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The Porto Alegre Metropolitan Area

Luciano Fedozzi & Paulo Roberto Rodrigues Soares
To cite this article: Luciano Fedozzi & Paulo Roberto Rodrigues Soares (2016)
The Porto Alegre Metropolitan Area, disP - The Planning Review, 52:2, 53-61, DOI:
10.1080/02513625.2016.1195585
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02513625.2016.1195585

Published online: 10 Jun 2016.

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The Porto Alegre Metropolitan Area

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53

Socio-Spatial Shifts between 1980 and 2010

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Luciano Fedozzi and Paulo Roberto Rodrigues Soares

Abstract: This article presents the findings of a

multidisciplinary study regarding socio-spatial
changes in the Porto Alegre Metropolitan Area
(PAMA) that is part of the project entitled The
Metropolis Observatory: territory, social cohesion and democratic governance, developed
by a network of researchers in Brazils main
metropolises. The article provides a brief overview of the metropolization process in Brazil as
a contemporary urban phenomenon and then
goes on to briefly outline the history of the formation of the PAMA and its place in the urbanization and metropolization process in Brazil
over the last three decades, highlighting the effects of the different economic models adopted
by the countrys government during the period,
and market globalization and liberalization. Finally, it discusses socioeconomic and socio-spatial changes over the last three decades, using a
specific methodology to construct a socio-spatial typology that reflects the role played by socio-occupational categories in the metropolitan
and intrametropolitan landscape.

The proposed methodology analyzes the

socio-economic reality in metropolitan areas,
socio-occupational structures over time, and
the social profile of metropolitan areas based
on their intra-urban configuration, thus giving
an insight into the dynamics and social structure of large metropolises. The delimitation of
these categories in metropolitan areas allows
researchers to identify processes of socio-spatial differentiation (resulting from increasing
social division of labor), segmentation (obstruction of mobility between categories), and segregation (concentration of categories in specific
locations).
The aim of this study was to ascertain
whether these phenomena have changed over
time and to identify new configurations, such
as the duality and polarization phenomenon
within socio-spatial hierarchy. To this end, this
article is structured as follows: a brief overview
of the metropolization process in Brazil; a brief
history of the formation of the city Porto Alegre
and metropolitan area; the methodology of socio-spatial typology; an analysis of socio-spatial
changes in the PAMA between 1980 and 2010;
and final remarks.

Introduction
The urban and metropolitan context in Brazil is
extremely diverse and complex. It is therefore
necessary to develop a methodology that takes
into account the diversity of the metropolization process and allows researchers to compare
the countrys distinct metropolises. This is one
of the functions of the National Metropolis Observatory Network, which conducts studies of
Brazils fifteen main metropolitan areas1.
This study explores and analyzes patterns of
social organization in the Porto Alegre Metropolitan Area (PAMA) between 1980 and 2010,
and examines shifts in production and the labor
market in Brazil and their relationship with globalization. For this purpose, we used a methodology to divide the population into socio-spatial
typologies. These typologies will be explained
in greater detail below but, briefly, they represent the relationship between the social stratification of the population and its distribution
across the territory of the Metropolitan Region
of Porto Alegre.

The metropolization process in Brazil:

a brief overview
Brazils metropolitan areas emerged between
the 1950s and 1980s within a context of deep
socio-economic, demographic, political and
cultural change. The social construction of inequality became a hallmark of Brazilian society
and a major feature of conservative modernization2, which was adopted during the developmental nationalism cycle (19301950) and intensified during the dictatorship (19641988).
The forces that turned an agricultural exporting
country into an urban industrial nation (reaching the status of eighth largest economy in the
world) added over 60 million people to the
countrys towns and cities including 29 million migrants in the 1980s alone reaching the
point where over 80% of the population were
living in urban areas (IBGE 1991). By 2010,
84.4% of Brazils population of 190 millionplus people lived in urban areas (IBGE 2010).

