Interiorized Urbanization: New Conformations in the Brazilian Northeast Territory Sociedade & Natureza, Vol

Sociedade & Natureza ISSN: 1982-4513 Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Instituto de Geografia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geografia

Bezerra, Josué Alencar Interiorized Urbanization: new conformations in the Brazilian Northeast Territory Sociedade & Natureza, vol. 32, 2020, pp. 373-383 Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Instituto de Geografia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geografia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14393/SN-v32-2020-43437

Available in: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=321364988032

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DOI: 10.14393/SN-v32-2020-43437 Received: 10 August 2018 |Accepted: 03 January 2020

Interiorized Urbanization: new conformations in the Brazilian Northeast Territory

Josué Alencar Bezerra1

Keywords: Abstract Urbanization of the territory The issue of this study points to a concrete object, whose New centralities reference is the configuration of an internalized urban Northeast Cities network in the Brazilian Northeast. To understand this, we studied the formation of the network of cities in the region, considering the urbanization of the territory, until the last decades. We used the theoretical contribution in bibliographic readings of works that deal with the theme as in Azevedo. We analyzed the transformations in the territory accompanied by the restructuring of the economy, the growth of the number and size of cities and the representative increase of the urban roles in the territorial division of labor. We identified in Northeast Brazil an internalized urban network organized and dynamic, with the diffusion of new urban centralities far from the great centers of the region.

1 State University of Rio Grande do Norte, Pau dos Ferros, Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil. E-mail: [email protected]

Soc. Nat. | Uberlândia, MG | v.32 | p.373-383 | 2020 | ISSN 1982-4513 373

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INTRODUCTION (SANTOS, 2008a [1978]; 2004 [1996]). Therefore, it is essential to understand urbanization as a process that created cities in Contemporary urbanization has increasingly the territory. These cities are rich in content, demonstrated the fluidity of productive form, function and process (SANTOS, 2008b investments across the territory and the resizing [1988]), and its apprehension is a necessity in of classical locational factors. This is a new tool this study. that we use to observe the filling of space by When we refer to the non-metropolitan urban economic activities in areas that until then had spaces in the country, we are committed to no representation in the territory. walking in a field that has not yet been The expansion of the object system and action sufficiently studied, compared to more urbanized system (SANTOS, 2004), within the territory, areas, a shelter for large cities and metropolitan has enabled the rise of new urban centralities. regions. To understand this configuration, we studied the However, in recent decades, parallel to the formation of the network of cities in the phenomenon of metropolization in Brazil, some northeast region, considering the process of regional urban frameworks have been preserved, urbanization of the territory, until the last State capitals, which are often the largest urban decades. We analyzed the major changes in the centers, remained in charge of the national territory accompanied by the restructuring of the urban network (O'NELL, 2010). More economy, the growth in the number and size of importantly in this historical moment, however, cities and the significant increase in urban roles is the emergence of a new economic, political and in the territorial division of labor (SANTOS, social logic, market by the modernization and 2005 [1993]). decentralization of activities, but also by a This process is not new; however, it has growing poverty and inequality, which were once pointed a direction of important economic restricted to large metropolitan centers activities to the interior of the territory, thus (SIMÕES; AMARAL, 2011; BEZERRA; LIMA, creating new urban centralities and spreading 2011). characteristics restricted to the metropolises in In this new moment, characterized mainly by urban-regional spaces of smaller cities. the globalization of the economy, the emergence The aim of this paper is to address this of new regionalization reorganized the territory, process that has taken place in the whole both in traditionally concentrated areas of territory in the last decades, we focus, in economic and population resources in the South Northeast Brazil, in a phenomenon we call the and Southeast of the country, as well as in less internalized urban network, which is spanned by dense portions of the Center-West and the constitutive urban centers of this new Northeast. In the latter, there was a stunted configuration of the territory urbanization. We urbanization, which was modified by the conducted a bibliographic survey on scientific diffusion of this process throughout the territory literature and governmental reports. over the last decades, changing the configuration of the urban network of northeastern Brazil.

