BELO HORIZONTE/MG: DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES IN THE METROPOLITAN NORTH SECTION

Abstract

doi: 10.12957/geouerj.2017.28465

In current capitalist cities, the supremacy of financial capital over industrial capital has redefined the sense of space, which has also adopted the condition of a real estate product. The spatial arrangement of the city is therefore molded by the interest of capital, which uses urban land for the purpose of increasing productive forces. With ambitious strategic projects, public authorities have acted to render their productive and commercial structures more flexible, attract investments, promote tourism, etc., permitting them to be inserted into the networks of the global economy, and enabling competitiveness, all from the perspective of globalizing cities. The present work aims to evaluate the process of spatial and economic restructuring implemented by the public authorities in the Northern Sector of the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte (MRBH), as of 2005, and the appropriation of space by the land and real estate markets in the north and peripheral region of the capital. The metropolitan strategic plan sought to diversify the industrial base of the MRBH by attracting investments and creating high-tech hubs, and it was accompanied by large public infrastructure works and support services. The present study has concluded that the modifying actions undertaken by the public authorities have influenced the valorization of urban land, the appropriation of the space by the land/real estate markets and the elitization of the north and peripheral region of the capital.