The mirage of development in the metropolitan periphery: Restructuring and crisis in Queimados - RJ
Economic Development; Developmentalism; Growth Machine; Queimados’s Industrial District; Regional Restructuring.
The relationship between the city of Queimados-RJ and the industry has been present since its foundation. The Queimados Industrial District created in the 1970’s was an alibi for years later if an emancipation movement started claiming that the wealth generated by the district should remain in place. This association between industry, progress and improvement in living conditions will continue to the present day in the imaginary and in the speeches. The objective of this work is to analyze the contradictions of the development model adopted in Queimados, understanding its emergence, apogee and decline. To this end, we analyzed through periodical research, the long process of development of the industrial district, to understand the bases of contemporary restructuring. The district is the most dynamic pole of the municipal economy and it is from there that economic growth movements begin. Created at the height of “classic” developmentalism, the peak of industrial occupation took place during the term of “new developmentalism” (MERCADANTE, 2010). Queimados is part of the Metropolitan End West (OLIVEIRA, 2015) and this region has emerged as a logistical-manufacturing hub and has received major investments while the “new developmentalism” policies were in force. Between 2010 and 2015 the city experienced a period of exponential growth and the beginning of this process was through the approval of tax incentives, and the subsequent arrival of industrial and logistical investments. Through statistical data from the IBGE, we observed the characteristics of the period of accelerated growth in the city and adding to the data from the Register of Employed and Unemployed (CAGED) we observed that the transformation industry had been fundamental, but that civil construction has enhanced the process. The local authorities sewed a political alliance - something common in the period - to dispute projects, resources and investments for Queimados, who formed, in our analysis effort, a growth machine. With the decline of the “new developmentalism”, the conditions for maintaining the growth machine ended and the city experienced years of retraction in economic activities and a sharp drop in all sectors of industry, including civil construction.