Luciano Fedozzi holds a Masters

Degree and a PhD in Sociology
from the Federal University of
Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
(UFRGS). He is a Professor at the
UFRGS Program of Graduate
Studies in Sociology and a
member of the Research Center
Observatory of the Metropolises
at ILEA (Latin American Institute
for Advanced Studies). He has
published five books on
participatory budgeting in Porto
Alegre and co-edited Porto
Alegre: Transformaes na Ordem
Urbana (19802010) with Paulo
R.R. Soares (2015).
Paulo Roberto Rodrigues Soares
is Associate Professor at the
Department of Geography at the
Federal University of Rio Grande
do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre,
Brazil. He holds a PhD in Human
Geography from the University
of Barcelona, Spain (2002). He is
a researcher at the Metropolis
Observatory. His research focuses
on urban geography, and urban
development and planning.
Recent publications include
Porto Alegre: Transformations in
the Urban Order (2015), edited
with Luciano Fedozzi, and Porto
Alegre: Impacts of the 2014 FIFA
World Cup (2015).

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As a result of rapid urbanization population was

concentrated on the outskirts of metropolises
in areas deprived of urban infrastructure and
public services. In 2010, Brazils 15 main metropolitan areas were home to 71 million people,
or 38% of the countrys population (IBGE 2010).
The new functions of command, management and coordination of these urban agglomerations were typical of those of large cities
of the network economy (Veltz 1996). Therefore, Brazils urban system has several possibilities or resources for a national development
project embedded in the new trend towards
global and peripheral capitalism. At the same
time, it was necessary to address numerous social, economic, and political challenges. These
challenges embrace the negative effects of an
urbanization process marked by duality and
permissiveness that allow the appropriation of
cities by market forces. Despite improvements
in certain social indicators after the 1980s, selective modernization resulted in a growing
concentration of wealth, land ownership and
access to urban infrastructure (housing, sanitation, public transport and public services), turning these hubs of capitalism particularly state
capitals and their metropolitan areas into emblematic stages of the process of urban dispossession (Kowarick 1979). The notion of urban
dispossession is based on the thesis that industrialization and urbanization on the periphery of advanced capitalism give rise to broad
collective needs for the reproduction of workers life conditions. However, the States ability
to meet these needs is limited: Public funds
are primarily used for the immediate financing of capital accumulation and, when targeted
at collective consumption, are skewed in favor
higher-income groups (
Kowarick 1979:59).
Thus, a dual structure of urban fabric emerged
(a regular, formal and legal city versus an irregular, informal and illegal one), whose most
visible and symbolic element is the formation
of sub-normal settlements or slums, revealing a
reality of social fragmentation, spatial segregation, urban violence and severe environmental
degradation (Rolnik 2009).

The formation of the city of Porto Alegre

and the Porto Alegre Metropolitan Area
Porto Alegre is the capital of the State of Rio
Grande do Sul, located in Brazils South Region. It was founded in 1772 late in comparison to other urban centers that resulted from
Portuguese colonization following the arrival