THE INTERNALIZED URBAN NETWORK: HOW TO READ IT? The formation of the northeastern internalized urban network

Analyzing urbanization, understood as a process whose socio-spatial product is the city, demands The main areas of population and economic an exercise of articulation between space and resources of the Northeast were, or became time (SPOSITO, 2004), especially under marked, especially by the rapid urbanization and capitalism and its rebound in the social division the multiplication of flows of all kinds (people, of labor. matter, capital and information), linked to the Studying urbanization calls for a careful existence of a large economical activity or the historical analysis, observing all geographic rise of new centralities related to territorial objects (structural fixed and relations flows and management (IBGE, 2014). Some of these social contents) responsible for their centers became true corridors of regional conformation in the territory, which allows us to development in the territory’s interior, due to the identify changes and permanences (SANTOS, concentration of activities in this space and, 2004 [1996]) and, thus, their roughness in space thus, the expansion of their influence in smaller

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centers (IBGE, 2008). especially from the end of the last century The analysis of urbanization of cities in the (ANDRADE, 1995). Northeast requires a denser and specific Clementino (1995) reports that until the mid- investigation one the regional economic 1950s, the city in northeastern Brazil assumed a dynamics, and its relation with the formation of purely political-administrative function. The the territory. As Clementino (1995, p. 28) points camp was subordinated to the few existing cities, out: which concentrated most of the population and sheltered the military and mercantile capital. [...] the historical processes of economic This reality, seen in much of the Northeast, development of each of the regions of the (ANDRADE, 1995; CORREA, 1977; LINS, 1990), country will give rise to different processes showed that the spatial distribution of major of urbanization: some more atomized, others functional and relatively more developed centers, more articulated and even those that was essentially along the coast, and the present a hierarchical law of cities. urbanization in the interior is rather delayed in its comparison. In the areas farther from the major centers, As Cascudo (1984 [1955]) states, the especially in the Brazilian Northeast, this aspect interiorization of cities growth in the Northeast, demonstrates a new feature of the urban- initially considered as the constitution of the regional conformation and new senses and first cities, only began in the 18th century with meanings of this portion of smaller cities in the the settlement of Chapada Diamantina, in the regional urban network. For, on the one hand, middle valley of the São Francisco and especially there is the coastal strip, of old occupation, with with the pastoral expansion in the backlands. highly urbanized cities, high urban density and The region that stood out the most in this respect concentration of a low-income population, on the was that which stretched from the Maranhão other, there is the interior, also with indices of lowlands to the lower mucuri (border between low human development, but with the states of Bahia and Espírito Santo), with anurbanization that anables new urban greater penetration of the eastern hinterland centralities to emerge (LUBAMBO et al., 2005). (ANDRADE, 1995). At that time, some important When one looks at the regional issue of the towns and cities were created in the interior of Brazilian Northeast, he can see clearly these the region, such as: Icó (Ceará); Crato (Ceará); changes in the territory, which can be confused Sobral (Ceará); Assu (Rio Grande do Norte); by the growth of human development indices and Campina Grande (Paraíba); Sousa (Paraíba), the inequality in the region's urbanization Senhor do Bonfim (Bahia) and Jacobina (Bahia) (ANDRADE, 1984). This process changed cities (IBGE, 2011). arrangement, and it can be seen as a reflection of Noteworthy, the backlands comprise the dispersed urbanization and conditioning of important areas of northeastern Brazil (from the the social and productive organization that states of Piaui, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, preserved archaic forms of production Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and (ANDRADE, 1984). Bahia), .This dimension is present in Andrade The formation of the Brazilian Northeast (2005 [1963]) when he differentiates the coast refers back to its occupation, observing the from the backlands, and in Oliveira’s (1993 coastal → inland direction, when the first cities [1977]), discussion about the state and class were constituted (AZEVEDO, 1994 [1957]) and, conflicts in the region. Euclides da Cunha's “Os consequently, of the whole regional urban Sertões” (CUNHA, 1963 [1902]), illustrates the system. daily life of the sertanejo (people from backlands) Moreover, the spatial arrangement of the in the face of the adversities of nature and man northeastern cities came from the production in (farmer elites). the countryside and in the city, either from the For a long time, urbanization was traditional economies originating in the colonial insignificant in the Northeast, often pointing to a period, or in the last quarter of the twentieth political and economic predominance of the century, with State participation in industrial countryside over the city, characterized by the policy that reconditioned the region's economy to absence of an articulated urban network and the a new model and redefined the role of important existence of very few command centers. inland cities (CLEMENTINO, 1990). Clementino (1990, p. 72) points out that, In the meantime, these cities began to when discussing the emergence of urbanization assume new market-dictated d functions, hitting in the region, the territorial strongholds of directly the urbanization in the Northeast, colonels and oligarchic families must be

