The circuits of the urban economy and the food situation of São Luís (MA): the dimension of the food market

• Grant number: 19/13511-0
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2019
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal researcher: Márcio Antonio Cataia
• Grantee: Livia Cangiano Antipon
• Home Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 21/08011-8 - Socio-spacial formation in the contemporary metropolis: the popular food sales circuit in São Luís and in New York, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

According to the poverty and inequality framework of the Northeast region, especially in the state of Maranhão, we aim to understand how the urbanization process in the city of São Luís, in its economic manifestation - understood from the two circuits of the urban economy - incorporates disparate food situations between the Historic Center, the Southwest and Southeast outskirts, and the Centro Novo - Neighborhoods of Ponta d'Areia and Jardim Renascença. In both the Historical Center and the centralities formed in the peripheral areas, the food situation, defined as the places with the highest density of ready-to-eat food exchanges, is related to the presence of a market urban economy, that is, a circuit of low purchasing power. While in the New Center, the food situation is different: organized by the upper circuit of the urban economy, it presents a greater concentration of capital, forming a place of food consumption for the highest income classes in the city. To do so, we will take as an empirical object of study: (i) the bars, restaurants and markets of popular consumption; (ii) the street food trade and (iii) bars, restaurants, of São Luís, which will allow to analyze the theme from its totality and, finally, to reflect on the unequal daily life of the city, marked by manifestations of abundance and food scarcity in the urban environment. (AU)