POLICY AND PLANNING IN PARAÍBA VALLEY AND NORTH COAST: REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN DISCUSSION¹

POLÍTICA Y PLANIFICACIÓN EN EL VALLE DEL PARAÍBA Y LITORAL NORTE: LA INTEGRACIÓN REGIONAL EN CUESTIÓ

Abstract

The article organizes general meanings of the socio-spatial formation of the Vale do Paraíba and north coast integrated to the metropolization in the context of São Paulo, the historical experience of regional planning and the current normative of the political-institutional organization of a metropolitan region. Aiming to identify the objectives of the integration principle inherent to the Metropolis Statute, questions, hypotheses and considerations about the relations the state and society and public functions of common interest are the results and conclusive conclusion of this reflection in order to emphasize the proper promotion of the academic debate, extended to diverse social agents, about the regional development and the socially necessary and constructed planning.

Key words:
metropolization; Vale do Paraíba and North Coast of São Paulo; territorial policy; urban and regional planning; regional integration

Resumen

El artículo organiza sentidos generales de la formación socioespacial del Valle del Paraíba y Litoral Norte integrada a la metropolización en el contexto paulista, la experiencia histórica de la planificación regional y la normativa actual de la organización político-institucional de una región metropolitana. Intentándose identificar las objetivaciones del principio de integración inherente al Estatuto de la Metrópoli, los cuestionamientos, las hipótesis y consideraciones sobre las relaciones entre el estado y la sociedad y las funciones públicas de interés común constituyen los resultados y término conclusivo de la reflexión con el fin de resaltar la debida promoción del debate académico, ampliado a diversos agentes sociales, acerca del desarrollo regional y del planeamiento socialmente necesario y construido.

Palabras clave:
metrópolis; Valle del Paraíba y Litoral Norte paulista; política territorial; planificación urbana y regional; integración regional

Resumo

O artigo organiza sentidos gerais da formação socioespacial do Vale do Paraíba e Litoral Norte integrada à metropolização em contexto paulista, a experiência histórica do planejamento regional e à normativa da atual organização político-institucional de uma região metropolitana. Buscando identificar as objetivações do princípio da integração inerente ao Estatuto da Metrópole, questionamentos, hipóteses e considerações sobre as relações entre estado e sociedade e as funções públicas de interesse comum, constituem os resultados e termo conclusivo da reflexão em vista de ressaltar a devida promoção do debate acadêmico, ampliado a diversos agentes sociais, acerca do desenvolvimento regional e do planejamento socialmente necessário e construído.

Palavras-chave:
metropolização; Vale do Paraíba e Litoral Norte paulista; política territorial; planejamento urbano e regional; integração regional

Introduction

Participation in the 1st Forum of Environmental Governance of the São Paulo Macrometropolis prompted reflection on Policies, Development and Urban and Regional Planning Processes in Vale do Paraíba Paulista. According to this perspective, it was necessary to gather general ideas to understand the socio-spatial formation and regional planning processes and, thus, to better reflect upon the current conjuncture involving socio-spatial challenges and uncertainties regarding the territorial policy and the consequences of the institutionalization of the Metropolitan Region of Vale do Paraíba and North Coast (RM-VPLN) by the state government in 2012 (SÃO PAULO, 2012).

In this context, the problematization in this article combines two developments of distinct nature in their dialectical relationship. The first one, of a theoretical nature, on socio-spatial formation and metropolization. The second, founded on the questioning of the regional reality, includes the problem of spatial organization in its entirety (historically constituted) and dynamics of functioning, therefore emphasizing the political-institutional dimension of that socio-spatial organization.

Socio-spatial formation can be understood as a category of the geographical method (SANTOS, 1980) for the reconstruction of the historical processes of a nation state, within the framework of a way of production, which results in a given social organization, whose functioning and transformation are inseparable from the organization of the space. Hence, metropolization can be observed in its original condition as spatialization of the elevated concentration of urban social life. It is a process to organize social relations in a high level of complexity that affects certain points of the territory, endowed, therefore, of forces of irradiation and influence in the reach of diverse urban-regional systems.

