Política e expansão urbanas em Lavras-MG: o direito à cidade em disputa

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to understand the regulation of conflicts of interest that have marked and continue marking the dispute for the right to the city. The right to the city, a cry and a demand for a renewed urbanity, is at the same time based on the Marxist concepts of use value and exchange value in the city and a reflection of social movements and urban policies of a progressive nature. In Brazil, current norms present the social function of property as a basic precept for the performance of municipalities in urban management. In Lavras, a medium-sized city in the south of Minas Gerais, several contradictions and conflicts over the use of social space contain an exemplary case for understanding the complexity of the dispute over the right to the city. As for the methodology, documentary research, semi-structured interviews and observation were used. The content analysis was based on analytical categories created from a theory of socio-spatial formation. The results indicate the strong influence of economic power and private interests in urban politics, in an abstraction of space and preponderance of exchange value in the city. This situation caused a conflict between local executive power and the Minas Gerais Public Prosecutor's Office, whose performance is reinforced by the anti-mining movement in urban areas in the western part of the municipality initiated by an association of residents. Between different scales of norms, influence of the Capital, public inquiries and civil actions, the form of action of the city hall is modified by the impositions of the Public Ministry, indicating the responsibility of the leaders of the municipality in the treatment of the public thing and in the fulfillment of the precepts stipulated in the Statute of the City, fundamental guarantees for the dignity of citizens in the city.