Afetos em construção: narrativas e processos de apropriação do espaço pelos moradores da Cidade 2000

Abstract

This research investigates the affects between the interviewees and the environment where they live, a neighbourhood called Cidade 2000. We aim to identify and analyse, in the narratives of the residents, the affects about the neighbourhood to understand the processes of appropriation of space and esteem for the place. Cidade 2000 is a housing project built on the eastern periphery of Fortaleza in the 1970s. The countryside atmosphere of Cidade 2000 is consistent with the nature of its population, partly made up of migrants who came from the countryside to Fortaleza during the twentieth century. In the past it was isolated from the city and nestled amid an uninhabited area, then called Sítio Cocó. Following the expansion of Fortaleza eastwards Cidade 2000 turned out to be absorbed by the urban area of the capital. The theoretical background of this work was to use concepts of social and environmental psychology, having as the basis the concept of affectivity, from the theory of the authors Spinoza, Vygotsky and Sawaia. The discussion about affectivity and space was based on the concept of esteem for the place, which evaluates empowering and disempowering feelings and emotions in the relationship between person and environment. Narrative interviews were utilised as the methodology. They were conducted with five residents who have been living in Cidade 2000 since the decade of its opening in the 1970s. The interviewees were three males and two females, aged between 46 and 85 years. The results of the research point to a place attachment between the interviewees and their neighbourhood in which one can infer the existence of a sense of security that allows a feeling of belonging and identification by the locals with the public spaces. While Fortaleza as a metropolis grows, generating a fast pace of life, fear and a gap that separates us from the community and from each other, at Cidade 2000 people still stop to experience the city, occupying squares, streets and sidewalks, staying there until late into the night. Despite the small number of interviewees, it can be inferred from the narratives a positive esteem for the place, putting Cidade 2000’s experience as an outstanding example within the urban development context.