São Paulo is one of the most relevant metropolises in the Brazilian territory. Its command force and organization visibly extend to the inland cities of the state. Understanding and questioning the organization of urban and regional space in Vale do Paraíba and North Coast (VPLN), and in its political-institutional and socio-territorial dimension, will not be complete without proper connections with the expansion of the metropolitan socio-spatial complex. The dissolution of the metropolis and demetropolization (SANTOS, 1993) are elucidating concepts to problematize and discuss the issue of regional integration in the macrometropolitan context of São Paulo.

The main problem that leads to the formulation of the scope and structure of the sections of this article can be stated by the dilemma underlying the proposition of integrated urban development. Thus, the path of the elaboration of the Integrated Urban Development Plan (PDUI), with its objectification of the principle of regional integration (recognizable in the Metropolis Statute) would be fundamental to the public debate on territorial policy and regional planning in its interfaces with the urban and environmental dimension of the regional socio-spatial organization.

In this sense, the main object of this article is the convergence and emergence of social subjects (RIBEIRO, 2012), knowing and understanding the actions that constitute permanent discussions about the socially necessary and built regional planning, having in the RM-VPLN the field of observation of macrometropolitan particularities of the state of São Paulo. With this focus, the general objective is to gather notes to recognize the reflexive interfaces and possibilities of joint action in the investigation of territorial and socio-environmental issues and in the policy and the territorial and environmental planning.

In the scope outlined, this text is structured into three sections. In the first section, the theoretical and historical understanding of metropolization in the state of São Paulo is elucidated to better contextualize the organization of urban and regional space in the VPLN. In the second one, where the general senses of the accumulated experience of regional planning will be recovered until the present moment, under the precepts of the Statute of the Metropolis (BRASIL, 2015) and the current institutional circumstances.

In the third section, territorial policy and regional planning will be the subject of specific considerations: a) public functions of common interest; b) the necessary rehabilitation of relations between state and various social agents; and c) the construction of a public sphere that promotes social debate.

Metropolization and organization of regional space in the Vale do Paraíba and North Coast of São Paulo

The organization of the regional space in the VPLN results from its historical formation and its processes of occupation, settlement and building of the human space. The organization process is realized in inhabited and productive lands, in villages, towns and cities, in circulation systems and in the dynamics of social life.

From the earliest times, the region has been a connection between São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. Today, the region is still a strategic location between the two most important national metropolises, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Hence, its inducing influence of the regional nature system (SANTOS, 1991) and the importance of the hierarchy of the terrestrial road system (MULLER, 1969), in the organization of the regional space and the constitution of the urban network.

The Paraíba do Sul River, Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira constitute the most important components of the natural environment and are organizing and conditioning factors of the use and occupation of the soil and the differentiation of its geographical space. Figure 1 makes it possible to visualize the variation in topography, which illustrates the influence of the natural environment on the linearity of human occupation in the Vale Médio do Rio Paraíba, due to its low altitude and inclination, and on the coast, by the originally limiting factor represented by the Serra do Mar.

Figure 1
Altimetry of the Paulista Macrometropolis.

The physical attributes affecting the interconnection and the dynamics of demographic and economic flows in the region are established by the two main axes of regional urbanization today, the President Dutra Highway (BR 116) and, on the coast, the SP 055 Highway that extends to BR 101 (Rio-Santos). These main axes denote the concentration of the regional urban network and the economic and social dynamism of the region, while the roads transverse to them demarcate portions of the rarer regional urban spaces with lags or specificities in their development.

Figure 2 represents the territorial organization and distribution of the total 2,131,296 urban inhabitants that occupy the 39 cities in the urban-regional system (equal to 94.2% of the regional population in 2010). Sixteen cities contain 93.5% of urban population in the region and each of them have more than 20 thousand inhabitants. The other 22 cities contain only 6.5% of urban population in the region and each of them have fewer than 20 thousand inhabitants. Still here, it is noteworthy that only São José dos Campos, with an urban population of to 617,106 inhabitants, had in 2010, 28.9% of the entire regional urban population, while Taubaté and Jacareí, have a population between 200 and 300 thousand which is more 22.5% of urban inhabitants concentrating 51.4% of the total urban population in only three cities.

Figure 2
Territorial and Urban Population Organization in the Municipalities of the Metropolitan Regional of the Valley Paraíba and North Coast.

