PRÁTICAS DO CIRCUITO INFERIOR, RESISTÊNCIA E ADAPTAÇÃO: A REFUNCIONALIZAÇÃO DOS FIXOS URBANOS NO ENTORNO DO MERCADO CENTRAL DA FEIRA LIVRE DE CAMPINA GRANDE - PB

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the spatial implications of the lower circuit of the urban economy resulting from the small establishments surrounding the central market in the city of Campina Grande, Paraíba. The analyses and reflections are based on the idea proposed by Marial Laura Silveira (1996) that the city is a totality constituted by two distinct market areas, which necessarily points to a territorial division of labor endogenous to the city (or, as Milton Santos puts it, a political economy of the city) where agents, depending on their technical strength and capital volumes, use the territory differently, either as a resource or as shelter. The results obtained show that the forms and functions of the lower circuit are diverse, forming a hybrid between what Milton Santos (2008) differentiated between the central lower circuit and the residential lower circuit, and that they are installed there due to the centrality of the central market. These establishments, despite the vectors of globalization that reach the city, do not fully embrace the innovations of the current period. Therefore, seeking to understand the urban reality in its deep segmentation through circuit theory means thinking about how the poor find a place and strength to exist.