{"id":247073,"date":"2017-10-09T18:23:33","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T21:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=247073\/"},"modified":"2017-10-09T18:23:33","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T21:23:33","slug":"a-life-within-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/a-life-within-walls\/","title":{"rendered":"A life within walls"},"content":{"rendered":"
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L\u00e9o Ramos Chaves <\/span><\/a> A housing complex built as part of the Minha Casa Minha Vida program for middle-income residents close to downtown Presidente PrudenteL\u00e9o Ramos Chaves <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Presidente Prudente\u2014a city with 230,000 residents located 558 kilometers (km) from the state capital\u2014seems to be segregating itself as groups of residents of higher and lower incomes close themselves within their respective spaces. Other midsized cities in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo, which are defined as those with 100,000 to 600,000 residents and which often serve as regional hubs with influence over dozens of nearby cities and towns, are experiencing the same phenomenon, according to studies performed in recent years by a team of researchers from S\u00e3o Paulo State University (UNESP).<\/p>\n

Those who travel north from downtown President Prudente will notice lands occupied by rural properties, which seem to represent the outskirts of town, but that is not the case. Further north, there are dozens of rows of duplex dwellings. They are part of a low-income housing complex built under the Brazilian government\u2019s Minha Casa Minha Vida program. The 2,600 houses, home to approximately 8,000 residents, were inaugurated in 2015. Begun in 2009, the Minha Casa Minha Vida program (which literally translates to \u201cMy House, My Life\u201d) became the largest Brazilian housing project program in the past 30 years, with almost R$300 billion invested and 10.5 million beneficiaries as of October 2016.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Up close, differences in the houses become more apparent: complementary programs offering credit for the purchase of building materials have enabled the construction of high walls and gates that completely isolate the area, while other houses remain exposed. Signs for markets, bars, and beauty salons line the entrances to the houses, even without legal permission for business activities. The treeless landscape is marked by the yellow tower of a school, which itself is surrounded by walls and an electric fence.<\/p>\n

To the south, 9 km from the complex, there is a set of high-end gated communities surrounded by four-meter-high walls lined with electric fences. \u201cIn the interviews we carried out, the residents reported that their biggest concern was safety, but they acknowledged that they sought social distinction through their housing choice,\u201d explains geographer Arthur Whitacker, professor at the School of Science and Technology (FCT) of UNESP\u2019s Presidente Prudente campus. Neither houses nor people can be seen from the street\u2014only long walls. High walls with barbed wire also surround the groups of buildings for middle-income residents that make up the Minha Casa Minha Vida program closer to the center of the city.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>These complexes and gated communities have contributed to the widening of the urban area. In an article published this year in Mercator <\/em>magazine from the Federal University of Cear\u00e1 (UFC), French geographer Herv\u00e9 Th\u00e9ry, visiting professor from the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP), observed that the Minha Casa Minha Vida program led to the formation of the largest neighborhoods in cities such as Ponta Por\u00e3 (Mato Grosso do Sul) and Sobral (Cear\u00e1).<\/p>\n

Other researchers agree. \u201cThese gated communities catering to people of distinct income ranges are set up as if there were many cities within one, since the residents of each one rarely interact with residents from the others,\u201d summarizes geographer Maria Encarna\u00e7\u00e3o Sposito, professor at UNESP and coordinator of a multidisciplinary team that has studied changes in midsized cities. Sposito explains that socio-spatial separation\u2014first examined in Brazil by geographer Milton Santos (1926-2001) in the 1980s in his studies on metropolises\u2014has recently intensified due to the decrease in communal spaces shared by different social classes. Examples of these spaces include streets in city centers, which today are generally occupied by lower-income residents.<\/p>\n

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L\u00c9O RAMOS CHAVES<\/span><\/a> Local school (yellow tower<\/em>) and low-income housing in northern Presidente PrudenteL\u00c9O RAMOS CHAVES<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