This spatial organization, given by the road system and other engineering systems (information, telecommunication, energy and other structural conduits) and the system of surrounding cities and territories, establishes, at its disposition and functioning, the current stage of physical-territorial and social integration of the region.

The economic and social history embodied first by activities and exchanges for subsistence and the coffee economy - and in the twentieth century, especially its second half, by industrialization and scientific-technological development, in addition to extensive land use and occupation and intense urbanization - does not itself explain this regional organization of space. Rather, the whole that it encompasses explains it better. That is, the dynamics and the regional organization of space is better understood by the dominant national social order of each period, interstate or interregional relationships, the ongoing process of globalization and the São Paulo metropolitan system.

In this sense, it is necessary to highlight the influence of the national development policies implemented by the military regime, propagating an economic order of a developmental state linked to the international capital. These policies focused on articulating planning between the federal state and the state of São Paulo. In the case of this article, it focus on the creation of the metropolitan region of São Paulo and the reorganization of regions of the inland cities of the state, through industrial and demographic decentralization as well as the development of medium-sized cities (GOMES; RESCHILIAN; UEHARA, 2018).

It was the context in which the regional space of Vale do Paraíba reorganized and transformed itself intensely in the 1970s and 1980s. It was driven by the consolidation of the development and urbanization axis delineated by the Dutra Highway, the preferred location for economic and productive expansion, and in parallel, by the economic and urban dynamization of the coastal region largely oriented to tourism and construction of secondary residences.

The current organization of urban and regional space in the São Paulo context can be understood - considering the continuous historical development of a new globalized political and economic-financial order - through the interpretation of Silva Neto (2002; 2003; 2006) by varying degrees of technical-economic integration of the axes that radiate from the capital to the inland cities, expressing the concomitant performance between the economic and technological variables. This would correspond, in the state plan as a whole, to the constitution of different metropolitan subsystems - the central, the expanded, the extensor and the peripheral. The Vale do Paraíba and North Coast region would integrate - in certain portions of their territory - the central, expanded and peripheral subsystems of the São Paulo state, from a predominant variation by the average levels of the technical-economic integration index (SILVA NETO, 2002; 2003).

If metropolization has engendered a macro-organizing force for the urbanization of the entire national territory in a unified organization of urban-regional space (SANTOS, 1993) since the 1950s, but above all in the post-1980 period, then in the case of the state of São Paulo this phenomenon can be represented by the subsystems above within a single metropolitan system, whose hegemonic socio-spatial order spreads, with specificities, according to the different subspaces of the urban-regional system in focus.

Therefore, it is understood the importance attributed to what is called today the São Paulo macrometropolis which Silva Neto (2003) classifies as the central metropolitan subsystem.

The characterization of the territorial configuration as a large network (which in the future will constitute the São Paulo macrometropolis), with the city of São Paulo polarizing its small inland cities, has been noted, strictly speaking, since the late nineteenth century (MEYER; GROSTEIN; BIDERMAN, 2004). In the decades after 1950 the territorial configuration was thought of as (UEHARA, 2018) a large urban complex formed by the city of São Paulo and its major highways. In the CODIVAP study (1971), it can be seen the perspective of understanding the Vale do Paraíba region as an integrating part of metropolitan areas. In the plan for the Paulista Macro-Axis region, integrated development was considered in the sense to identify “[...] priority areas for the government to implement public power and the locations for private sector investment”. (SÃO PAULO, 1978).

Therefore, the PAM formulations (EMPLASA, 2014) are not surprising to the relations established between axes of economic expansion, the new scale of urbanization and the integration of the urban network. Indeed, they seem to match the prerogatives of a new order of the globalized economy, in which the highest levels of technical-economic integration correspond to the constitution of territorial complexes of high performance and new markets (SILVA NETO, 2003; 2006) and the diffusion of a homogenizing rationality, which establishes various forms of globalization, such as fable and perversity (SANTOS, 2000).

It is the dissolution of a metropolis that turns itself omnipresent due to its ideological and cultural irradiation, capital flows and information, and simultaneous (de) metropolization through population flows and spatial reorganization reaching preferential locations or urban-regional systems (SANTOS, 1993) that accentuate the contradictions inherent in the historically unequal social formation.

