A infraestrutura rodoviária na urbanização do território paulista: as escalas de integração da cadeia produtiva, 1913-1944

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to assess how road infrastructure influenced the urbanization of São Paulo state, based on the need to integrate the industrial production chain, during the first half of the twentieth century. The objects of study are the first road plans which were implemented or influenced highway designs in São Paulo between 1913 and 1944, particularly Plano de Viação de São Paulo, Plano Nacional Rodoviário, and Plano da Rodovia Panamericana, at regional, national, and international scales. These plans make it possible to identify the prevalence of a radial morphology model that articulated the territory by consolidating the structure of existing urban centers. Overall, this paper shows how the impact of these plans defined better equipped areas which were, therefore, conducive to urbanization, as well as how urbanization was conditioned by the need to integrate the industrial production chain, given São Paulo’s strategic role of top producer and consumer market in the country. We conclude that the decisions to implement road plans ”“ at regional, national, and international level ”“ and their main axes, in addition to the importance of urban centers, affected the formation of the territory, subjecting the urbanization process in São Paulo to a productivist industrial logic.