Current contents of the lower circuit of the urban economy

agricultural use of territory in the city of São Paulo

Abstract

Portions of spaces on the outskirts of the city of São Paulo have been occupied and used for agricultural activities. These activities are different in nature from those carried out in peri-urban areas or in the countryside. Carried out by the city's poor, they present forms of organization and ways of doing things typical of the urban context.  Those who practice it join those who dispute the appropriation and use of urban space. This is one of the contemporary expressions of the way in which these poor people participate in the city's political economy, articulating spatial circuits of production and spatial circles of cooperation typical of this activity.  This article aims to present peripheral urban agriculture as an element of the lower circuit of the urban economy in the present.