Gestão do território em regiões metropolitanas no estado da Paraíba

Abstract

The Metropolitan Region (RM) is a geographical space of contradictions, forged institutionalizations and new forms of regionalization, in which intense urbanization, territorial interlacing with neighboring municipalities and execution of public policies are expected. In the contemporary geographic discussion, the regionalization "effectiveness" problematic and metropolization of those spaces stand out, expressed in the sectoral policies planning, in the establishment of shared means of administrative organization, in the integrated system of resource allocation and in the shared execution of plans. The absence of an effective metropolitan policy and clear criteria for the delimitation of RMs in Brazil implies instituted units that do not always present metropolitan territorial practices. Based on that, we aim to analyze the metropolitan regions institutionalized in Paraíba under the bias of Territory Management, discussing the limits of its effectiveness as fact and tool. As a methodological assumption, the Regional Analysis Method fundamentals were adopted, oriented in a quantitative-qualitative perspective, we constructed our analysis system, organized in territory management comparative indicators. In the methodological procedures plan, were carried out: bibliographical research, both of the Geography authors, as well as of topics related to the Metropolitan Region study; documentary survey, obtained from official bodies, such as the Paraíba Legislative Assembly and IBGE; field research in the pole cities, with interviews realized with the municipal managers, in order to understand the actions carried out within the scope of metropolitan management. Observation and mapping of sociospatial elements were made and offered by the pole city to the region; and laboratory research, with cartographic work, data tabulation and construction of the indicator system. The results point to a crisis in the regionalization and almost nonexistence of metropolization in Paraíba. The tool dimension imposes itself, and when it is imposed, it demonstrates that the RMs established in the interior of the state correspond to an instrument of territorial management, serving to regulate a group of municipalities that do not present territorial planning projects in common. These inner RMs, with the exception of a medium-sized city (Campina Grande – PB) show themselves in a crisis of fact, both in the "regional" and "metropolitan" conditions. They establish themselves as a tool, and even in this condition, they present themselves in a situation of inertia and inoperative. Those RMs are thus taken as a “paper phenomenon”, strongly present in the legislation and weakly represented in territorial practices.