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considered. "[...] As it owns the state apparatus process. at the local level, it uses to its own advantage the benefits of the state and somehow remakes the This past situation remained for several city." In this context, many cities were created decades, causing small population settlements to and developed over decades, and have long been maintain archaic structures of society, hindering under the command of traditional families from the insertion of these spaces to the socioeconomic their respective regions. changes already observed in other regions of the As for the formation of the internalized urban country (SANTOS, 2005 [1993]). Thus, network, especially in the eastern portion of the urbanization of the Northeast was delayed, Northeast, it was originally linked to the cattle especially in its interior, driven by the shortage paths built by the time. According to Andrade of highways facilitating access within the (1981) and Cascudo (1984 [1955]), until the mid- territory (LINS, 1990). eighteenth century, much of the Northeast had The reading about the spread of the road not been occupied. However, the city system corridors, especially the highways, is closely began to be built, mainly on the coast, linked to linked to the expansion of the cities’ influence sugarcane exports, and, in the hinterland, cattle area in the interior of the region and, thus, to raising. population growth. Some of these have stopped According to Cascudo (1984 [1955]), the growing and been absorbed by more dynamic genesis of the region explains regional diversity centers or have lost their importance in the compared to other portions of the Brazilian regional setting (CORRÊA, 1977). territory. On the one hand, for many centuries, a This is a reality seen since the first half of the small group of centers, especially located on the last century (GEIGER, 1963). About the coast, played a role of a regional dynamic pole, emergence of important centers in the interior of moved by the external world, with a little Brazil, Geiger (1963) points out that: internal relationship. On the other, there was a true regional mosaic, formed by more or less From 1920 onwards, new “backlands”, isolated “islands” of settlement without, large “trailheads” and “regional capitals” followed road structures interconnecting them until the in the terminology used by Pierre Mombeig. 1940s (LINS, 1990). They arose as much from the founding of About this first stage of urbanization in the new urban nuclei as from the valorization of region, Andrade (1974) states that cities and old towns hit by the wave of colonization, their regions have long been exercising almost that is, hit by the railroad or the highway exclusively intraregional relations, adapting to (GEIGER, 1963, p. 111, emphasis added). the geographical conditions and the historical moment in which they were created. In addition, climate adversities, have A milestone that accentuated of the region's historically delayed the occupation of Northeast’s urbanization occurred in the 1960s, with the territory, even though in the last decades the expansion of industry, especially promoted by northeastern backlands is currently one of the The Superintendence for the development of the world’s most demographically dense area Northeast (SUDENE), which improved the (SALES, 2002). urban infrastructure of important inland Another issue to be considered is the region's centers. land structure, which is important for This change was evident by of new urban understanding regional diversity of urbanization functions of these centers, especially from the in the Northeast. On the subject, Santos (2005 relative deconstruction of their wholesale roles, [1993], p. 69) points out that the: opening the cities, together with their respective regions, for socioeconomic dialogue with others [...] land tenure structure, hostile from an (CLEMENTINO, 1990). early age to greater income distribution, Even though many inland cities were created, higher consumption and higher only a handful of good quality roads tertiarization, helped to keep millions of interconnected these centers until the late 1970 people in poverty and prevented a more (LINS, 1990). expressive urbanization. Therefore, the The state capitals received the first and introduction of material and social largest structures allowing the maintenance and innovations would encounter great expansion of the urban regional networks. This resistance from a crystallized past in society is because they benefited from their and space, delaying the development administrative function and, therefore,

