Envisioning Amazonian frontiers: place-making in a Brazilian boomtown

Abstract

Located at a strategic crossroads of eastern Amazonia, Marabá has long been known as a volatile, even violent Brazilian boomtown. This study examines the city's sense of place with regard to alternative perceptions of the regional frontier experience: the unstable, resource-extractive “hollow frontier”; the linear, sequential “development frontier”; and the hybrid, socially segmented “post-frontier.” By asking whether, why, and how such understandings resonate with residents, we highlight the social dynamics of place-making. Our interviews suggest that distinctive frontier visions reflect residents' socioeconomic positions and relationships to state-promoted, capital-intensive investment projects. These findings help to explain why citizens favor or oppose dominant forms of regional development.

Keywords:

• Brazil
• Amazon
• urbanization
• regional development
• frontier
• cultural geography

Acknowledgements

The co-authors began collaborating on this project during the research and writing of Sam Thypin-Bermeo's (2011) senior thesis in geography, which Brian Godfrey advised at Vassar College. Previously, Professor Godfrey had lived in Marabá for six months in 1976 and visited for shorter stays in 1978-1979, 1989-1991, 1996, and 2006. Mr. Thypin-Bermeo lived in Marabá for four months during 2010-2011, when he carried out the fieldwork and interviews for this project. He thanks his local hosts, the Marques family, for their hospitality and generous assistance. Nancy Bermeo and Joseph Nevins kindly commented on earlier drafts of our manuscript, while editor Alyson Greiner and the anonymous reviewers also provided useful suggestions for improvement. Finally, we are grateful for travel funding from the Office of Fellowships and for assistance from the Department of Earth Science and Geography at Vassar College.

Notes

1. For examples of these vintage regional posters from World War II, please see http://www.mauc.ufc.br/cgi-bin/expo/2010/07/2010.07.cgi?pagina=1.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sam Thypin-Bermeo

Sam Thypin-Bermeo currently studies at Yale Law School, P.O. Box 208215, New Haven, CT 06520, USA

Brian J. Godfrey

Brian J. Godfrey is Professor of Geography at Vassar College, Department of Earth Science and Geography, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604, USA