Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: FLADEMIR GONÇALVES DANTAS

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : FLADEMIR GONÇALVES DANTAS
DATE: 04/03/2026
TIME: 14:30
LOCAL: Meet - Online
TITLE:

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KEY WORDS:

fire; urban fires; modernity; Natal/RN; risk; urban vulnerability; Fire Brigade.

PAGES: 212
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: História
SUMMARY:

This thesis investigates fire as a central problem of the urban space of Natal, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, between 1850 and 1950, examining how urban conflagrations intersected with broader dynamics of modernization, vulnerability, spatial inequality, and institutional development. Drawing on documentary, journalistic, iconographic, and administrative sources, including provincial reports, legislative records, internal bulletins, urban planning documents, and periodicals of the local press, the research demonstrates that fires functioned not only as disruptive events but also as diagnostic moments that exposed both the material fragilities of the city, such as the widespread use of straw, taipa (wattle and daub), and wood in the construction of homes and public and private buildings, and its symbolic weaknesses, insofar as these incidents threatened the “project of modernity” envisioned by the local elites. Far from constituting isolated episodes, the fires reveal an urban environment marked by highly flammable structures, institutional precariousness, the absence of consistent public policies, and selective modernizing interventions. The thesis also examines how the creation of the Seção de Bombeiros (Fire Brigade Section) between 1917 and 1919 emerged not simply as a technical response to urban risk, but as a symbolic component of a broader effort to craft a modern, orderly, and secure city, albeit one whose benefits remained unevenly distributed among groups and territories. The analysis engages with theoretical frameworks on risk, modernity, urban culture, and the history of fire, drawing on authors such as Ulrich Beck, David Harvey, Johan Goudsblom, and Stephen Pyne. By situating Natal within a wider debate on urban fires, the research shows that fire constituted a structuring marker of urban experience, revealing tensions between progress and precariousness, between the promises of modernity and the persistence of social inequalities. It concludes that understanding fire and conflagrations as analytical categories and as legitimate objects of historical inquiry makes it possible to interpret the formation of the city, its institutions, and the governmental practices that shaped Natal from the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 1170781 - MARGARIDA MARIA DIAS DE OLIVEIRA
Interno - 1088824 - RAIMUNDO NONATO ARAUJO DA ROCHA
Interno - 1149437 - RAIMUNDO PEREIRA ALENCAR ARRAIS
Externo à Instituição - WESLEY GARCIA RIBEIRO SILVA - UFPA