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concentrated a set of services linked to federal urbanization, in our view, is driven by the and state agencies in the region (CORRÊA, 1977; emergence of new urban centralities composed of CLEMENTINO, 1995). intermediate regional centers that, added to There was a precarious interconnection with their area of influence, become true urban the increasingly important intermediate centers, agglomerations that congregate a large number after the arrival of more specific public and of distributed cities. through the interior of all private investments in these centers regions of the country. (CLEMENTINO, 1995). According to Simões and Amaral (2011), the To this end, we reinforce the importance of spatialization of this phenomenon located on the opening / paving major highways in the region periphery of the Brazilian urban network can such as BRs 101, 304, 222, 232, 324, 230, and currently be understood by the settlement of the others. The paving of BR 116, which linked the electro-electronic, chemical, mechanical and Northeast to the Center-South of the country, transportation industries, located from Minas brought the greatest impact and integration to Gerais to the south of the country, and by the region, as it facilitated the connection of the expansion of the extensive agricultural frontier largest industrialized goods-producing centers to linked to agribusiness, with emphasis on the most of the Northeastern consumer centers, not northern part of Minas Gerais and some portions only on the coast (LINS, 1990). Thus, until the of the northeast. In this region, we also have the late 1970s, very few inland cities were connected displacement of light segments, which require by paved roads, making any commercial and low technological sophistication in products and even administrative relationship with these low qualification of labor, which proves to be the spaces unfeasible. main focus of this activity to regional and local This scenario began to change, when the markets. Also according to Simões and Amaral productive restructuring of the territory took (2011), this set enables the recent spatial place and when decentralizing policies had been dispersion of these productive sectors in the implemented since the 1990s and, mainly, in the interior of the Northeast and the emergence of 2000s, projecting the northeastern urban an embryonic polycentric urban network, formed network, especially the interiorized one, with by historically poor regions and their respective emphasis on the national urban network. regional centers. What we see in this process is the attraction of the most developed cities in the South and The new configuration of the northeastern Southeast of the country for the most capital- urbanized interior network intensive manufacturing industry, while in the interior of the Northeast and Midwest, we see the arrival of labor-intensive industrial segments Although the urbanization process in the (SIMÕES; AMARAL, 2011). Northeast region was a little slower compared to In the Northeast, we have observed an other regions of the country, especially in economic restructuring in the region that has relation to the Southeast, at the end of the allowed the advance of some urban activities, at twentieth century, large northeastern cities, first, more concentrated, in the large some constituted as consolidated metropolitan metropolitan regions, but also coming in the regions, appeared as spaces of great regional and small centers. This change allowed concentration. population and more advanced some national and even international groups to economic activities. These spaces are promoters settle in these smaller spaces, enabling the of “[...] technical and scientific knowledge and regional integration of some areas. political decision-making bodies” (LIMONAD, The crisis and shrinkage of the traditional 1996, p. 231) and can be seen everywhere. and complex sugar and alcohol activity, located On the other hand, given the new directions on the coast of the Northeast region, which has that urbanization has been taking in the been gradually transferred to the states of São territory, it is possible to observe the advance of Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goiás (ARAÚJO, some cities in the interior of the Northeast, in 2014) should be noted. In the midst of this, we the instances of power, as well as assuming a have the arrival of large projects in all states of commanding role of their regional urban the region: wind plants in Rio Grande do Norte, network, even though they are still subordinate Ceará, Bahia and Piauí; thermoelectric and steel to the state capitals (IBGE, 1972, 1987, 2000, plants in Ceará and Maranhão; refinery and 2008). automotive industry in Pernambuco; shipyard This recent process of interiorization of and pulp industry in Bahia, among others. All

