[Maceió – oceano]: estratos, vetores e rostidade urbana

Abstract

This master’s dissertation focuses on the city of Maceió and aims to understand the development of its space, specifically the dynamic that involves the ocean. The research adopts with the assumption that, until the mid-20th century, the ocean was an appurtenance to Maceió’s urban spatial dynamics, overshadowed by a mercantilist industrial capitalism. By the end of the century, the ocean took the lead of the city’s economic and cultural relationships, and became the mean itself for capital reproduction. To advance this understanding, the aspects that surround the economy and culture of the city were analyzed under the theories of hypermodernity and capital reproduction stemmed in the commodification of experiences — whether they are aesthetic, cultural or consumerist. The observations were paved in two ways: on the one hand, to understand the discursive-ideological formation of contemporary theoretical spatial production from the perspective of economics and culture, initially based on the concept of Junkspace as defined by architect Rem Koolhaas in his homonymous book; and on the other, to understand the Maceioense space from two distinct moments of its capital production through a revision of references about the formation of its urban space. Furthermore, this study observes the city’s inhabited dynamic spaces through the lenses of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of rhizome model, identifying its strata, vectors and faciality. As a result, this thesis reflects on the construction of contemporary spaces, admitting its material aspects both physic- and metaphorically.