Experiences of regional planning and the current political institucional organization

The historical experience of planning the Vale do Paraíba region can be reconstructed from the pioneering and systematic equation of problems and guidelines of the late 1930s contained in the studies for its economic recovery (in the face of the decline of the agricultural economy), carried out by the Vale do Paraíba Improvement Service of the Adhemar de Barros’ government who evaluated and proposed the possibilities of agricultural use in floodplain areas by the Paraíba River control, drainage and irrigation, and also its navigability (BAPTISTA, 1940).

In addition to this state initiative, in the 70s, it is highlighted two other plans showing a remarkable historical experience in structuring the regional planning of Vale do Paraíba.

The first plan was produced by the Vale do Paraíba Integrated Development Consortation (CODIVAP, 1971) , which can be understood as a precursor experience of municipal institutional organization, “a managerial form of regional administration” (TAVARES, 2018, p. 202) or inter-municipal cooperation (GOMES; RESCHILIAN; UEHARA, 2018). In relation to this paper, this study is relevant to solutions necessary for problems common to the municipalities due to the lack of support, resources and their interdependence on the federal and state government.

In the study, it is noticed the perspective of a global view of the region and its municipalities, given by the emphasis on interregional relations and dynamics. These relations are clearly present as observed by Tavares (2018, p. 201) through the fast means of transportation between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and the organization of long-distance relations through conurbations and polarizations (CODIVAP, 1971). In order to support an integrated policy of a territorial and urban nature, the study emphasizes the integrated analytical axes of socioeconomic, cultural, institutional and ecological issues.

The Rio-São Paulo Macro-Axis Plan, among other regional plans such as the Coastal Regional Plan, bring together analyses and propositions oriented towards the fulfillment of programs foreseen by the Urban and Regional Development Policy of 1976 including that of the Macrometropolis, the industrial deconcentrating and the Medium Cities (SILVA NETO, 2003).

In the environmental aspect, these two plans addressed problems from the lack of control over the use of natural resources, which intensified with industrialization and regional urbanization they were addressed in response to numerous critical events such as: air and water pollution; occupation and inappropriate use of land with agricultural potential (clay and sand extraction urban and industrial occupation); forest degradation; intense erosive processes with siltation of watercourses; imbalances in the flow of collecting rivers with high surface runoff and reduced water infiltration (to the detriment of groundwater); devastation of the Serra do Mar and pollution of the coastal waters among others. Thus, this plan demarcates the alignment of the government with a regional policy of rationalizing the use of natural resources that combines the normative instruments and the specificities of the sub-regions⁴ with the actions of: reserving areas for nature preservation; protection of areas already exposed to predatory action and compromising risk of use; the recovery of already compromised areas; implementation of more appropriate natural resource management among others (SAO PAULO, 1978, p. 75-76).

Thus, both efforts to systematize regional knowledge and planning propositions are understood as actions arising from articulations between the federal and state governments, which propel the ideal of modernization and national economic development, through the strategy of integrated regional organization for the productive scale of the metropolitan formation of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. This corresponded to the objective of regulating metropolitan growth, by addressing the diseconomies of concentrated urbanization (SANTOS, 1993) and promoting expanded development through the targeted induction of capital flow and State intervention into the region.

To this end, the definition of homogeneous territorial units and the institutionalization of political-administrative regions and the creation of Regional Offices became conditions for government planning, the realization of diagnostics and guidelines for territorial management, the orientation of incentives and projects for technical-productive equipment, territorial integration and the promotion of orderly urbanization (SÃO PAULO, 1978; SILVA NETO, 2003; TAVARES, 2018).

In addition, it is also necessary to mention, the land use planning guidelines proposed by the Executive Committee for Integrated Studies of the Paraíba do Sul River Basin (CEEIVAP, 1979)⁵ still in the 1970s. The project regards to the management of resources that would intensify in the 1990s and illustrates an articulation of plans among the federal government (Ministry of Interior), federated states (RJ, SP MG), consultants and working groups of CEEIVAP, integrating, among other agents, CODIVAP itself.

Tension of the political-institucional organization in the post-1980 period

The 1980s led to the beginning of another transformation of order in the country, with its regional and local impacts which had not been sufficiently studied yet. The historical period delimited by the last three decades, established by the ascendancy of the democratic ideal, citizens’ rights and urban policy precepts contained in the Federal Constitution (CF) (BRAZIL, 1988), draws another course for urban and regional planning and territorial policies.