of couples from the Azores (Portugal). Therefore, Porto Alegre originated from Portuguese
colonization, which was largely influenced by
the African slave trade regime.
However, during the following century it began to receive European immigrants, mainly
from Germany and Italy. German immigrants
looking to settle in southern Brazil started to
arrive in Rio Grande do Sul in 1824. At the
time, the city was under threat of occupation
by the Spanish, who occupied the Sinos River
Valley, giving rise to socioeconomically and
demographically important cities such as So
Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo, located 40 km
from Porto Alegre. In the twentieth century,
road connections accelerated integration between Porto Alegre and other towns in the region, which eventually developed into the Porto
Alegre Metropolitan Area (PAMA) in the second
half of the twentieth century. The towns located
in the Sinos River Valley formed a strong industrial base, mainly focused on the production
and export of leather and footwear, and comprise PAMAs second hub after the city of Porto
Alegre and its immediate surroundings.
The Porto Alegre Metropolitan Area (PAMA)
was officially created in 1974 during the military dictatorship. At the time it was made up of
fourteen municipalities, but now consists of 34
municipalities with a total population of four
million people (2010), which is equivalent to
37.7% of the population of the State of Rio
Grande do Sul, and accounts for 40% of the
states GDP. PAMA is Brazils fourth largest urban agglomeration. Between 1980 and 1991,
its population grew by 1.5 million people, compared to only 242000 between 2000 and 2010.
The city of Porto Alegre has 1.5 million inhabitants (IBGE 2010), and is renowned worldwide
for creating the Participatory Budget in 1989
(Fedozzi 2004)3 and for hosting the first three
editions of the World Social Forum (2001, 2002
and 2003).
PAMA has three core areas, the most traditional of which corresponds to the original metropolitan area and connects the capital, Porto
Alegre, to the city of Novo Hamburgo the
second largest urban hub in the area and
PAMAs two most populous cities (Porto Alegre
and Canoas). This suggests that the dynamics of
the metropolization process here break from
the traditional monocephalic pattern of settlement. PAMAs urban space can therefore be
better understood as three subareas: 1) Porto
Alegre and the cities in its immediate surroundings (PAMA-PA); 2) urban centers around the
city of Novo Hamburgo in the Sinos River Valley

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Fig.1: The Porto Alegre Metropolitan Area and its divisions.

(Source: FEE; Observatory of the
Metropolises Nucleus Porto
Alegre)

(PAMA-Valley); and 3) municipalities in the periphery of the metropolitan area with a low level
of integration into the metropolitan dynamics
(PAMA-Surroundings) (Figure 1).
PAMA is part of a countrywide and worldwide process of metropolization. Today, it comprises a complex urban area forming a metropolis connected to the global economy (though
to a much lesser extent when compared to Brazils other major metropolises) and several demographically and economically important urban centers in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Following a worldwide trend, Porto Alegres
new metropolitan economy is characterized
by a continuous increase in the share of services in the GDP of the city and metropolitan
area as a whole: in 2010, services accounted for
67.14% and 84.36% of the metropolitan areas
and the city of Porto Alegres GDPs, respectively (Soares 2015).

Exogenous and endogenous socio-spatial

changes in PAMA
With respect to social changes in Brazils metropolises, for the purposes of this article we focus on the period 1980 to 2010, which is part of
a wider period of economic evolution that can
divided into three distinct phases: the beginnings of import substitution industrialization
in the 1930s; the so-called Economic Miracle
(19681973); and the consolidation of industri-

alization and urbanization in the 1980s (during

the military regime).
Between 1980 and 2010 the period of
greatest interest here the lost decade (1980)
stands out due to its crises and economic recession. The 1990s were marked by the redemocratization of Brazil and structural changes that
opened the countrys economy to the world
market and led to a period of economic stability (exchange rate, currency and inflation control). During this period, more precisely between 1990 and 2003, the neoliberal model
prevailed. The 2000s, especially after 2003 with
Lulas (Luiz Incio da Silva) new labor government, saw a certain continuity in the macroeconomic principles adopted during the previous
period, but with important innovations: dynamism of the internal market, income distribution, strengthening of social protection policies,
and the resumption by the State of its essential
role in planning. This period was characterized
by hybrid policies that mixed developmentalism with neoliberal macroeconomics.
This was also a period when democratic
institutionality emerged in favor of the right
to the city and historical demands for urban
reform. The City Statute (2001) regulated the
chapter of the Constitution enacted in 1989
after the countrys democratization addressing urban policy, while the Ministry of Cities
(2003) was created in response to the demands
of the National Movement for Urban Reform.
This, together with the creation of the National
Council of Cities and National Cities Confer-

