THIS BOOK FOCUSES on the phenomenon of urbanization in Brazilian Amazonia, a significant trend that has been little recognized or researched as most work on the region comes from a natural or rural perspective. Since the 1980s, more than 50 per cent of the population of Brazilian Amazonia have lived in cities, and rates of urban expansion have been rapid both in new “boomtowns” and in the older, larger cities where peri-urban shanty towns have proliferated. The book aims to explore the diverse processes of frontier urban expansion in Amazonia and the role of urban centres in shaping the wider regional economy, and to analyze the theoretical implications of the region’s urban and regional diversity. The study is based on research into patterns of frontier urbanization undertaken in two of the most dynamic areas of Amazonia: the Rolim de Moura B Alto Alegre corridor in the state of Rondônia, and the Xinguara-Tucumã corridor in southeast Pará.
The first chapter examines the scale and nature of urban growth in Amazonia in relation to Brazilian national trends, highlighting the rapidly changing settlement structure in the region. It also examines local processes of urbanization which are little understood within the wider context of regional development, national policy and the global economy. The authors illustrate this rapid change with a comparison of Gurupá in Pará, as portrayed as a sleepy backwater town in Charles Wagley’s Amazon Town (1953), with the same town today, with access to global trade, technology, information and politics.
The second chapter constitutes a comparative review of conventional conceptual models of urban development, including recent Brazilian contributions within this field, in order to provide a framework within which to examine trends of urbanization in Amazonia. Chapter 3 examines the historical dynamics and contemporary policies of frontier expansion in Amazonia, and the region’s integration into the regional and national economy. Chapter 4 illustrates different patterns of urbanization in the two case study regions, and shows how they do not fit into any one of the theoretical frameworks reviewed in Chapter 2, prompting the authors to explain their ensuing concept of “disarticulated urbanization” in relation to cities in Amazonia.
The fifth chapter looks at the urban development and primacy of the larger cities in the region, namely Manaus, Belém and Porto Velho, and their peri-urban expansion. The following two chapters analyze the history and development of the frontier urban systems in Rondônia and Pará, with detailed case studies of the two corridors. Chapter 8 examines patterns of migration, social mobility and income generation in urban centres in Amazonia, whilst the following chapter considers the contrasts between the two regions in terms of autonomous regional development, by focusing on unequal change in the agricultural sector in Rondônia and uneven urban development, and commercial patterns and interregional linkages in Pará.
Chapter 10 looks at environmental change resulting from frontier urbanization in Amazonia, focusing on deforestation, hydroelectric development and gold mining. It examines urban environmental degradation in Amazonian cities and assesses the extent to which urban interests contribute to environmental change in the region. The final chapter considers the patterns of urbanization and development identified from the case studies in the context of the conventional theories of urbanization, portraying Amazonia as a heterogeneous region characterized by dynamic and diverse patterns of urbanization and regional development, and becoming increasingly integrated into national and international economies.