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these bases have led to major changes in the process of territorial restructuring in recent productive structure of the region, which has decades in the region, which intensified the been directly impacting the dynamics of cities socioeconomic relations intrinsic to urbanization and their respective regions. in much of the Northeast, little has changed Traditional economies, such as livestock and from the atomization characteristic of the cotton, have been losing importance for the northeastern urban network (CANO, 1989). construction, agribusiness sectors, especially for According to the author (CANO, 1989), The grain production, “[...] such as hydroelectric urban paralysis that occurred in the first (Maranhão), wind power plants (Bahia, Piaui, decades of the twentieth century provided a: Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte), Refineries (Pernambuco and Ceará), Shipyards [...] social heritage, with huge demographic (Pernambuco, Alagoas, Bahia and Maranhão), surplus, perverse land structure and Steel (Maranhão and Ceará), Pulp (Maranhão retrograde agriculture [promoting] a and Bahia), Automotive (Pernambuco) and geographically and economically dispersed Petrochemical (Pernambuco) [...] ”(ARAÚJO, urbanization, consisting mainly of its nine 2014, p. 549) and, above all, for the expansion of regional capitals and about two dozen the tertiary sector, refunctioning the regional medium-sized cities, many of them inland centers, with the expansion of education, health, (CANO, 1989, p. 68). modern commerce, specialized services aimed at companies and personnel. This social heritage has brought to the region With this, we must not forget that the a structural inequality, in which the levels of changes in the productive structure of the region, marginality and poverty grew to higher levels in especially in the tertiary, have provided, within the country, and even its main centers could not the Northeast, the consolidation of small enjoy the benefits of more structured clusters, confectioners, small dairy and sheep industries, such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (CANO, among other sectors. 1989). But above all, the expansion of the science, This distorted profile of the Brazilian urban technology and innovation base that the Federal network, especially in the Northeast, can be Government has fostered in recent years has clearly seen in the analysis of some studies of the resulted in the expansion of universities in the Brazilian urban network (GEIGER, 1963; interior and technical education institutes, with CORRÊA, 2006). However, the emergence, in the the establishment of new centers for research last decades, of some intermediate centers that and development of centers technological have been playing an important role in the developments in the interior (ARAÚJO, 2014). provision of services and commercial and In the last decade, 07 federal universities industrial centralization, results in an important were created in the interior of the Northeast, process to be observed, which shows us the distributed in several campuses spread design of this internalized urban network in the throughout the regional centers of the region. region. Among the universities created in this context of Currently, with a prominent position in internalization of higher education, we highlight charge of the urbanized interior network in the the Federal University of Western Bahia Northeast, we can highlight the cities of Sobral (UFOB); the Federal Rural University of Semi- (Ceará), Juazeiro do Norte (Ceará), Mossoró (Rio Arid (UFERSA); the Federal University of Vale Grande do Norte), Campina Grande (Paraíba), do São Francisco (UNIFASV) and the Federal Caruarú (Pernambuco), Arapiraca (Alagoas), University of Carirí (UFCA) (MEC, 2012). Petrolina (Bahia), Feira de Santana (Bahia), Given this conjuncture, in the Northeast Vitória da Conquista (Bahia), Ilhéus (Bahia) and region, the cities of Fortaleza, Recife and Barreiras (Bahia), which have been running the Salvador have appeared in recent decades as the urban network in the Northeast, assuming the spaces that are in charge of the regional urban role of interlocution with the most developed network, presenting themselves as the main capitals and metropolitan centers of the region, population, industrial and tourist centers, as well as regional subcenters (IBGE, 2008). It is although these centers and their respective important to stress that some of these centers metropolitan regions are still relatively assume this status in the regional urban segmented and discontinuous in relation to the network in co-participation with other industrial and command corridor, especially conurbated / nearby centers, such as Petrolina located in the Southeast (IBGE, 2008). (Bahia) with Juazeiro (Pernambuco); Juazeiro do Even with these changes that were part of the Norte (Ceará) with Crato (Ceará) and Barbalha

