Eugenic Utopias, Colonial-Modern Dystopias: A Transnational History of Apartheid from Johannesburg to Brasilia

ABSTRACT

In this paper we broadly outline the currents of thought on urban planning at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century, its English and French strands in relation to eugenics and the influences of these urban models in two points of the South Atlantic: Brazil and South Africa. This work was possible through a transnational historical analysis of eugenic influences on regional plans in Brasilia and Johannesburg. Considering the specific context of each place, we highlight the importance of the 1950s in the reformulation and applicability of these theories in those corners of the world. Finally, we point out the connections between capital, the national-developmentalist state and the racist/colonial structures that allowed the existence of cities that still cement eugenic dreams and colonized dystopias today.

Keywords:
Eugenics; Apartheid; Urban planning; Late capitalism; Colonialism