Relationship between new enclosed habitats and safety equipment consumption in Ribeirão Preto (SP) and Londrina (PR)

• Grant number: 14/25735-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2015
• End date: December 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography
• Principal Investigator: Eda Maria Góes
• Grantee: Tatiana Hitomi Sato
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 11/20155-3 - Socio-economic cohesion and contemporary spatial practices: cities of medium size and consumption, AP.TEM

Abstract

In Brazil, the process of reconfiguration of the social division at the urban spaces has, among its most important expressions, the presence of new real estate products - enclosed spaces, condominium or not, endowed with control and surveillance services and equipped to meet new demands that are added to the act of living in the contemporary period, as security and social distinction - that contribute to emptying, always relative, of the social content at the public space (CALDEIRA, 2000; SOBARZO 2005). In these enclosed spaces, two aspects of special importance in this project: 1. the importance acquired by the consumption of safety equipment, including real estate projects sold as safe places, what indicates contradictions and the role currently played by this market; 2. the use of new or reinforced workers control strategies inside, which can be interpreted as an alleged solution to old problems of coexistence between rich and poor, characterizing a liberal city, but also as an indication of enhancement of social conflict, showing the already reduced meetings between the different townspeople .Assuming that there is a divide between the city dwellers who can and those who can not pay for security, the aim of this project is to investigate the relations between the choice of consumption of new enclosed spaces and safety equipment, used as strategies for coping urban insecurity on one hand, and the status and appreciation of fortified residences, which are thus draw more attention, on the other hand, among the inhabitants of closed lots of Ribeirão Preto and Londrina.