Where there are houses, are there cities?: sociospatial processes and forms of the PMCMV in the of the Northeast's edge
Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida, Urbanization, sociospatial processes, Socio-spatial forms, Inequalities.
The current outcome of the Brazilian urbanization process is a set of cities that have largely grown in a disorderly manner, presenting a chaotic and, at times, deplorable urban structure, thereby fostering unequal urban processes to the detriment of urban integration. In this context, unequal sociospatial processes and forms have become defining characteristics of Brazilian cities, where access to land, housing, and urban services is structured by deep social disparities. While social housing policies offer the potential to mitigate these inequalities, they often end up reinforcing them. The "Minha Casa, Minha Vida" Program (PMCMV), created in 2009, illustrates this contradiction: although it has enabled millions of Brazilians to access homeownership, it has simultaneously reproduced a contradictory urban model in which housing is located on the urban periphery and lacks adequate infrastructure. Given this scenario, this research seeks to answer the following question: how did the PMCMV’s "Faixa 1" (FAR) developments in the cities of Natal and Mossoró (Rio Grande do Norte), Fortaleza and Crato (Ceará), and João Pessoa and Campina Grande (Paraíba), reinforce both integrated and unequal sociospatial processes and forms between 2009 and 2019? This study is justified by the analytical need to understand the contradictions between the PMCMV’s central goal—providing dignified housing for those most in need—and its frequent reproduction of sociospatial inequalities through the peripheral siting of projects and inadequate urban infrastructure. Methodologically, the research adopts a mixed qualitative and quantitative approach, combining literature review, collection and analysis of secondary data (from IBGE, PMCMV, MCID, among other sources), as well as the production and analysis of cartographic material. These procedures allow for spatial analysis, statistical tabulation, and critical interpretation in order to understand the sociospatial processes associated with the urbanization dynamics of housing production under the PMCMV.