A territorialidade politico-estatal e os conflitos de limites intermunicipais na Região Metropolitana de Salvador.

Abstract

Territorial conflicts, commonly perceived and understood as an event on an international scale, arising from major disagreements between countries, are demonstrated in this research as a phenomenon that can occur on a local scale. Analyzed from an intermunicipal perspective, this investigation highlights that disputes that occur between countries also manifest themselves between municipalities. Factors of political origin such as territorial and economic division and productive restructuring of the Metropolitan Region of Salvador present themselves as causes of political-administrative dissent that lasts for several decades, but which gains intensities today.The recent territorial dynamics of the Metropolitan Region of Salvador, which has been observed since the middle of the 20th century, arising from great state protagonism, promotes economic, social, political and administrative transformations with territorial implications that reveal existing weaknesses in the organization and evolution of metropolitan space. At the same time that economic growth, urban-territorial development of municipalities and dynamism between them are established, there is also an intensification of political-administrative conflicts, making inter-federative relations between contiguous municipal units difficult. The geographic problem that gives rise to the research consists of the existence of territorial disputes in areas of municipal limits, previously latent, but now evident with the projects to update and review the territorial limits of munipalities within the state of Bahia that began in 2011 and continues under development. The limits analyzed are between the municipalities of Salvador - Lauro de Freitas, Itaparica - Vera Cruz, Catu – Pojuca. In this sense, the objective of the investigation is to analyze and compare territorial conflicts related to the intermunicipal limits of the Metropolitan Region of Salvador. The theoretical basis of the work is structured around the concepts of territory, territoriality, territorial limits and social conflicts. The research approach fits into a multiple case study using an empirical-analytical methodology of a multi-method procedure with documentary, historical, bibliographical research and field study. With the results, it is evident that the boundary areas suffered the impacts of the socio-spatial transformations that occurred from the second half of the last century onwards, a situation, in a way, neglected by the public authorities, leading to the intensification of old disagreements, at the same time that they increased the difficulties in establishing consensus resulting in the emergence of disputes. In this way, it reveals the existence of events with standardized characteristics experienced by the six municipalities involved with causes that start from the territorial division and extend to fiscal and credit interests that make any type of administrative agreément difficult.