Meta-cidades XXI - Uma proposta de colagem de elementos morfológicos genéricos da urbanização contemporânea no Brasil

Abstract

Currently, it is widely held that we live in a globalized capitalist world in which global-local relationships and their consequences and contradictions are the object of interest in all areas of human knowledge. Drawing from the notion that we live in a world marked by planetary urbanization, wherein the distinction between rural and urban is erased and in which we are all subject to the intrinsic functioning of a single global financial market, this paper seeks to foster discussion about whether the morphological and spatial results of planetary urbanization manifest themselves in similar ways in different territories. Specifically, it aims to address the question: can we identify "city fragments" that are similar to one another - or, further yet, nearly indistinguishable - under the same type of socioeconomic phenomena observed globally? Using recurring phenomena (closed condominiums, shopping centers, allotments on the outskirts of cities, illegal occupation, spontaneous or planned business districts and housing programs, etc.) and actors (public authorities, real estate speculators, large international companies, local landowners, immigrants and local populations, among others), this paper proposes the creation of a collage of fragments. It is an experimental approach that, using similar pieces different cities, aims to compose a type of "model city" (or "meta-city") of the image of contemporary urbanization, as a puzzle.