Metropolization in Manaus, in the Amazon, increases inequalities

By Fred Santana and Lucas Thiago – From Cenarium

MANAUS (AM) – The Metropolitan Region of Manaus (RMM), made up of 13 municipalities and officially established in 2007, has undergone intense transformations that expose contradictions and reinforce socio-spatial inequalities. This reality was detailed in the dissertation “Peripheral regional metropolization short of a metropolis: the metropolitan region of Manaus seen from the other side”, by professor Susane Patrícia Melo de Lima, of the University of the State of Amazonas (UEA).

In the study, the professor analyzed how the capital of Amazonas became a hub for services, commerce, and jobs, while neighboring municipalities remain dependent and underserved in several areas. The result is a process that presents itself as modern and connected to the global context but, in practice, maintains peripheral and unequal characteristics.

“I wanted to see the city from who we are, from how we reproduce ourselves, because thinking about metropolization here is not the same as thinking in France or Italy. We need to reflect from our own reality, from how the process is produced by the residents and considering the vastness of the Amazon, with all its grandeur, its socio-biodiversity, formed by a multiplicity of peoples – quilombolas, riverine populations, Indigenous peoples – and also by the biological richness of rivers and forests,” the researcher stated.

Metropolization and reprimarization

In her dissertation, Susane focused on explaining two fundamental notions to understand the Amazonian reality: metropolization and reprimarization. Metropolization is the process in which a large city expands and strongly influences the surrounding municipalities, concentrating services and economic activities. In the case of the RMM, Manaus plays this central role, but in an unequal way.

“When we talk about education services, basic sanitation, transportation, or a structured metropolitan system, we see that we don’t have it, because the configuration of our metropolitan region was not born with that intention or interest. Even so, we do, in our own way, have a spatial interaction between the municipalities: we share services, and Manaus is configured as an attractive metropolis,” she explained.

Reprimarization refers to the return of the economy to dependence on primary products – raw materials and natural resources – instead of diversifying production with industrial or service sectors. For Susane, this is a persistent trait in the Amazon. “If before we extracted the so-called ‘drugs of the backlands,’ now we exploit minerals with new packaging and technology. We continue appropriating Amazonian space through its natural resources, with emphasis on agribusiness and the goods of the land,” she stated.

The researcher cited practical examples of this logic in RMM municipalities. “Silves and Itapiranga are inserted in this context of reprimarization, where large economic groups exploit gas. The liquefied gas flows out of there to other destinations, passing through the region,” she recalled.

“The process of peripheral regional metropolization in the Metropolitan Region of Manaus takes place through the advance of agribusiness frontiers, the reprimarization of the economy with modern financial contributions, and the implementation of large projects that introduce into the metropolitan space new forms, new contents, new values that mirror metropolises,” she pointed out in an interview with CENARIUM.

Everyday inequalities

According to the professor, the arrival of commerce and services to cities neighboring Manaus occurs precariously. “In my dissertation, peripheral regional metropolization is evident, above all, in commerce and services. These arrive in the municipalities in precarious form, but always with the desire to resemble what happens in the metropolis. However, this arrival occurs peripherally, unequally, and far from what the interior population longs for,” Susane explained.

For the professor, this dynamic reinforces the centrality of the capital and deepens inequalities among municipalities. Many families must resort to Manaus to access basic services, in a relationship of dependence that repeats itself daily.

Academic recognition

The work earned the researcher the José Aldemir de Oliveira Award, granted by the Graduate Program in Geography at the Federal University of Amazonas (PPGEOG/Ufam). The distinction honors the best dissertations defended in the field and has special value for Susane. “It is an honor that transcends a simple academic achievement. It represents a serious commitment to research and the production of knowledge in the Amazon, about the Amazon, by an Amazonian,” the professor celebrated.

She also highlighted her emotion at receiving an award named after her former professor. “The award bears the name of José Aldemir de Oliveira, of whom I was a student. He left an important legacy in the study of Amazonian cities. Receiving this recognition was profoundly moving, above all because it reflects the Amazon from ourselves – an Amazon conceived by an Amazonian,” Susane recalled.

Edited by Jadson Lima
Translated from Portuguese by Gustô Alves