The role of capital in the deconstruction of social space in Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to describe, briefly, the process by which capital operates the deconstruction and fragmentation of social space within Brazil’s spaces at distinct moments in its history. It intends to demonstrate, for each period, historical facts that, resulting from capitalist interests, lead to transformations in the social space and are reflected in the physical distribution of inhabited spaces. For that purpose, following the presentation of the main concepts that guide the discourse, it describes pre-capitalist spaces, ranging from traditional villages, going through the formation of the first urban settlements and successively through their transformation into cities, firstly as trading posts, until the rise of the industry. At each moment, it tries to expose the correlation established between the action of capital, the changes in society and the formation of urban spaces. It finally proposes a reflection on contemporary Brazilian cities, some of the phenomena that can be seen there and their possible relationship with the deconstruction of social space.

Keywords: social space, deconstruction, urban spaces.