Espaços urbanos não metropolitanos no nordeste brasileiro: Mossoró/RN como uma capital regional do sertão

Abstract

In the midst of the challenges faced by the Brazilian Northeast, issues related to the insertion of forms of economic development in the Northeastern territories are recurrent and urgent. In this context, we defend the thesis that Mossoró's position as Regional Capital and the conformation of its urban area in the first two decades of the 21st century are effects of the productive restructuring that has taken place in the Brazilian Northeast, linked to the processes of multidimensional spatial organization involved in capitalist expansion in the territory. The problem of the thesis is based on the question: how has productive restructuring in the northeastern Sertão influenced the maintenance of Mossoró as Regional Capital and what were the consequences of this influence on the constitution of its urban space? To answer this question, two hypotheses were put forward. The first proposes that the maintenance of Mossoró's position as a Regional Capital is in line with the effects of changes in the productive structure of the Sertão, spread by the advance of regional productive restructuring. The second hypothesis suggests that Mossoró's regional position and the production of its urban space should be understood together. Due to the large number of municipalities in Mossoró's area of influence, we delimited a territory made up of 23 municipalities, called the pluridynamic territory with intensive use of natural resources (TPURN). The general aim of the research was to identify changes in the productive structure of the TPURN in the first two decades of the 21st century and to see if these changes contributed to the consolidation of Mossoró's position as Regional Capital and how this position affected its urban area. The thesis research was carried out using Marxist theoretical and methodological contributions, basically using quantitative techniques, with emphasis on the creation of categories of analysis that unified the theory of socio-spatial relations of Bob Jessop, Niel Brenner and Martin Jones with the ideas about the organizing processes of capitalist space of Carlos Antônio Brandão. We identified that, since the 2000s, there has been an intensification of the dispersion of productive restructuring in the Sertão through three vectors: the war of places, national productive deconcentration and public and private investment. These factors accelerated the processes of multidimensional spatial organization in the TPURN, increasing regional productive activities and, consequently, strengthening Mossoró's regional position. In this context, the concentration and centralization of capital in the municipality resulted in the expansion of its urban area and a spatial redistribution of the trade and services sectors in its intra-urban area. Based on the data analyzed, we conclude that both hypotheses are true. In this way, the thesis is consistent with the reality of the spatial and temporal context investigated. In this sense, we understand that actions aimed at increasing Mossoró's level of economic development should not only consider demonstrating its advantages. Effective actions must take into account the municipality's regional productive context and the capitalist transformations underway. Thus, other studies, considering the factors associated with Mossoró's regional position, could be carried out to identify challenges and opportunities for the evolution of the municipality's socio-economic and urban area.