Contemporary urbanization and simultaneous processes of urban concentration and urban sprawl: case study of Porto Maravilha Urban Operation

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2016
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AESOP
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Contemporary urbanization is characterized by a new phenomenon, in which there is a simultaneous occurrence of both urban concentration and urban sprawl, mainly in metropolitan areas. This brings to new urban structures and new spatial forms, according to Gottdiener (1985), including both the redevelopment of downtown areas – with the renewal of historical, industrial and port areas – and urban growth and urban sprawl – characterized by new areas disconnected from the existing urban forms, interspersed with vacant land. Centralities are created or reinforced – becoming multiples, distributed and interconnected –, following the process of spatial decentralization (CASTELLS, 1996). These changes occur with a growth of highway systems, followed by a higher demand of housing, commerce and service to suburban and exurban areas, bringing downtown areas to a decline. Urban renewal of central areas can bring to its gentrification, which moves poorer residents out of urban areas into suburbs or more depressed areas – expanding even more the urbanization. This indicates there is a change in the old Fordist metropolis and its socio-spatial organization, originating the contemporary Postmetropolis, whose urbanization process is structured by larger regional scales (SOJA, 2000). The urban configuration starts to be formed as “constellations” or “nebulae” of urban cores (REIS, 2006). Their sprawled and concentrated areas are connected through the transportation routes and through the information and communication networks. Contemporary urbanization is characterized by emblematic projects, urban reconfiguration and major events – strategies of city marketing, whose objective is to restructure the cities to promote them and insert them in the globalized world.
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Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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