Amid the imposition of forces of globalization (SANTOS, 2000), supported by neoliberal policies and technological resources of information and communication, not only the reorganization of the federated state and civil society come into play, but also, decisively, fundamental relations between them and the implications of these relationships for territorial policy and socially necessary and constructed planning.

In this political and regional planning sphere, three elements of the new arrangement of forces in action are among the most discussed ones: the legitimation of municipalities and their attributions and autonomy in the federation structure; the power attributed to states for the institutionalization of metropolitan regions, urban agglomerations and micro-regions; and the controversial issue of social participation.

Although this work does not intended to portray the transformations of regional planning conducted by the state of São Paulo after the 1990s ,beyond the emphasis on the purposes of political-administrative decentralization, through the experiences of the Regional Government Offices and the creation of the Government Regions (SILVA NETO, 2003; TAVARES, 2018), the new assumptions and conditions of the global economy and the national political scenario lead to highlight the dimension of the relations between global and local agents (municipalities) in the field of forces directly incident in processes of territorial reorganization and spaces of social life. In this configuration, if the intermediation of the São Paulo state government can be, to a certain extent, assumed in the development of these relations between what is global and local, its visibility should be signaled, here, at least by the creation of new metropolitan regions and the proposition of the PAM (EMPLASA, 2014).

In the context of the VPLN, particularities of this recent history can be better detailed by possible inferences based on admittedly relevant facts: the publication of the Macrozoning of Vale do Paraíba Region and the North Coast of São Paulo State (KURKDJIAN et al., 1991 ), the result of an agreement between the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and CODIVAP; the North Coast Economic-Ecological Zoning, in 2004, resulting from the State Coastal Management Law; the local implications of the 1997 National Water Resources Plan, with institutional and technical developments in 2006, involving the National Water Agency (ANA), the Paraíba do Sul River Basin Pro-Management Association (AGEVAP) and the COPPETEC Foundation (RJ), in view of the preparation of the Paraíba do Sul River Basin Water Resources Plan; and finally, the institutionalization of RM-VPLN (SÃO PAULO, 2012).

With this set of regional planning instruments, primary attention is given to the strength of different agents concerned with the major environmental issues in the region. This seems to have been the focus of planned actions on a regional scale in the 1990s and 2000s, at the same time tightened by the emphasis on municipal territorial planning arising from the 1988 CF.

In reference to MAVALE, the analyzes of the physical, social and urban environment indicate the desired perspective of integration between scholars and agents involved in the directions of urban-regional and environmental planning. If the synoptic view of land use has been unheard by the new methodological bases of analysis supported by remote sensing, the central concern for assessing the relationship between urban sprawl and environmental conflicts is remarkable. Regarding the environmental issue, MAVALE’s contribution lies in the enormous effort of documentary records, resulting from surveys and mapping of land use and cover, and the classification of Natural Areas - Natural Areas declared, of Relevant Ecological Interest, Environmental Protection, under Special Protection and referred to Ecological Stations and Parks.

In addition, the study resulted in a proposition of Macrozoning, covering detailed classification of areas according to suitability and management of use, highlighting: the areas indicated for urban and industrial expansion; areas suitable for temporary and permanent crops, and for fruit growing; areas for natural and planted pasture, and for forestry; areas for permanent preservation and environmental protection.

Regarding PAM, the São Paulo macrometropolis (MMP) was taken as a physical-territorial entity consisting of metropolitan regions and urban agglomerations⁶, but without representing a legally established unit as a whole. Uehara (2018) discusses MMP as a political construction that guides the political-ideological leadership force of the state of São Paulo in the national context. Conceiving a new scale for structuring urbanization and planning, the plan is based on three main ideas: territorial connectivity and economic competitiveness; territorial cohesion and inclusive urbanization and metropolitan governance (EMPLASA, 2014, p. 14).

Figure 3 represents the territorial vectors - structures with an inter-metropolitan connection function, major articulating axes around which investments and projects in privileged locations would be destined. Tavares (2016) asks if from this a new paradigm of regional planning can be inferred, referenced, from the ideas of connectivity and territorial fluidity, associated with the systems of logistic centers, macro-highways and intermodal connections.

