Tourist urbanization and environmental conservation

the North Coast of São Paulo from the perspective of the territorial division of labor

Abstract

Proximity towards the sea is a defining feature of the coastal location, one that has been the subject of different economic, environmental, and cultural appropriations, thus elucidating how the North Coast of São Paulo (NC) fits into the territorial division of labor in the state until the setting of its contemporary process of appropriation of the NC's landscape for tourism urbanization, through a series of disruptive events that have made it practically impossible for the caiçara populations to, in a collective dimension, make use of the sea. To comprehend this process and its driving agents, we divided the events into three periods: from 1500 to 1950, from 1950 to 1980, and from 1980 to the current time. Through these, we trace the material and subjective appropriation of the LN caiçara landscape via the imports of meanings regarding environmental and scenic preservation that began to organize the LN through economic power differences, resulting in the invisibilization of the caiçara within the landscape, transforming access to the sea and beach into a socially differentiating practice for the wealthy classes of the metropolis. Natural elements that were once symbols of the collective use by caiçara communities.