The production of the Vale Histórico as an instrument of territorial planning: a case study of São José do Barreiro-SP

Abstract

The present article aims to study the production of the Vale Histórico as an instrument of territorial planning that is changing the territorial space of São José do Barreiro to a tourist town. The Vale Histórico is an eastern sub-region of São Paulo´s state, located in the Metropolitan Region of the Vale de Paraíba and Litoral Norte. The region had great prominence in the national economy during the nineteenth century however, with the decline of the coffee industry (at the beginning of twenty century) the region did not develop another important activity. The situation in Vale Histórico was aggravated by the lack of industrialization in the region after 1950, as it happened in the Vale do Paraíba, due to the fact that tourism was adopted as an strategy of new economic development. In this context, the city of São José do Barreiro has many difficulties with regards to the infrastructure needed for these new economy and the conflicts generates by the city´s changes. These research will develop a socio-territorial study of São José do Barreiro, as part of Vale Histórico and intend to identify the socio-territorial conflicts generated by the resistances of local population regarding the changes in the traditional local lifestyle. (AU)