The right to territory, the right to exist: the food situation in São Luís (MA)

Author(s)

Livia Cangiano Antipon

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Geociências
• Defense date: 2024-08-26

Examining board members

Márcio Antônio Cataia; Adriana Maria Bernardes da Silva; Catia Antonia da Silva; Soraia de Fátima Ramos; Carlos Frederico Lago Burnett

• Advisor: Márcio Antônio Cataia

Abstract

In this dissertation, I argue that there is an intrinsic relationship between the food situation in São Luís, the capital of Maranhão, and its urbanization. As an impetus driving urban development and as a consequence of the urban economic growth process, the food situation is socio-spatially unequal and racially fragmented. Through a literature review and data collected during fieldwork, interviews and institutional reports, this research starts from the following premise. Since the modernization processes of the Maranhão territory produced hunger and food deterioration among its urban population, a form of popular economy emerged, which I interpret through the theory of the two circuits of the urban economy, and various food assistance movements on the city’s outskirts, seen as everyday life policies – that is, means by which the most impoverished and black groups access income and food in São Luís. This analysis contributes to a larger debate about the political economy of the city and urbanization, while it simultaneously points out ways to understand the struggles for urban survival on the periphery of capitalism in particular (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 19/13511-0 - The circuits of the urban economy and the food situation of São Luís (MA): the dimension of the food market
• Grantee: Livia Cangiano Antipon
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate