Spatial segregation in medium cities during the 1990s: the case of Ribeirão Preto, SP – Brazil

Mattos, Luciana M.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/26154 Copy

Description

Title

Spatial segregation in medium cities during the 1990s: the case of Ribeirão Preto, SP – Brazil

Author(s)

Mattos, Luciana M.

Issue Date

2011-08-25T22:16:32Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Miraftab, Faranak

Department of Study

Urban and Regional Planning

Discipline

Urban Planning

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.U.P.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• income segregation
• residential segregation
• Brazil
• medium cities
• Ribeirao Preto

Abstract

Many are the transformations and changes in the urbanization processes in Brazil since the late 1980s when the democratic regime was established after twenty years of a dictatorship. In Brazil, the 1990s are characterized by the adoption of neoliberal policies and the country´s deep involvement in a globalized economy (globalization) through the opening of the national economy. The consequences of those processes in the intra–urban spatial pattern of cities are the topic of many studies in Brazil and worldwide. Specifically, these studies seek to identify the influence of globalization in the intra–urban morphology of cities attempting to understand whether the 20th Century globalization has brought about a new spatial order within cities as to socioeconomic classes. Although extensive research exists on processes of urban growth and spatial segregation at the metropolitan level, little has been studied in this respect for medium cities. To address this shortcoming my thesis focuses on a medium size city, the city of Ribeirão Preto, and compares its socio–spatial pattern to that of the metropolitan region of São Paulo. I study the pattern of spatial segregation in relation to the socioeconomic inequalities in the two urban contexts and analyze how spatial inequality has been shaped by their respective urban milieus. I first analyze census data and other socioeconomic indicators by city size to identify the national forces affecting the urban form of medium cities during the 1990s compared to cities of different sizes. Next I spatially analyze census data at the census tract level to assess how the socioeconomic inequality of the 1990s has been translated into the spatial order of both areas (Ribeirão Preto and São Paulo). To do that I use methods of cluster analysis in a geographic information system environment followed by a spatial regression to search for the variables statistically affecting spatial segregation in Ribeirão Preto. I argue that, first there are significant differences between how the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo and Ribeirão Preto developed under the influence of neoliberalism and globalization. There is a tendency of more fragmentation in the SPMR and more concentration in Ribeirão Preto. Second, overall, there is little evidence to argue that there is a new spatial order in the intra–urban pattern structure of Ribeirão Preto. I find that segregation by the end of the 20th Century in Ribeirão Preto is very similar to patterns established by the end of the 19th Century: the poor north and the rich south. However, there are signs of changes represented by the proliferation of gated communities which brings rich and poor closer in proximity but still in a very segregated manner.

Graduation Semester

2011-08

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26154

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2011 Luciana M. Mattos

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