challengesinarticulatingtheurbanandtheenvironmental.docVIP

THEME – CHALLENGES IN ARTICULATING THE URBAN AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA – SOME INITIAL REFLECTIONS ON THE BRAZILIAN SCENARIO Rosana Denaldi, Sandra Momm, Jeroen Klink (UFABC) Setting the stage In much of the debates on the reshaping of economic geographies under globalization, it has become common to stress the ambiguous role of cities, city-regions and metropolitan areas in contemporary capitalist development. While concentrating a series of opportunities that come with economic agglomeration (particularly in light of the clustering of employment, income and creativity), the (post)-metropolis also represents a privileged arena where a group of interconnected contradictions and conflicts are played out, and which have lead to increasing levels of environmental degradation, socio-spatial exclusion and violence. More specifically in relation to the Brazilian setting, city regions and metropolitan areas continue to mobilize the more dynamic production and innovation networks within the overall territory. Approximately 30% of the national population of around 170 million inhabitants is concentrated in nine metropolises, while the three largest metropolitan areas in the southeastern states (Rio, S?o Paulo and Belo Horizonte) make up some 20% of total population. At the same time, however, the census date of the year 2000 show that the 11 largest metropolitan areas concentrate a third of the national housing deficit in general, and 90% of the deficit among the so-called poorest of the poor in particular. Moreover, the lack of effective leverage of local governments over speculative real estate markets, the consequent crowding out of low income segments to the worst locations in environmentally sensitive and risk areas, the proliferation of private cars ownership and the gradual collapse of public mobility and transportation systems have all combined to created a scenario whereby cities and metropolitan areas are characterized as motors behind socially and environmenta