O concebido, o percebido e o vivido: a (re) produção do espaço no Residencial Vida Nova Itaberaba-BA

Abstract

The production of urban space, within the context of the capitalist mode of production, is marked by the contradiction between use value and exchange value, with space functioning simultaneously as a condition, means, and product of social relations (Lefebvre, 1991). In this sense, studying the production of space in Itaberaba contributes to broadening the scope of geographical and urban analyses, enabling us to observe how national policies, such as the Minha Casa Minha Vida Program (PMCMV), become territorialized in diverse contexts, not because they aim to resolve a housing deficit, but because they perpetuate capitalist articulations in the production of space. This theoretical perspective, grounded in the work of Henri Lefebvre, guides this study, whose general objective is analyze the (re)production of urban space in Itaberaba-BA, with emphasis on the Residencial Vida Nova, based on Henri Lefebvre’s triad, seeking to understand how housing policies and social practices configure urban space.The specific objectives are: To contextualize the historical process of urban expansion in Itaberaba and the implementation of housing policies through the Residencial Vida Nova of the Minha Casa Minha Vida Program; to discuss the production of urban space in Itaberaba from the Lefebvrian triad, highlighting the dimensions of conceived, perceived, and lived space; to investigate the forms of appropriation and use of space by the residents of Residencial Vida Nova, identifying everyday practices and social representations. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative approach, grounded in a dialectical reading of space, by integrating document analysis, map production using QGIS software, and semi-structured interviews with residents and former members of the City Council, in addition to empirical observations through field diaries, which enabled the apprehension of space in its three dimensions. The results show that the PMCMV, by being geographically implemented far from the city center, contributed to the creation of a poor periphery, thereby deepening socio-spatial segregation through the subordination of housing space to the logic of commodification, which fragments and hierarchizes urban space. At the same time, everyday practices of resignification by residents become evident, as they create new meanings of dwelling and transform the lived space for their survival, even within the constraints imposed by capitalist spatial logic.