To demonstrate the reach of this phenomenon, Sposito refers to the maps from the six cities studied by her group since 2012: Presidente Prudente, Ribeir\u00e3o Preto, S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 do Rio Preto, Mar\u00edlia, S\u00e3o Carlos (which are located in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo), and Londrina (in Paran\u00e1). These cities were chosen because of their historical and economic similarities: all six were established around the coffee industry in the early twentieth century. The maps created based on the 2010 Brazilian Census and on the group’s field surveys provide evidence of concentrations of lower-income housing complexes and more densely populated areas in the northern regions of the cities and of wealthier neighborhoods in the southern regions of the cities in the cases of Presidente Prudente, Ribeir\u00e3o Preto, S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 do Rio Preto, Mar\u00edlia, and Londrina. The opposite has occurred in the city of S\u00e3o Carlos: the wealthier neighborhoods are located in the north, and the poorer neighborhoods are located in the south. In addition, the division is not as clear there, \u201cthough sectioning is being integrated through the construction of new high-end gated communities,\u201d Sposito explains.<\/p>\n

In addition, three architects\u2014B\u00e1rbara Siqueira, professor at Extremo Sul Catarinense University (UNESC), Sandra Silva, and Ricardo Silva, professors at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCAR)\u2014examined urban occupation in S\u00e3o Carlos and S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 do Rio Preto from 1970 to 2010. In support of the UNESP researchers\u2019 conclusions, they found that gated communities reinforce \u201csocial and spatial fragmentation processes on urban borders through the establishment of large walled spaces and through the horizontal and discontinuous spread of cities,\u201d as reported in their 2016 article published in the journal Revista Pol\u00edticas P\u00fablicas & Cidades<\/em> (Public Policies and Cities Journal).<\/p>\n

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L\u00c9O RAMOS CHAVES<\/span><\/a> Walls and gates around houses…L\u00c9O RAMOS CHAVES<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Urban Insecurity<\/strong>
\nThe results of studies by the UNESP group have indicated significant involvement of real estate companies in determining the areas to be occupied by new housing projects and complexes. Meanwhile, the residents feel protected from urban violence after moving into gated communities and proud to be able to buy their own houses. \u201cRegardless of their socioeconomic group, the residents we interviewed consistently reported an underlying feeling of insecurity, as if urban violence were everywhere and not restricted to specific times or areas,\u201d says historian Eda G\u00f3es, the UNESP professor who coordinated the interviews. \u201cThe idea of urban insecurity supports the ideal of living in a gated community,\u201d she continues. According to G\u00f3es, this growing socio-spatial separation represents \u201ca rejection of the city as a common collective space, which is the essence of urban living.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sposito, G\u00f3es, and other researchers from the group have identified the likely consequences of this socio-spatial segregation: an increase in the value placed on private spaces and a decrease in the value placed on public spaces, such as the city center and plazas; the emptying of city streets, which increasingly become areas for mere circulation, rather than for social gathering; a surge in social stereotypes about richer groups and poorer groups; and the strengthening of new mechanisms involved in the development of urban space. In the past, Sposito notes, the formation of a commercial or residential area was the result of the initiative of small business owners, local government, and residents.<\/p>\n

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L\u00c9O RAMOS CHAVES<\/span><\/a> … and businesses: concern over safety is common in all socioeconomic classesL\u00c9O RAMOS CHAVES<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cToday, the development of urban spaces and the expansion of cities are largely governed by real estate companies which, with the support of local governments, decide where to build gated communities and shopping malls, decisions which quickly establish where commerce will take place,\u201d says Sposito. Economist Everaldo Melazzo, a professor at UNESP who analyzed the role of real estate companies, adds the following: \u201cReal estate companies choose which areas will be occupied, and based on their pricing, the social groups which will occupy them.\u201d Melazzo highlights the limits of this system of expansion and occupation in cities, one which is no longer questioned: \u201cPrivate capital alone cannot organize cities or create social life. Public policies are fundamental for organizing and qualifying the development of urban spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Identification or Discomfort<\/strong>
\nIn Brazil’s most recent expansion process, which began to take off in the 1960s, shopping malls have reinforced social separation by creating private spaces for leisure and consumption which are focused on specific socioeconomic groups. In an article published in the Portuguese journal Finisterra<\/em>, G\u00f3es argues that shopping malls work to make certain visitors feel more or less comfortable and select for certain groups through the use of marketing that generates identification or discomfort, through the number and disposition of the guards, and through the use of security cameras. G\u00f3es spotted 50 cameras in the mall known as Prudenshopping and 16 in the Parque Shopping mall. The latter was built downtown in 1989 to target a lower-income market. According to the professor, surveillance systems reflect a practice of social scrutiny that may even be desired by shoppers, since these systems highlight \u201ca supposed efficacy on the part of the market to respond to problems that the state has shown to be unable to resolve, such as public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

