LANDSCAPE OF CONFLICT AND DISPUTE: the spatialization of socio-spatial and socio-territorial movements in Presidente Prudente (SP) and São Paulo (SP)

• Grant number: 24/23042-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography
• Principal Investigator: Bernardo Mançano Fernandes
• Grantee: Maria Clara Rodrigues de Souza
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project focuses on analyzing a medium-sized city and a metropolis in the context of the dispute and spatial production engendered by the agents who produce urban space, revealing the construction and constitution of a diverse urban landscape marked by continuities, discontinuities and diversity. In these cities, we observe a form of spatial organization that is segmented, diverse and profoundly unequal, shaped by a multiplicity of agents. Based on the theory of socio-spatial and socio-territorial movements, urban conflict and critical landscape analysis (understanding the landscape as a set of forms that express the heritage of the accumulation of times materialized by the relationship between society and nature), a geographical reflection will be developed on the production of spaces and territories in the cities of São Paulo (SP) and Presidente Prudente (SP), emphasizing the main organized movements that operate in the context of the two cities. The continuous conflict that permeates the formation of Brazilian cities not only shapes their physical configuration, but also gives new meanings and visibilities to the disputed territories. Landscape, as a category of analysis, will be explored based on the theory of Milton Santos, particularly in his work "Metamorphoses of Inhabited Space". For Santos, landscape is more than the visible materiality of space: it is the concrete expression of socio-spatial dynamics, a synthesis of the successive interactions between society and space. In this research, we will take a critical look at this concept, problematizing how landscape can be seen as the crystallization of social conflicts and negotiations, especially in a neoliberal urban context, where spatial inequalities are accentuated. The methodological procedures include a bibliographic survey, documentary research, fieldwork, semi-structured interviews, mapping and data representation, as well as the construction of a database and the production of graphic and cartographic representations.