New Living Spaces and Socio-Spatial Fragmentation in a Medium-Sized City: Examples from Sobral-CE

Abstract

This article aims to analyze socio-spatial differentiation based on the logic of socio-spatial fragmentation of residential spaces in the medium-sized city of Sobral, CE.
Through spatial analysis of housing complexes built during the Minha Casa Minha Vida Program and gated communities proposed by private initiatives, the study seeks to identify the duality inherent in the integration of these developments and to understand to what extent this duality reinforces the process of socio-spatial fragmentation. It aims to understand how the current process of urban restructuring, guided by new vectors of real estate valorization, results in an increase in socio-spatial differentiation. This is driven by the strategies of real estate developers of gated communities, which emphasize living near consumption areas targeted at wealthier socioeconomic segments, in pleasant locations, close to green areas with environmental amenities, and relatively “distant” from the city's “undesirable” areas.