Figure 3
Macrometropolitan Territorial Vectors Proposed in the PAM.

On the environmental issue PAM proposes the systemic direction for environmental development (EMPLASA, 2014, vol. 4. p. 87), highlighting the relevance of the legal and institutional framework of environmental planning and management of the state of São Paulo. It foresees the preservation and restoration of provisioning spaces of ecosystem services - particularly the protection of water sources used for human supply and productive activities - payment for environmental services, partnerships with the private sector for sustainable exploitation of Conservation Units, implementation of programs and actions of sustainable tourism in areas of low economic dynamism in RMVPLN.

From this unusual proposal of a mega-plan for a mega-region of unparalleled complexity in Brazil, some questioning arises: if it would only be a portfolio of projects in strategic locations and historically accumulated comparative advantages, reproducing hegemonic logic of the production space and the war between the places. By hypothesis, the discussion should focus on the privatizing hegemonic logic that, according to spatial selectivity, articulates, organizes and, at the same time, disorganizes the urban-regional spaces through which it spreads and territorializes, accentuating concentrations and increasing social disparities.

In this weakening scenario of what is public and favoring of private actors, the controversial sustainability of environmental development (as proposed in the PAM) stands out, in the sense of its incompatibility with neoliberal hegemonic logic, especially in the matter of the appropriation and privatization of common goods, as for example the water.

It was precisely in the midst of the resumption of regional planning on a national scale (SENRA, 2011), strained by the elaboration of the PAM in the state of São Paulo, which established in 2012 the new framework of political-institutional organization from a metropolitan region to Vale do Paraíba and North Coast (figure 4), under the coordination of AGEMVALE (SÃO PAULO, 2015) and the representative organization of the Metropolitan Development Council. The Council, which is of normative and deliberative character, is responsible for establishing the rules for the creation and operation of the Advisory Council, of the Thematic Councils for public functions of common interest and Special Councils concerned with specific programs, projects or activities.

Figure 4
Regional Divisions of the Paraíba Valley and North Coast for Study and Planning Purposes.

According to the Metropolis Statute (BRAZIL, 2015), with its first amendments made in 2018, the current circumstances of the RM-VPLN reflect AGEMVALE’s relatively late modus operandi, which only in 2018 reached the Terms of Reference and Methodological Guide for the preparation of the PDUI without much information, so far, on the treatment of issues of the public functions of common interest, inter-federative cooperation and, above all, social participation, of which the different agents of the process of planning and elaboration of the plan cannot shirk.

Finally, you cannot disregard the recent extinction⁷ of EMPLASA by the São Paulo government - after more than 40 years of existence playing an important role in the state administrative structure and the technical subsidy, until recently, it supported metropolitan regions (SILVA NETO, 2010b), completing the picture of uncertainties linked to the directions of territorial policy and regional planning.

State, Society and territory relations: common interest and socially built planning

Realigning to the previous development on the organization of the regional space and the history of planning that affects it, the uncertainties and challenges of the present moment are interwoven with considerations regarding public functions of common interest at the center of the more general discussion on relations among the State , Society and Territory - a major object of reflection on the paths and deviations of territorial policy and regional planning, integrated with the socio-environmental dimension of territorial organization and actions.

In the context of institutional and broader social events, composing the relational and organizational dynamics in the face of the processes of socio-territorial transformation in the RMVPLN, in view of the PDUI, the hypothesis of the necessary social empowerment and / or rehabilitation and of the public power is presented for the formulation and achievement of socially necessary and constructed planning. This implies the integration of actions favorable to the prevalence of the common regional interest, or of common agreement between agents involved, in the face of the challenge of choosing what is a priority, in distinct contexts and time periods, to overcome regional and local socio-territorial disparities.

The fact is that the creation of the RMVPLN generated expectations and a joint institutional effort to follow events, through initiatives of association and mobilization of interested groups, leading to discussions on regional development and planning, in addition to analysis in multiple dimensions of the socio-territorial problem. Observatories, collectives, events, articulated movements and actions with a participatory purpose were constituted in the name of different causes, sometimes converging sometimes looking for identity statements, but creating, in fact, synergies of aggregation, awareness and positioning consistent with the urgencies of the historical transition.

