Reestruturação da cidade e centralidade urbana: uma análise do papel das franquias em Dourados/MS

Abstract

Due to a broad and complex process of capitalist restructuring, perpetrated by the new relations of production and consumption, the cities have faced a new set of changes in the past twenty years. In Dourados, just like in other urban centers, consumption has begun to play a more important role than production, and the induction of this new dynamic has significantly altered structure of the city, unfolding the redefinition of the centrality in the scales of the city and the urban network. From new spatial logics of the companies, new consumption spaces emerge, such as shopping malls and minor sets of stores; and subcenters of specialized axes are constituted, which, combined with the territorial expansion of the city, have contributed to the redefinition of centrality. In this paper, we have taken franchising as object of analysis, assuming that these enterprises articulate scales that are more comprehensive and follow criteria and logic that differentiate them from ordinary commerce. Thus, analyzing the process of rearrangement of the urban network and of the city have been our objective, with emphasis on the second, aiming to reveal how franchises participate in the redefinition and production of new expressions of centrality in Dourados. Grounded on this objective, others have arisen and allowed us to better understand the role franchises play, namely: i) discussing the process of decentralization of commercial activities; ii) analyzing the process of structuration of the city, considering retail and franchising as a common thread; iii) understanding how franchises take part in the process of restructuring of the city, based on their new spatial logics; iv) analyzing the socio-spatial unfoldments, resulting from the introduction of a new pattern of trade and services in Dourados. In order to meet the results, we carried out a bibliographic survey; interviews with franchise owners and well-informed agents; surveys in companies and civil societies websites, which compile data on national retail; fieldwork downtown and in other areas of the centrality, that included photographic record and observations of the recent commerce dynamics. The research has shown that the increase in commercial enterprises and services constituted in franchise system prompted a set of changes, contributing to the redefinition of the commercial areas of the city and reinforcing the centrality of downtown area. From this perspective, in the city of Dourados, where consumption has taken new meanings, franchises have bared a prominent role in the production of commercial spaces in the restructuration of the city.