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(Ceará) and Ilhéus (Bahia) with Itabuna (Bahia). northeastern semiarid (SANTOS, 2016). This conformation was considered, for example, This process involves the diffusion of new in the study of REGIC - 2007 (IBGE, 2008). urban centers far from the great metropolitan Considering what happens in the North of the centers of the region, something that is closely country, where we still have a large spacing in linked to the economic interconnection and, thus, the occupation of the territory, characterized by to a greater geographical approximation between the existence of municipalities with immense the spaces. territorial dimensions and very thin population Even with the maintenance of a polycentric densities, in the Northeast, we can say that and macrocephalic urban network, with regard there is a demographic and spatial consolidation to the concentration of economic and population very densely in some areas (IBGE, 2011). resources / investments in the capitals, there is Based on the last Demographic Census an increasingly dense urban conformation within (IBGE, 2011), of the 05 largest cities with the the territory, which in some cases reaches largest population in the country, 02 are generate political and economic rivalry between northeastern: Salvador (3rd) and Fortaleza (5th). these intermediate centers and state capitals, The Northeast (with 30 cities) appears, after the such as between Mossoró and Natal, in Rio Southeast (with 73 cities), as the region that Grande do Norte, and Campina Grande and João houses the largest number of non-metropolitan Pessoa, in Paraíba. municipalities with a population of over 100 These centers have a huge range between the thousand inhabitants, followed by the South supply of goods and services and population (with 29 cities), North (with 10 cities) and concentration, in contrast, on the other hand, we Midwest (with 07 cities). Some of these centers have an internalized urban network, even with appear with great spatial representation in their the rise of some cities, the inexpressiveness of regions. Here, again, we highlight Feira de the majority and / or the polarization of cities. Santana (Bahia) (556.642 inhabitants); Campina one or two intermediate centers in each state. Grande (Paraíba) (385.213 inhabitants); Caruarú Thus, in summary, what we have observed so far (Pernambuco) (314.912 inhabitants); Petrolina is the emergence of a small number of regional (Bahia) (293.962 inhabitants); Mossoró (Rio centers, some with characteristics of medium- Grande do Norte) (259.815 inhabitants), besides sized cities, and a large number of small towns Imperatriz (Maranhão) (247.505 inhabitants) with populations of less than 20.000 inhabitants (IBGE, 2008; 2011). (Figure 01). Although it is still evident the concentration As we can see in figure 01, there is a distance of population, equipment and services in the in the population size between the state capitals state capitals of the region, some intermediate in relation to the other urban centers of its centers have been showing an upward movement interior. First, we highlight the large percentage in the regional urban network, very related to of small centers (82.54%), many of which are run activities related to globalized agricultural by the nearest intermediate articulation centers production that, according to Elias (2011, 2013), (IBGE, 2011). We believe that this very common they form, in some cases, Agribusiness scenario in the interior of the Northeast is linked Productive Regions (RPA), characterized by to the accelerated process of political and modern agricultural spaces and non- administrative emancipation of several metropolitan urban spaces, especially municipalities in the region that gave cities the characterized by medium-sized cities. status of all these new municipalities. Some regions under the influence of Juazeiro The IBGE (2008) shows that the hierarchical (Bahia) / Petrolina (Pernambuco), Mossoró (Rio organization of cities follows this inequality in its Grande do Norte) and Barreiras (Bahia) have conformation in the Northeast region. While in moved from subsistence areas to highly the Center-South of the country, we have a developed agricultural regions, where their structured urban network, comprised of a headquarters house modern urban facilities considerable number of metropolises, regional (airports, malls, hypermarkets, concessionaires capitals and well-articulated subregional vehicles) and specialized services (clinics and centers, in the Northeast, we have a spaced medical laboratories, rental of agricultural distribution between the centers, noting the machines, universities, technical schools) that absence of some levels. Hierarchical make up a modern tertiary in the middle of the intermediaries.