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ences, led the way for civil society participation

in urban policy-making.
Given the macroeconomic trends above, we
can speak of a conceptual metropolis model
adapted to Brazilian reality: the so-called
liberal-peripheral metropolis. Peripheral
because while at the semi-periphery of the
capitalist world-economy, the metropolitan
phenomenon becomes the center of economic
and political power that links us to the modern capitalist world system (Ribeiro 2013:9)
and liberal because it sheds light on the economic, social and territorial dynamics that internally organize peripheral metropolises (ibid
2013:10). This model, combined with historically exclusionary development, affects the relationship between the social and spatial structure of the urban fabric.
At the same time, for the analysis of possible socio-spatial changes in PAMA, we adopt
a critical perspective on the global city paradigm (Sassen 1991). Porto Alegre is not as important as cities such as So Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro. Furthermore, the global city theory
overestimates the power of globalization and
underestimates the local effect, such as political injunctions and situations, demographic dynamics, public policies, and the distinct forms
of urban land use and the organizational potential of civil society.
Contrary to this view, Preteceille (2000) states
that the trend in rising inequality, manifested
primarily in income inequality, should not be
attributed solely to globalization. Other (local
and national) specific elements, such as political
factors and particular urban systems, have bearing on the issue. Thus, metropolitan land market behavior, beyond that which leads to offices
and luxury residences (linked to globalization),
is also the result of other factors such as demographic evolution and housing policies.

A socio-spatial typology of PAMA:

methodology
In order to assess the spatial structure of Brazilian metropolises, we analyzed the social
stratification of the population using census
data, including the category occupation, in order to create a socio-occupational hierarchy
that largely reflects social structure (Ribeiro,
Ribeiro, Costa 2013). This hierarchy, which

consists of 24 socio-occupational categories, is

based on certain oppositional principles present in capitalist society such as capital and labor, big and small capital, command (auton-

omy) and subordinate positions, non-manual

and manual labor, control and execution activities, secondary and tertiary production sectors,
and modern and traditional industry. Based on
these principles, agents and agent groups were
defined according to their position in social
space, and their spatial proximity/distance from
the unequal distribution of different types of
capital (economic, social, cultural, symbolic)
(Bourdieu 1997). Structure and social hierarchy was based on the following combination
of census variables: occupation; position in occupation; and sector of activity, thus allowing
us to establish relationships between economic
changes and socio-spatial changes. The intraurban territory is divided into weighted areas4
defined by the Brazilian Institute of Geography
and Statistics based on the demographic census. Socio-occupational categories were then
crossed with weighted areas to determine the
groups of areas that maintain a relatively homogeneous pattern among themselves, taking
into account the socio-occupational profile of
each group, the relative distribution of sociooccupational categories according to types of
areas, and the relative density index of socio-occupational categories in each group of areas. Finally, groups are named according to their main
internal characteristics and differences in relation to the metropolitan area as a whole, forming a socio-spatial hierarchy that includes the
following socio-spatial typologies: upper, middle,
working, and popular classes and farm workers
(Mammarella, Barcellos 2013).5 Note, however,
that changes in the data collection methodology
used by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) on occupations prevented us
from gaining accurate knowledge in absolute
and in relative terms of the presence of socio-occupational categories distributed across
the metropolitan area during the period under study (19802010). Therefore, the data presented represents possible deductions at intrametropolitan level.

Socio-spatial changes: Characteristics of

the metropolitan space, 1980 to 2010
Based on the aforementioned methodology, we
point out key elements of socio-spatial changes
in the city of Porto Alegre and PAMA as a whole.
The analysis focuses on the social structure of
the metropolis based on the socio-spatial typologies outlined above. Figures 2, 3 and 4 show
the changes that occurred over the past three
decades.

