A Produção do espaço urbano na cidade de Oiapoque e a sua relação com a garimpagem de ouro na fronteira do Brasil com a Guiana Francesa

Abstract

Considering the diversity related to the urbanization process in the Amazon, this PhD thesis aims to analyze the production of the urban space of the border city of Oiapoque-AP and its relationship with the agents involved in activities related to gold mining in the areas of contact between Brazil and French Guiana; This investigation is justified by the particularities presented by this important Amazonian city located on the Franco-Brazilian border, whose production of urban space is closely associated with the socioeconomic dynamics resulting from the informal gold mining. Based on the method of dialectical and historical materialism, the research has the following methodological procedures: i) bibliographical review of theoretical and conceptual nature of theories, concepts, categories and notions pertinent to the theme in question; ii) bibliographical revision of historical-geographical nature related to the territorial formation of the studied city; iii) documentary survey of secondary data in the cities of Oiapoque and Macapá, in Amapá; iv) non-participating observation; v) semi-structured and unstructured interviews with traders, service providers, municipal employees and other agents of the government, as well as prospectors and residents living and/or operating in the city of Oiapoque; and vi) analysis and systematization of the data collected in the light of the previously defined and revised theoretical framework. Thus, it is observed that the social agents of activities related to gold mining on the border between Brazil and French Guiana, with their activities and spatial practices, were and are central to the production of urban space in the city of Oiapoque; This fact allows us to conclude that, in the elaboration of urban policies for the Amazon, it is essential to recognize the diversity that configures the process of urbanization in the region, as well as the existence of various forms of cities and multiple agents participating in the complex production of these spaces. Today, much of it comes from extra-local processes, as the notion of urban diversity points out.