Geographical distribution of multidimensional poverty in Santa Catarina: A look from the historical and economic formation and the complexity of the productive structure

Abstract

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) calculated by Moraes, Marin, and Vieira (2018) for the municipalities of Santa Catarina in the years 2000 and 2010 showed that the situation of greater deprivation is found in the mesoregions West, Serrana, and part of the mesoregion North, and of lesser deprivation in the eastern part of the state, which includes the mesoregions of Greater Florianopolis, Vale do Itajaí, South, and part of the mesoregion North. Furthermore, there seem to be two Santa Catarinas: one modern and industrialized, and the other retracted and based on agricultural activities. The objective of this article is to search in the history of the economic formation of Santa Catarina and in the approach to the complexity of the productive structure, aspects that clarify the reasons for the presence of these two contrasting situations of poverty incidence. In a first moment, it is possible to conjecture that the way of colonization and the arrival of immigrants of different nationalities and experiences, and the complexity of the economy found in each region contributed to the construction of the general picture of multidimensional poverty, although there are some exceptions such as the case of the mesoregion of Greater Florianópolis.