AMONG RIVERS, HIGHWAYS AND GREAT PROJECTS: CHANGES AND PERMANENCES IN URBAN REALITIES OF THE LOW TOCANTINS (PARÁ)

Abstract

A reflection on the changes and continuities of riverside cities in the Amazon is of particular importance, because it allows: to analyze the socio-spatial profile of those cities that are considered as traditional, to discuss parameters of political thinking to their development, and also, to problematize what is the right to the city in them. In this way, we take the game between the regional particularities and singularities of these cities as a starting point for the exercise of planning and management that incorporate specific local demands and also taking in consideration, consequently, its main socio-spatial attributes. In order to undertake this discussion, we take into account the peculiarities and particularities of the socio-spatial realities of three cities in the Northeast of Pará: Baião, Mocajuba and Cametá. Located at South of Tocantins, these cities are situated between two large economic projects, the Tucuruí’s Hydroeletric Power Station, at the city of Tucuruí, and Albras-Alunorte’s Complex, at the city of Barcarena. From the conditions of traditional coastal towns and the new network components installed more recently in the sub-region of which they form, we are seeking to discuss the processes of changes and continuities in terms of socio-spacial point of view related to them.