A privatização do acesso ao Rio Vaza Barris: empreendimentos imobiliários e conflitos socioambientais na antiga zona de expansão urbana em Aracaju/SE

Abstract

Gated communities have become one of the forms of land occupation that have expanded the most in Brazilian cities, especially in metropolitan regions. This growth is also a global reality, particularly in coastal areas, where real estate appreciation drives the occupation of natural spaces. These developments sell the idea of a better quality of urban life, often associated with greater contact with nature, but restricting this access to a select group of residents, transforming it into a privilege for the few. In this context, nature is commodified both by the real estate market, which uses it as an attraction, and to meet the expectations of its consumers. This process is propagated through environmental discourses that emphasize sustainability and wellbeing in the advertising materials of the projects, but which in practice result in the social exclusion of local populations and the restriction of access to common goods. The appropriation of riverbanks by gated communities often includes the imposition of physical and symbolic barriers, limiting the collective use of these spaces. This dynamic configures a process of privatization of nature for leisure and housing purposes, generating socio-environmental conflicts that are directly related to the debate on environmental justice. In urbanized areas or areas undergoing expansion, such as the Urban Expansion Zone of Aracaju, nature has been progressively dominated by the private sector and its real estate interests. This phenomenon results in the privatization of public spaces and the limitation of the population's access to essential natural resources, such as the Vaza-Barris River. Given this scenario, this research aims to analyze the disputes surrounding access to and use of the Vaza-Barris River in the former Urban Expansion Zone of Aracaju/SE, taking as a case study the closed developments located on the riverbank. To this end, methodological procedures were adopted that include bibliographic, documentary and field research, in addition to the application of unstructured interviews with different social actors, in order to capture their perceptions in a broad and indepth way. Data analysis was carried out using Qualitative Textual Analysis, allowing the identification of discourses and power relations that support conflicts surrounding the use and privatization of the river. The content analysis methodology was used to systematize and interpret the central categories present in the speeches of different social actors.