A dinâmica da ocupação na Favela Sururu de Capote: segregação socioespacial e exclusão social

Abstract

Part of the city of Maceió (Alagoas State-Brazil) has been developedbased onproper urban planning which has promoted housing in good living conditions. However, in certain localities of the city, there is a portion of the excluded population, where many families occupy illegal and irregular urban territories, subject to improvised and precarious conditions of housing. This work analyzes the situation of exclusion (in the social, territorial, andurban dimensions), as well as the socio-spatial segregation process of the population in the Sururu de Capote slum, which is located in the Ponta Grossa neighborhood. This population occupies a segregated space, submitted to an urbanism of risk and to an informal economic situation, without the right to the city. The objective of this work was to analyze and explain how the socio-spatial conditions in which this population lives, has increasingly reinforced segregating and exclusionary processes. The study conducted a reflection in the light of the geographical science based on the dialectical and historical materialism method; also, Milton Santos‟ used territory category was adopted as the base of the geographic analysis used in the study. The methodology was composed of a survey and bibliographic review, field research (observation, note-taking, and interviews with residents), visits to public agencies (State and municipal secretariats) and NGOs. The study identified a set of negative indicators related to the infrastructure of the territory of the slum and a deficiency of fundamental public services such as education and health care. Results indicate that the socio-spatial conflicts faced by this part of the population derive from the marginalization of their territory throughout the history of this slum. Some projects to remove this population were carried out by state secretariats, but without success because the need for housing near the lagoon was broader. The daily life of the residents exposes their situation of exclusion as a violence against the dignity of their lives. The conditions of poverty and inequality in the territory of the Sururu de Capote slum reflect the disadvantages in relation to other portions of the population of Maceió and the vulnerable situation that these individuals are undergoing, mutually reinforcing exclusion and segregation, a situation that denies the right to the city. In each experience, individual or family, we found a new challenge in trying to access the city and the survival of each individual. It is expected with this work to contribute to the knowledge about the abject situation in which these residents live, as wellasto support the possibilities of policies aimed at the redevelopment of that territory and improvements in the lives of those families. May it also collaborate with the prospects of an urban planning based on social justice and access to the city, as a right of all citizens.