In today's world, more than half of the world's population lives in cities, in urban spaces, according to data from the United Nations (UN). In Brazil, this number is even higher. According to data from the 2010 Census, organized by IBGE, almost 85% of the Brazilian population lives in cities. Do you live in a city or in the countryside?
Urban spaces provided people with a series of services and housing conditions that enabled an improvement in their lives. But even with these improvements, city life is fraught with problems. These problems are usually the size of the city in which you live. In bigger cities, the problems are also bigger.
The growth of cities over time has led to a spatial separation from the urban population, leading the wealthier social groups to live in better places: better preserved streets, access to basic sanitation, existence of public lighting, proximity to places that offer banking, educational, health services, among others, as well as greater ease of movement, either due to the proximity of the workplace or the privileged access to roads and means of transportation. transport.
On the other hand, less affluent social groups, generally the lowest-paid workers, live in the worst places of average and large cities, making access to basic sanitation, health and educational services, etc. difficult, as well as their difficulty access to transport, whether by the distance that exists between the places of residence and work, or by the price and conditions of transport public.
Throughout the Brazilian urbanization process, the spatial separation within these spaces meant that, during a certain period of time, between decades From 1900 and 1980, poor social groups were expelled from the central regions of cities, being forced to build their houses on the periphery.
This first happened in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in 1906, when they reformed the center of the city, destroying the homes of poor and destitute people to make this region more beautiful and Modern. The solution found by the expelled ones was to rebuild their houses in the hills around the central region, giving rise to what we know today as favelas. Favelas and other peripheral regions with difficult living conditions also formed in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Recife, Brasília and in all other major cities in the country.
The separation of urban space between the center and the periphery is also linked to the dominance that social groups have over economic and political power. Entrepreneurs and administrators, for example, hold economic power over salaried workers. They still manage to have more political power, by getting their candidates elected, using the economic power they hold for that.
Generally, the places where they exercise this power are located in the city centers. Both city halls, city councils, government palaces, among others, as well as industry federations, large banks, commerce and service companies are in the center of cities. Theaters, cinemas and musical performance rooms are also located in this region, which has led to it being inhabited for a long time by social groups that hold economic and political powers.
Those who do not have this power live on the outskirts, and these are the ones who work in the central regions, being forced to move to that region daily. They usually use public transport, withdrawing part of their wages in order to reach their workplace.
This situation has changed in recent decades, mainly as a result of urban violence and the creation of new commercial centers. Gated condominiums are built on the outskirts of large cities as a place to live for the wealthier social groups, who start to abandon the central regions. Shopping malls also became the main commercial centers.
At the same time, economic growth has mainly enabled the development of commercial establishments on the outskirts, indicating a change in the occupation of these urban spaces, no longer just places of housing.
These few comments made in the text serve to show that cities are living spaces for human beings, which are in constant change. And in your city, how is the spatial division? Are there periphery and center? Trying to answer these questions can help you to better understand the space in which you live.
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
