Processo de gentrificação em Belém-PA: em busca dos significados locais para o bairro do Reduto, em período recente

Abstract

This work is born from the concern to understand the process of urban and social transformation that is taking place in several cities around the world: gentrification. The present thesis aims to understand, from an interdisciplinary perspective, how the urban process known as gentrification happens during contemporary times in Belém. It is Applied this process structure to a neighborhood of Belém named Reduto, an old neighborhood, that is located in the surroundings of the historic center of Belém, which has experienced urban and social changes; and has been recognized as experiencing the gentrification process, not the classic process, but a process with gentrified features. Ultimately, this research explores both the relevance of the gentrification theory and the local meanings it has assumed, so that to highlight the gentrified features that this neighborhood presents, being necessary to describe the classic concept of the gentrification process. The investigation is justified due to the particularities presented in the gentrification process of Reduto, based not on its classic housing point of view, but on its cultural, people influx, and consumption aspects of the local middle class. This research has methodological principles based on the hypothesis-deduction method, with the following methodological procedures: a) Technical literature review on relevant theories, concepts, categories, and notions to the subject in question; b) Technical literature review on the historical-geographical aspects related to the territorial occupation of the area under study; c) Documentary survey of secondary data on the historic center of Belém and the Reduto neighborhood; d) structured and Semi-structured interviews with researchers, residents, former residents, private network agents and government officials; and e) analysis and systematization of the collected data under the light of the previously defined and revised theoretical framework. Based on the collected data, it is observed that the gentrification process in Belém does not fit in the classic view, however, the presence of this urban process cannot be discarded since there are several features presented in the Reduto neighborhood; a fact that allows us to conclude that it is imperative to recognize that, yes, Reduto neighborhood has suffered a gentrification process, not as described in Smith (2006), but with personalized features related to consumer, social living, and cultural gentrification.