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L\u00c9O RAMOS CHAVES<\/span><\/a> The outer wall of a high-end gated community…L\u00c9O RAMOS CHAVES<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Shopping malls have quickly transformed city centers by attracting stores meant for wealthier consumers or by inducing the adaptation of individual stores to suit clients with less purchasing power. \u201cRetail stores try to find their own niches in the market,\u201d explains UNESP professor Eliseu Sposito, who studied the consequences of the arrival of large chain stores selling home appliances in midsized cities. He also observed changes in retail stores in the city of Chapec\u00f3, in Santa Catarina State, one of the 18 cities studied by 43 researchers from the Network of Midsized Cities (RECIME), a research group involving 17 universities from Brazil, two from Chile, and one from Argentina. The studies from the Research Group on the Production of Space and Regional Redefinitions (GASPERR) of UNESP, as well as other studies from the RECIME, have helped scholars to understand the processes and rhythms of transformation within midsized cities.<\/p>\n

Made up of 18 researchers and more than 50 students, the UNESP research group interviewed residents of the six cities between 2012 and 2016 in order to investigate changes in their consumption habits and the impact of the arrival of large chain stores, which have created new shopping centers. As a result of these new retail outlets, \u201cdowntown areas in midsized cities have lost their social prestige and have become increasingly lower class, but they haven’t died out completely,\u201d says Whitacker. With many stores playing music at the entrances at the same time, the streets downtown allow for a level of expression and spontaneity rarely permitted in shopping malls. \u201cThe city’s protests and demonstrations happen here,\u201d says Melazzo as he walks to an area known as \u201cthe shopping mall for the masses,\u201d a series of booths and tents selling products on the informal market.<\/p>\n

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L\u00c9O RAMOS CHAVES<\/span><\/a> …and upscale family dwellings, both in southern Presidente PrudenteL\u00c9O RAMOS CHAVES<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

At six o\u2019clock in the evening, however, the stores close and the streets go quiet. Neighborhood movie theaters, such as Presidente Prudente\u2019s Cine Presidente, faded out in the 1990s. \u201cThe city center is merely a commercial center; it is no longer the center of residents’ social lives,\u201d concludes geographer N\u00e9cio Turra Neto, a professor at UNESP who studies changes in nightlife in Presidente Prudente. This nightlife includes bars, clubs, and dance halls, which today are centered around the avenues close to Prudenshopping.<\/p>\n

Project<\/strong>
\nEconomic logic and contemporary spatial practices: Midsized cities and consumption (n\u00ba 11\/20155-3<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Thematic Project; Principal Investigator<\/strong> Maria Encarna\u00e7\u00e3o Beltr\u00e3o Sposito (UNESP); Investment<\/strong> R$3,646,985.87.<\/p>\n

Scientific articles
\nG\u00d3ES, E. Shopping center: Consumo, simula\u00e7\u00e3o e controle social<\/a>. Finisterra<\/strong>. V. 51, No. 102, p. 65-80. 2016.
\nSIQUEIRA, B. V. et al<\/em>. Novas configura\u00e7\u00f5es em periferias de cidades m\u00e9dias paulistas: A prolifera\u00e7\u00e3o dos empreendimentos habitacionais com controle de acesso<\/a>. Revista Pol\u00edticas P\u00fablicas & Cidades<\/strong>. V. 4, No. 1, p. 69-92. 2016.
\nTH\u00c9RY, H. Novas paisagens urbanas do programa Minha Casa Minha Vida<\/a>. Mercator<\/strong>. V. 16, e16002, p. 1-14. 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gated communities and shopping malls accentuate social and spatial separation","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[239,261,265],"coauthors":[5968],"class_list":["post-247073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humanities","tag-geography","tag-sociology","tag-urbanism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247073"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=247073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}