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In the last thirty years, PAMA has maintained

its social structure at different levels: a dual
structure in which working and middle classes
share primacy of the social space within the
metropolis, associated with increasing elitism,
especially represented by upper-level professionals. Clearly defined social structures can be
observed in 1980: the middle class, associated
with the tertiary sector, was most prominent in
the metropolis, while the predominant classes
in PAMA-Valley and PAMA-PA were the working class and the hybrid profile, respectively.
Homogeneous working-class6 areas were
maintained throughout the period 1980 to
19917, with a strong distinction between workers employed in traditional industry and those
working in modern industry. The majority of
people living in PAMA-PA were employed in
modern industry, showing an association between place of residence and place of work
among the metropolitan working class up to
1991. In contrast, the majority of people living
in PAMA-Valley worked in traditional industries, particularly the leather and footwear industry. A clear socio-spatial segregation process
occurred in Porto Alegre in the 1980s: while the
upper classes were concentrated in prime areas of the city, lower classes8 were increasingly
pushed towards the outskirts to areas devoid of
infrastructure and public services.
In the 1980s, most upper-class areas were
located in Porto Alegre. Middle-class areas

were characterized by a combination of a high

concentration of the middle-class categories
and an even higher density of leaders and
intellectuals, although the concentration of
the latter category was lower than in upperclass areas. Two groups stand out in the various
combinations that are particularly affected by
dynamic processes: the heterogeneous middle
class, which includes an equal concentration
of skilled and unskilled tertiary sector workers;
and the emerging middle class, characterized
by a relatively high concentration of leaders and
the presence of secondary sector workers, particularly those working in traditional industries.
The remaining middle-class areas existing outside Porto Alegre are located in central
neighborhoods in the cities of the PAMA-PA
subarea, with major concentrations of workers from the leather and footwear industry prevailing in PAMA-Valley. These homogeneous
spaces remained relatively stable between 1991
and 2000 (Figure2). However, emerging middle-class areas started to appear throughout
the 1990s in Novo Hamburgo, the hub city of
PAMA-Valley.
In 2000, popular classes were located in
neighborhoods on the outskirts of Porto Alegre
and in municipalities still identified as dormitory municipalities in the PAMA-PA subarea.
Workers in non-specialized tertiary and construction sectors (the popular class according
to the classification above) lived mainly on the

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57

Fig.2: Socio-spatial typology.

Porto Alegre Metropolitan
Area, 1991.
(Source: Mammarella et al. 2015)

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outskirts of the capital and in PAMA-PA (Figure3). In the 2000s, there was a strong concentration of farm workers in certain areas of
popular spaces, probably due to the implementation of social projects such as agricultural
reform settlements, the emergence of new employment opportunities in organic farming and
urban farmers markets, and public policies to
promote urban agriculture in the state capital
funded by the city council using participatory
budget resources.
It can be noted that there were major shifts
in the social profile of the metropolitan area
during the last twenty years of the twentieth
century. The findings suggest that certain profiles were consolidated, while others began
to emerge throughout the first decade of the
twenty-first century.

Socio-spatial changes in PAMA

(2000 to 2010)
The findings for the period 2000 to 2010 confirm the dynamic nature of the economic and socio-spatial profile of a polycentric and increasingly complex metropolitan area (Figure4).
The first changes can be noticed in 2000 as
a result of economic restructuring in response
to the crisis, associated with the closing of
shoe factories, plant relocation, informal production strategies, such as home shoemaking
workshops, linking private and working lives,
and greater visibility of local upper and middle
classes. In 2010, the crisis in footwear production worsened due to competition from China,
leading to a considerable decrease in the number of workers and an increase in the middle
classes and intellectual elite. Thus, a historically homogeneous space such as PAMA-Valley,
which used to be dominated by the working
class and a high concentration of people working in traditional industries, began to include
areas occupied by the upper and middle classes
and farm workers.
The presence of members of the upper class
in major cities such as Novo Hamburgo and So
Leopoldo is a new and significant fact. However,
the presence of upper and even middle classes
does not necessarily mean that there is hybrid
occupation of urban space, but rather suggests
a tendency towards segmentation and urban
segregation in this metropolitan subarea.
The majority of PAMA-PA residents are
modern industry workers, since the industrial
base here is more diverse and modern (metal
mechanical, chemical, automotive, trans-

