The role of large-scale mining and its interaction with urban dynamics in a frontier region in the Amazon

Abstract:

This article deals with particularities of the urbanization process associated to the mining dynamics, which articulate directly the extraction territories to the global accumulation circuits. On the Amazon frontier, the forms of capital operationalization, altered the urban structuring, the urban-rural relationship and caused an enormous impact on the nature and on the most vulnerable sections of the population. The analysis is based on the Lefebvrian derivation of extended urbanization and on the notion of levels of social reality; has the objective of exploring the relational connections of the urban with the global and local levels and allow the construction of parallels between the iron ore extraction at the Serra dos Carajás and the gold exploration, at the Vale do Husco, northern region Chile. We observe an urban dynamic governed by the global sphere, and parallel processes, embryos of a new urban matrix, in the local sphere, centered on the reproduction of life and the construction of citizenship.

Keywords:
Parauapebas; Southeast of Pará; mining; extended urbanization