Among other examples of such action, the initiative of articulation between the Casa do Patrimônio of the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute and the University of Taubaté stands out for the creation of the Landscape Observatory, which, together with the University of Vale do Paraíba and other institutions, organizations and collectives, have been constituted as a collaborative network dedicated to the discussion on the relations among culture, natural environment and heritage, visible in the cultural and socio-ecological landscapes of territories and places in the region. Organizing itinerant conversation circles, events and visits to places of interest, the work culminated, in December 2018, in the delivery of an open letter (OBSERVATÓRIO DA PAISAGEM, 2018) to the Metropolitan Development Council, with recommendations to the PDUI regarding the debate on culture and environment, understood as public functions of common interest, and the new regional macro-zoning; the development and protection of cultural heritage, landscapes and regional and local identities; restrictions on urbanization and overcoming the urban-rural dichotomy; safeguarding communities and knowledge; participatory inventories, etc.

If this initiative typifies the mobilization and articulation of actions by different agents, it is not the only one that has been witnessed and followed, and what is observed, by hypothesis, can be considered as a trend of social organization and collective positioning around common interests.

But, what to say about the institutionalization linked to AGEMVALE? If the newly instituted region had been noted for its immediate effects, such as the end of interurban connections between municipalities and EMTU buses on highways and main cities; the regulations of the Council and the technical support of EMPLASA; the creation of a website for the disclosure of Council Minutes and preparatory documents to hire the PDUI; and yet, the creation and regulation of the Vale Fund and the agency contacts with local institutions and actors, the future actions of the new executive director who took office in April 2019 are still unknown.

However, it does not seem to be in vain the expectation that new debates on the priorities of regional development - involving the Thematic Chambers and multiple interlocutions and research networks that are foreshadowed - may prompt investigations and reflections on territorial policy and metropolitan governance, within the scope of the inter-federative coordination agreed to the wishes and considerations of interested actors and social agents.

With this perspective centered on the crucial issue of relations between State and Society, the dynamics of vertical relationships (between actors in groups and different levels of power or influence) and horizontal relationships (between agents acting in proximity to everyday life in different places in the region), it involves distinct objectifications of the principle of integration, unifying centers and all social movement along the axis of common interests.

In this sense, one cannot help thinking about integrated regional development without considering the theoretical perspective and political action involving not only the primary issue of social democratization in the face of a political framework of democracies in crisis (POGREBINSCHI, 2004); but also the role of education and the university for citizenship and the transformation of society; the recognition of agents who understand themselves as carriers of the transformation force; the permanent promotion of social debate, in different public spheres, the construction of the common, in short.

Therefore, the issue of the politicization of society and the positioning of citizens is at the heart of the discussion about public functions of common interest and the respective integration of actors and agents - from the government and civil society - of commitments and responsibilities, of understandings and actions, in the middle of the context of social participation in the locus of resistance to what does not cooperate, therefore, to territorial policy and socially necessary and constructed planning.

And so, it is asked: which socio-territorial problems are defined beyond the local scope and demand, in fact, the discussion of what the common interest is and of which agents in the exercise of their functions could promote actions integrated to the purposes of transformation - overcoming the human, social and urban crisis of today, structural disparities and imbalances in the nature of the system, with more equity at last.

Territory natural environment and public functions os common interest

With the historical changes of the regional system of natural landscapes, caused by land use and occupation and intense urbanization, it is not possible to dissociate analyzes and actions related to the relations among society, natural environment and used territory. Environmental issues are essentially social and integrated with the most critical socio-territorial issues. Therefore, it requires integrated treatment. In the regional context, this need and demand, already historically observed by analysts and planners, is at the heart of the current discussion about the planning, organization and fulfillment of public functions of common interest.

Equating understanding and analysis for proposing the integration of actions of federated entities present in the region is not a task that disregards a certain level of rapport and agreement between them, and neither, the prevalence of the common regional interest about the place, the interest guaranteed by the municipal autonomy. It would all depend, in fact, “on how the different levels of common interest are articulated” (SILVA NETO, 2010b, p. 11 and 14).