port industries, etc.). However, unlike PAMA-

Valley, there is greater social integration, with
modern industry workers sharing living areas
with people working in popular (construction,
cleaners, general laborers and street vendors)
and middle occupations. PAMA-PA is the most
heterogeneous area of all, comprising all five
classes.
The presence of members of the upper class
in large cities outside the state capital is a novelty in this subarea. At least two municipalities
show a high concentration of workers from the
modern secondary sector, such as the Petrobrs
refinery (Canoas) and a large General Motors
car plant (Gravata), built during the market
globalization process in the late 1990s. Thus,
these municipalities include members of the
upper class, together with a strong concentration of modern secondary sector workers. At the
same time, there is a high concentration of the
popular class in the outskirts of Porto Alegre
and in this subarea, confirming an historical
trend of segregation.
PAMA-PA has become more socially heterogeneous and hybrid over time. In contrast to the
1980s and 1990s, when only lower classes used
to live there, urban expansion has consolidated
the area as an option for the middle class,
even in municipalities that still have the profile
of dormitory towns (Mammarella et al. 2015:
179). The occupation of land by landless movements in the 1990s and 2000s, coupled with the
implementation of large industrial plants and
modern production processes, exerted strong
pressure on the prices of urban land in this
subarea.
As for Porto Alegre, a trend that started after 1980 continued up to 2010 when working
class areas were no longer found here (Mammarella et al. 2015:175). The deindustrialization of the city that began in the 1970s brought
changes to the social structure, reducing the
space for working classes, and consolidating
the city as a space for the middle and upper
classes (Mammarella et al. 2015:179). An increase in upper class areas was observed in
2010, together with an increase in upper-middle class areas where leaders and upper-class
professionals account for over 51% and 50% of
the population, respectively9.
The popular class, which accounted for 17%
of the working population of PAMA in 2010,
mostly occupy the outskirts of Porto Alegre and
non-industrial municipalities in its immediate
surroundings that play a dormitory role (tertiary-sector unskilled and construction workers)10 and have a high prevalence of irregular

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59

Fig.3: Socio-spatial typology.

The Porto Alegre Metropolitan
Area, 2000.
(Source: Mammarella et al. 2015)

Fig.4: Socio-spatial typology.

Porto Alegre Metropolitan
Area, 2010.
(Source: Mammarella et al. 2015)

housing and slums, despite being considered

middle-class areas.
A clear gentrification process is therefore
evident in the metropolitan area in 2010, particularly in the city of Porto Alegre and the
PAMA-PA subarea, together with spatial seg-

regation. This phenomenon is due not only to

changes in the economy and labor market, but
also because of self-segregation among middle
and upper classes in gated communities.
The metropolitan fringe, consisting of large
extensions of land and sparsely populated mu-

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nicipalities, is occupied predominantly by farm

workers.
Between 1980 and 1991, the social structure
of PAMA was segmented and fragmented, with
clear segregation processes occurring in the
capital and its immediate surroundings. Residential spaces were relatively homogeneous,
especially among the upper and traditional
working classes. Evidence shows a significant
change in the social profile of PAMA from the
1990s, whereby the social structure of a number of areas in 2000 had become increasingly
heterogeneous and polarized. The findings for
these areas, particularly those associated with
the middle classes, show that PAMA was experiencing an intense process of socio-spatial
change (Mammarella, Barcellos 2009).
In 2000, upper-class areas,11 which up to
1991 were concentrated in a few central neighborhoods in Porto Alegre, had expanded to the
south of the city, in high standard gated communities in the most elitist areas near the
Guaba River.
In 2010, the state capital and PAMA-PA became more tailored towards the upper classes,
and working classes were no longer to be found
in Porto Alegre, the result of a long process
of deindustrialization. This sub-region became
more socially heterogeneous and hybrid, consolidating itself as an area of urban expansion
for the middle classes, in contrast to the 1980s
and 1990s, when there was a higher concentration of lower classes, even in municipalities that
continued to be dormitory areas.
Upper-class areas also emerged in the immediate surroundings of the city of Porto Alegre
and in PAMA-Valley, while the concentration
of working classes remained high in both the
PAMA-PA subarea, where socio-occupational
categories were linked to the modern secondary sector, and the Sinos Valley subarea, where
socio-occupational categories were mainly associated with the traditional secondary sector.
In contrast, the popular classes occupied an increasing share of the outskirts of Porto Alegre
and the dormitory cities located in its immediate surroundings.

