Territory use and urban economy circuits: an analysis of the northern region of Natal RN Brazil

Abstract

Current research focalizes on the Northern Administration Region of Natal RN Brazil based on Milton Santos’s theory of urban economy circuits. The theory interprets the urban economy of underdeveloped countries by acknowledging the existence of two economical circuits, or rather, the lower and higher circuits. They are the product of the existence of a significant part of the population living on occasional labor or with extremely low wages to the detriment of a small number of well-off people with high wages. The city is thus divided into subjects with permanent access to goods and services, offered by the market, and into other subjects with no access to these goods even though they are in dire need of them. Current essay analyzes the circuits of urban economy as from the complementariness and concurrence between these groups, with special reference to the transformations in the social and economical dynamics of the empirical ladder. The analysis also demonstrates how the economical activities of both circuits established themselves in the northern part of the city of Natal RN, Brazil, and shows its bonds and influences within territorial configuration. The effective use of the administration region is investigated, or rather, the establishment of the Natal Industrial District and the housing areas installed therein with the funding of the Financial Housing System. Further analysis comprises how the territory later became the target of hegemonic and non-hegemonic agents through the activities of commerce, services, civil construction and real estate market.