Fragmentação e expansão urbana: espaços do medo na região metropolitana de Fortaleza-Ceará

Abstract

The unity of the city of Fortaleza has been altered because of a change in the pattern of segregation center-suburbs (the rich versus the poor) for another one, composed by a mosaic of independent units in the Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza – MRF. The increase of the sensation of urban insecurity and the increase of the feeling of fear in the MRF, mainly on its central area, justify the self-segregation of the middle class and high society people on residential enclaves. As consequence, it is seen that the increase on the number and diversification of these gated communities have direct effect on the transformations of the socio-space, intra-urban or intra-metropolitan organization. Following this line of thought, this paper has as its main goal analyzing the intensification of the socio-space fragmentation, which is occurring in Fortaleza-Ceará on the first decade of the year 2000. Besides this initial goal, this study aims to describe the impacts of it on the social-space fabric using three levels of analysis (physical-space fragmentation, social fragmentation and socio-territorial fragmentation) and to identify areas of high concentration of gated communities in the MRF. On what concerns the methodological procedures, there was a definition of the categories, of the different levels of analysis, of the scales (time and geographical), the types of impact (variables and representation) and primary/secondary data collection. This way, this paper highlights the change in the model of dual segregation (center-suburbs) towards the pattern of socio-space fragmentation that has been seen developing, at present moment, in parts of municipalities of Eusébio and Aquiraz, on the southeast area (a linear part that starts nearby Edson Queiroz until Messejana) and in specific parts of the city of Fortaleza. On regard to the theoretical-methodological contribution, the articulation among three space units – the metropolitan, the city and the neighborhood scales – allows us to question and evaluate the impact of the enclaves on different geographical scales and different levels of fragmentation (physical-space fragmentation, socio-territorial fragmentation and social fragmentation). Through this study, it was possible to make a contextualization and understand the reasons of the intensification of the socio-space differentiation the physical-space and socio-territorial segregation. In the end, it was identified a piece of the mid-east, De Lourdes neighborhood, which shows a high concentration of horizontal residential condominiums with a tendency for the installation of luxury apartment condominiums. Both the residential patterns have an ample offer of leisure and service facilities on the common areas, establishing a high degree of autonomy from the city. Besides this characteristic, De Lourdes neighborhood suffers a strong socio-territorial fragmentation, in which can be highlighted strategies of surveillance and security even on their public areas and a low integration with the surrounding communities. Indeed, the imposition of physical barriers and the transference of part of the socio-space practices into wall-protected perimeters of the fortified enclaves transform the relation between public and private spaces and increase the segmentation of the socio-space fabric of Fortaleza.