Final remarks
This interpretation of the intra-metropolitan
dynamics confirms the hypothesis that the region is asymmetric in terms of its economic
structure and dual centrality, represented by
two dominant urban poles. The process of
metropolization between 1980 and 2010 led to

a dual structure in the urban fabric of PAMA in

which working classes and middle classes share
primacy in the social space of this metropolis,
including gentrification of areas and occupation
principally by upper-level professionals associated with deindustrialization due to globalization. However, this does not mean that sociospatial changes in PAMA are solely the result
of globalization. The real estate boom resulting
from economic growth during the Lula government also strongly contributed to this process.
With regard to the social profile of PAMA,
the most significant changes occurred in the
1990s and 2000s. Economic growth and a
buoyant real estate market in the 2000s provided fertile ground for promoting the private
ownership and appropriation of urban land.
In 2010, the social profile of Porto Alegre
had become relatively elitized in comparison
to previous years, with the disappearance of
working-class spaces and popular areas being
pushed to the outskirts. Social heterogeneity
is still greatest in municipalities in PAMA-PA,
with high concentrations of working classes living in PAMA-Valley, together with increasing
numbers of upper classes. Therefore, one of the
most significant differences in the 2010 profile
compared to previous years is the presence of
elitized spaces outside the capital, in large and
central municipalities such as So Leopoldo
and Novo Hamburgo in the Sinos Valley.
In general, it can be said that PAMA has
become more complex, with the strengthening of central poles, and new urban configurations that are, in part, the result of an internal
dynamic and, in part, the effects of a Brazilian
hybrid form of growth (neo-developmentalist
and neo-liberal) that the country went through
during the first decade of the 21st century, and
its connection with the global dynamic of globalization. However, within the Porto Alegre
Metropolitan Area, the trends towards urban
fragmentation and social segregation endure.

Notes
1 Metropolis Observatory website: www.observatoriodasmetropoles.net
2 Conservative modernization is a concept developed by Barrington Moore Jr. (1966) to portray
the case of capitalist development in Germany
and Japan. The concept was used to explain Brazils economic development after the 1964 military coup; modernization that did not destroy the
elements of the old pre-industrial society and
whereby landowners remained at the center of
power.

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3 On the expansion of Participatory Budgets

across the world, see Sintomer, Allegretti, Herzberg, Rcke (2013) .
4 The areas are automatically defined using the
sector aggregation methodology, which is applied utilizing a specially developed computer
system that uses geo-referenced information.
(IBGE 2011)
5 Binary Correspondence Factor Analysis (BCFA)
and Ascending Hierarchical Classification (AHC)
were used to perform this analysis.
6 The proportion of the working population living
in working class areas rose from 33% in 1980 to
42.5% in 1991.
7 Collection of 21 municipalities making up PAMA.
8 The proportion of the working population living
in popular class areas rose from 14.5% in 1980
to 29% in 1991.
9 This group includes more than 17% of the working population.
10 Cities of Alvorada, Guaba and Viamo.
11 Accounting for 13% of the working population
in 2000.

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disP 20552.2 (2/2016)

61

Prof. Dr. Luciano Fedozzi

Universidade Federal do Rio
Grande do Sul
Departamento de Sociologia
IFCH
Avenida Bento Gonalves, 9500
Prdio 43311, sala 103
91509-900 Porto Alegre, Brazil
lucianofedozzi@gmail.com
Prof. Dr. Paulo Roberto
Rodrigues Soares
Universidade Federal do Rio
Grande do Sul
Departamento de Geografia
Instituto de Geocincias
Avenida Bento Gonalves, 9500
91509-900 Porto Alegre, Brazil
paulo.soares@ufrgs.br