The production of urban space in Amazonas state, Brazil
Event details
Join our YESI International Fellows Seminar with Dr Paola Verri de Santana, from the Department of Geography, Universidade Federal do Amazonas (Federal University of Amazonas - UFAM).
Abstract/Synopsis:
In this seminar talk, I will reflect on the work of the Centre for Studies and Research on Cities in the Amazon (NEPECAB), based in the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM) in Manaus, which has involved a number of researchers over the course of nearly three decades especially focused on Amazonas, the largest state of the Brazilian federation. The Amazon did not emerge from an empty space, or terras nullis. Numerous indigenous peoples already inhabited these lands with their differences and forms of organization before colonization and the arrival of other migrants who continue to arrive. The cities in Amazonas state inherited this history, which has been based on export-oriented economies with the mediation of the State. It is in this context that cities develop, initially restricted to a riverside logic, later with possibilities for road networks, and today also by air and with Internet connections.
The city of Manaus, with a population of a little over two million people (IBGE, 2022), is an urban space that has also been produced through industrialization, promoted and articulated locally and worldwide. We are in the midst of a global environmental crisis, but under conditions of uneven development. These conditions manifest themselves in several ways, one of which is through precarious urban infrastructure, such as energy and health services. The talk will conclude by reflecting on possibilities and challenges for public intervention in service provision for a more equitable urbanising Amazon in Brazil.
Bio
Paola de Santana is Professor of the Postgraduate Program in Geography in the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM). She coordinates the Center of Studies and Research of Cities in the Amazon - NEPECAB. Her research focuses on urban and economic geography, geography and culture, nature, urban development, and production of urban space. She has led multi-sited research projects on the dynamics of Amazonian cities, urban management and the Amazonian urban network, and impacts of the state-owned oil and gas firm Petrobras's activities in cities in Amazonas. This work has been funded by the Brazilian federal government, through its National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq).
Paola was an participant in the Researcher Links workshop, 'Supporting sustainable ecosystems for poverty alleviation in the Amazon,' supported by British Council, Newton Fund and FAPEAM, hosted by Swansea University and UFAM, and held in Manaus.
She holds an MA and PhD in Human Geography from the University of São Paulo and a BA in Economics from the Federal University of Pernambuco. Paola grew up in Recife, Pernambuco, in northeast Brazil.