communication between the editorial board, the members of the scientific council1 and the authors of texts; as well as later the distribution of texts printed in the journal; all this was still done by mail (not electronic), which required support. Thus, the magazine would not have come to fruition were it not for the support of many2, who simultaneously created the magazine and learned how to do it, since it is an expertise associated with the publishing world that, in principle, no one in the group mastered.
Gradually, the journal was technically transformed: new layouts, greater care in indexing and in observing ABNT norms; it stopped being printed in graphic shops and started to be taken care of by Expressão Popular Publishing House; subsequently, it began to be disseminated digitally, in addition to the existing paper support; it became exclusively digital in order to reach a much larger number of readers, increasing the number of authors interested in disseminating their ideas; it expanded its role in the formulation of lines of research through thematic issues, etc.
Among the advances, the most important was to have become one of the most prestigious publications in the area, appearing in prominent positions in the Brazilian evaluation systems.
In early 2015, the editing process went to another group of editors, under the coordination of Silvana Maria Pintaudi (Unesp), organized by the work of Carlos Henrique Costa da Silva (UFSCar). By the end of 2017, there were five issues published, of which only one contains articles submitted continuously.
The other issues published in the period were thematic, whose texts came from the selection of works presented at the “III International Seminar on City, Commerce and Consumption”, held in 2012 in São Paulo, and at the event “The extreme processes in the constitution of the city”, held in Seville, Spain, in 2013, which was edited by Carlos Tapia (University of Sevilla) and Manoel Rodrigues Alves (USP). To these was added a dossier organized by Maria Encarnação Beltrão Sposito with the theme “Diffuse urbanization and dispersed city”. The last issue published before the temporary deactivation of the journal presents a selection of articles from the event “Spatial justice and the right to the city”, held in 2015 in São Paulo. After the publication of this issue, the editor decided to suspend the publication of new issues, a situation that remained until the editorial board changed.
The resumption of CIDADES is a new stage of the collective work that characterized it from the beginning, and an institutional link that could guarantee both technical support and some financial resources, necessary for the longevity of the project. This does not mean, however, a violation of the journal's founding principle of autonomy.
Igor Catalão assumed editorial responsibility for implementing the journal on the UFFS Journals Portal and restarting the work of receiving submissions, with the support of librarian Franciele Scaglioni da Cruz. The renewal of the logo and other components of the journal's new visual identity and communication were the responsibility of architect and urbanist Amanda Rosin (USP). There was also renewal in the Editorial Board, now made up of former members of the journal's former support teams: Igor Catalão (UFFS), Márcio José Catelan (Unesp), Oscar Sobarzo (UFS) and William Ribeiro da Silva (UFRJ), to whom joined Catherine Chatel (Université Paris Cité). There was also renewal in the Scientific Council3 and in the Support Team4.
The journal's new phase means, at the same time, the commitment to its founding principles (autonomy, critical spirit, dialogue between differences and interdisciplinarity) and to a new one: plurality.
CIDADES renews itself by: making available fully online, openly and free of charge all texts already published; increasing its visibility with indexing in bibliographic databases and academic catalogues; linking identification numbers (DOI) to all texts; and translation of the journal's entire interface into Portuguese, Spanish, French and English.
We hope this project has a long life!
Maria Encarnação Beltrão Sposito (Presidente Prudente)
Carlos Henrique Costa da Silva (São Paulo)
Igor Catalão (Chapecó)
Notes:
1 Amélia Luisa Damiani (USP), Arlete Moysés Rodrigues (Unicamp), Carles Carreras (Universitat de Barcelona), Horácio Capel (Universitat de Barcelona), José Alberto Rio Fernandes (University of Porto), José Borzachiello da Silva (UFC), Marcelo Lopes de Souza (UFRJ), Maria Adélia Aparecida de Souza (USP), Odette Carvalho de Lima Seabra (USP), Paulo César da Costa Gomes (UFRJ) and Suzana Pasternak (USP).
2 Secretary: Oscar Alfredo Sobarzo Miño; signatures and homepage: William Ribeiro da Silva: support: Rones Borges da Silva; cover: Caio Beltrão Sposito; Portuguese language revision: Maria Luísa Santos Abreu; English language review: Bárbara Stocker.
3 Alicia Lindón (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa), Ana Fani Alessandri Carlos (Universidade de São Paulo) Angelo Serpa (UFBA), Aurélia Michel (Université Paris Cité), Carles Carreras (Universitat de Barcelona), Carme Bellet (Universitat de Lleida), Claudia Damasceno (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales), Diana Lan (Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires), Doralice Sátyro Maia (Universidade Federal da Paraíba), Federico Arenas (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), Gabriel Silvestre (University of Sheffield), Horacio Capel (Universitat de Barcelona), Jan Bitoun (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco), José Borzachiello da Silva (Universidade Federal do Ceará), Laurent Vidal (Université de La Rochelle), Leila Christina Dias (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina), Luciana Buffalo (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba), Luis Alberto Salinas Arreortua (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Marcelo Lopes de Souza (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro), Maria Encarnação Beltrão Sposito (Universidade Estadual Paulista), María Laura Silveira (Conicet/Universidad de Buenos Aires), Odette Carvalho de Lima Seabra (Universidade de São Paulo), Paulo Roberto Rodrigues Soares (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul), Pedro de Almeida Vasconcelos (Universidade Federal da Bahia), Roberto Lobato Corrêa (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro), Rodrigo Hidalgo (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), Saint-Clair Cordeiro da Trindade Junior (Universidade Federal do Pará), Tatiana Schor (Universidade Federal do Amazonas) and Vincent Berdoulay (Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour).
4 Carliana Grosselli (PhD student in Geography/Unioeste), João Henrique Zoehler Lemos (PhD student in Geography/UFSC) and Vitor Hugo Batista (Letters student/PUC-PR).