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Figure 01 – Northeast Region: population scale of the largest cities by state (2010).

Source: 2010 Population Census (IBGE, 2011). Author's organization, Jun., 2015. Note: For the preparation of this figure, with the population scale (horizontal bars) of the northeastern cities, I considered the urban population of the seven largest cities in each state, based on the latest data from the Demographic Census of the state. IBGE (2011). Therefore, I excluded the cities that are attached to the headquarters of the metropolitan areas or urban agglomerations of state capitals. The presentation is organized in a decreasing way, based on the population size of the state capitals, which, in this case, are the largest.

With this, we realize that, even with the in the command of the state capitals under the growth of the socioeconomic dynamics of the regional urban network that can be seen by the interior areas, polarized by cities with relative concentration of the total population by urban centralization in the region, it is not metropolitan agglomerate of the capitals (Figure possible to see a major change in the supremacy 02).

Figure 02 – Northeast Region: concentration of the total population by metropolitan agglomerate of the capitals (2010)

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Source: 2010 Population Census (IBGE, 2011); Observatório de Metrópoles (2010). Organization and cartography by Josué A. Bezerra, Jun., 2016. For this representation, I considered the metropolitan areas or urban agglomerations of the Northeast that have in their headquarters the state capitals. For comparative data by Federation Unit, the municipality of Timon (Maranhão), which is on the left bank of the Parnaíba River and has a total population of 155,396 inhabitants. (IBGE, 2011), was not accounted for as an entity of the Integrated Development Region of Greater Teresina (Piauí).

Finally, we can say that the northeastern element of geographical space, privileging the urban network continues to have a political and speed of transformations, the complexity of economic polarization on the coast, with interactions between places, and the multiplicity branches led by midsize centers, but also with of actions that characterize the spatial relations regional sub-centers that have gained (CORREA, 2006a; 2012), still have traditional importance in the periphery of this network. ties of structure and hierarchical obedience of These subregional centers articulate with a cities, mostly related to the spatial structuring of group of smaller cities, which are the majority in regional command centers in peripheral scales of the country, and play a key role in organizing the the urban network. urban-regional space within. Thus, it is true that, considering the diversity and dimensions of Brazilian urban networks, we have seen that the most recent research points to FINAL CONSIDERATIONS an opening of urban systems in the current period that allows a diversity of configurations in a set of urban networks (SPOSITO, 2011). , with The new features of urbanization in the the advent of new productive processes in space, territory, as well as the recent conformation of and the evidence of subverted borders, which the Brazilian urban network, made us see the suggests a break in the hierarchical structure of new forms of representation of the urban cities in the scope of production, circulation, phenomenon on the geographic scale in which distribution and consumption (SANTOS, 2004 the northeastern cities are located. [1996]; CORRÊA, 2012). One of the conclusions we can consider in this However, Santos (2008b [1988]; 2004 [1996]) end is part of the realization that the urban stated that, even with the advent of the network today, even considering it as a dynamic technical-scientific-informational environment, it