On the other hand, the numerous social factors and agents involved in the analyzes and proposed actions (in the face of socio-territorial and environmental problems) would not be negligible, even if the limits of democratic management are initially defined by the rhetorical appropriation of human rights ideologies and the city and the institutional spaces created for social participation, reduced, however, to the merely legitimizing role of the proposals under discussion, previously elaborated by the public power. On the contrary, the democratic management of territorial policy is a fundamental emerging issue in the most diverse forums and debates, and essentially involves the relations between state and civil society, beyond the exclusive exercise of the coercive and regulatory power of the logic of market actors together with the state.

Another form of objectification of regional-metropolitan integration matches the inseparable sphere of confrontations, in analysis and politics, between public functions of common interest themselves, such as the interrelated functions of common interest that would be, at least, territorial planning, land use and occupation, the environment and economic development. Moreover, one could argue that each of these functional fields could be the object of study to identify their derived functions.

Another integrated approach would be to look at the relations between the functions in exercise, in the context of shared interests and responsibilities, and the integrated territorial and environmental issues constituting the substrates of social life as they are organized in the regional context or in interregional or local contexts. In this sense, looking at Figure 5, we can ask which socio-territorial and environmental problems would be inferred from land use in the MMP or RMVPLN. In addition, what are the implications of these problems for regional planning, considering the definition of common interests for the proposition of actions and organizational arrangements?

Figure 5
Land Use in the Paulista Macrometropolis.

Finally, an enumeration of problems of the RMVPLN can underlie, in its scope, investigative possibilities for conducting specific research and analysis. Thus, the following stands out, among others of equal importance: 1. The issue of sustainability of urban development, addressed by the discussion of urbanization models or compact cities and dispersed cities (SILVA NETO, 2010a); 2. The general problem of the Paraíba do Sul river basin and, in particular, the socio-environmental conflicts resulting from the exploratory and speculative use and occupation of the floodplain, such as those arising from sand extraction and urban sprawl; 3. The limitations of protected area management for the promotion of socioeconomic development and the preservation of communities and their culture; 4. The issue of housing in unsafe or hazardous areas and environmental sanitation; 5. The impacts of major engineering works; 6. Socio-territorial and environmental problems in conflict with the corresponding laws⁸.

Conclusion

The article sought to relate the organization of regional space to the context of São Paulo metropolization, highlighting, in the course of the history of national territorial policy and regional planning, the proposition of regional organization as a strategy to control the negative effects of urban-metropolitan concentration of São Paulo and promoting the logic of its expansion and development.

With the objective of recognizing objectivations of the principle of regional (or metropolitan) integration, it was emphasized: a) the inseparability among physical-territorial and social organization and political-institutional organization; b) the perspective of integrating socio-territorial and environmental issues of the regional space; and c) the integration of these with analyzes and related political and planning actions. Thus, what stands out, is the integrated dimension of vertical and horizontal social relations, involving the federated entities among themselves; including the state and the different actors and agents of civil society and the relations between them.

In the closing of the article, some points are proposed for reflection on socially constructed planning. It includes what happened and what should be developed in the context of the advancement of democratization in the social scope and relations with the state power, taking into account the limitations of participatory processes and focusing on the articulation of different actors and agents for the fulfillment of public functions of common interest. Moreover, it is highlighted the challenges given to the definition of prevailing regional interests, within the framework of integrated problems, over those guaranteed by municipal autonomy.

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• 1
  . Thanks to Professor Roberto Jacobi, for the opportunity to participate in a round table at the I Environmental Governance Forum of the São Paulo macro-metropolis (April 2019), and to CNPq for financial support.
• 4
  . Mantiqueira, Dutra A (from Jacareí to Pindamonhangaba) and Dutra B, High Paraíba and Coast
• 5
  . According to Decree No. 87.561 / 13-09-1982, which “Provides for the recovery and environmental protection measures of the Paraíba do Sul River Basin among other measures”.
• 6
  . Metropolitan regions of São Paulo, Baixada Santista, Campinas, Vale do Paraiba and North Coast and Sorocaba, in addition to the urban agglomerations of Jundiaí and Piracicaba
• 7
  . On the 15th of May, 2019
• 8
  . These issues and problems were obtained from PLUR-UNIVAP dissertations, of which we are witnesses or collaborators.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  08 June 2020
• Date of issue
  2020

History

• Received
  28 June 2019
• Accepted
  15 Aug 2019