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is still possible to find certain levels of hierarchy ______. A terra e o homem no Nordeste – in some scales of the urban and regional Contribuições ao Estudo da Questão Agrária no network, such as We observed in our research Nordeste. 8. ed. Recife: Cortez, 2005 [1963]. object that smaller cities are closely linked to the ______. A questão do território no Brasil. immediate next center of their urban network. Hucitec: São Paulo, 1995. This conservative configuration of the urban ARAÚJO, T. B. Nordeste: desenvolvimento network is linked to the geographical situation in recente e perspectivas. Caderno 19. In: which cities find themselves in space, with the GUIMARÃES, P. F.; AGUIAR, R. A. de; arrangement of a structured relationship in MARTINS, H. M.; SILVA, L. M. M. da. Um certain urban networks. olhar territorial para o desenvolvimento: Thus, this set of cities is part of the Nordeste. Rio de Janeiro: BNDES, p. 539-560, internalized urban network, understood by the 2014. emergence, in recent decades, of some AZEVEDO, A. de. Vilas e cidades do Brasil intermediate centers that have played an colonial: ensaio de geografia urbana important role in the provision of services and retrospectiva. In: Revista Geografia, Espaço commercial and industrial centralization in non- e Memória. São Paulo: AGB/Terra Livre, n. metropolitan areas of the territory. 10, 1994 [1957]. In the Brazilian Northeast, this phenomenon BEZERRA, J. A.; LIMA, K. Q. de. Desigualdades seems more evident, considering the late and socioespaciais em pequenas cidades: a geographically dispersed urbanization process, segregação residencial na cidade de Pau dos triggered in the second half of the last century Ferros-RN. In: Revista Geotemas. Pau dos (CANO, 1989; CLEMENTINO, 1990; SIMÕES; Ferros, Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil, v. 1, n. 1, AMARAL, 2011) and which can be understood by p. 43-54, jan./jun., 2011. medium-sized cities and / or regional centers and https://doi.org/10.33237/geotemas.v1i1.120 numerous small towns scattered throughout the CANO, W. Urbanização: sua crise e revisão de interior of the states. seu planejamento. In: Revista de Economia We note that this new phase of urbanization Política. v. 9, n 1. São Paulo, p. 62-82, provided the diffusion of new urban centers far jan./mar. 1989. from the great (metropolitan) centers of the CASCUDO, L. da C. História do Rio Grande region, something that is closely linked to the do Norte. 2. ed. Natal: Fundação José economic interconnection and, thus, to a greater Augusto. 1984 [1955]. geographical approximation between spaces, CLEMENTINO, M. do L. M. Complexidade de generating, each time more, a densified urban uma urbanização periférica. 307 f. Tese conformation within the territory. (Doutorado em Economia). Instituto de In this dimension of the northeastern urban Economia da Universidade Estadual de network, the regional centers located in the Campinas. Campinas, 1990. interior are those that play a spatial role on this ______. Economia e urbanização: o Rio scale in the strata of the northeastern urban Grande do Norte nos anos 70. Natal: network, most of them composed of medium- UFRN/CCHLA, 1995. sized cities, commanding what we call the CORRÊA, R. L. Aspectos da urbanização do interiorized urban network. Nordeste. Departamento de estudos econômicos do Nordeste. Banco do Nordeste: Fortaleza, 1977. REFERENCES ______. Estudos sobre a rede urbana. Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil, 2006. ______. Redes geográficas: reflexões sobre um ANDRADE, M. C. de. Cidade e campo no tema persistente. In: Cidades, Presidente Brasil. Editora Brasiliense: São Paulo, 1974. Prudente, v.9, n.16, 2012. ______. A produção do espaço norte-rio- CUNHA, E. da. Os Sertões. 27 ed. Brasília: grandense. UFRN. Ed. Universitária UFRN: Editora da Universidade de Brasília, 1963 Natal, 1981. [1902]. ______. A questão regional. O caso do Nordeste. ELIAS. D. Agronegócio e novas regionalizações In: MARANHÃO, Sílvio. A questão Nordeste. no Brasil. In: Revista Brasileira de Estudos Estudos sobre formação histórica, Urbanos e Regionais (ANPUR), v.13, n.2, p. desenvolvimento e processos políticos e 153-167, 2011. ideológicos. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, p. 41- ______. Globalização, agricultura e urbanização 53, 1984. no Brasil. In: ACTA Geográfica, Boa Vista,

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