A sociabilidade em condomínios fechados: o caso do Condomínio Residencial Recanto da Serra em Viçosa-MG

• Autor(a) principal: Portugal, Josélia Godoy
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/3319
• topic: Condomínios fechados; Sociabilidade; Segregação socioespacial; closed condominiums; Sociability; Social and spatial segregation; CNPQ::CIENCIAS SOCIAIS APLICADAS::ECONOMIA DOMESTICA

Capitalism rationale, which produces a hierarchical society, is also observed in urban areas, with some territories destined for upper social classes and others for lower social classes. In a segregated urban area, richer families tend to stay closer, in closed condominiums. The general objective of our research was to understand the meaning of living in a closed condominium for their dwellers and the relations developed because of this restricted area in three different levels: within the walls, with the suburb and with the city. We tried to approach this problem through the social and physical relations that dwellers establish among themselves and with the physical area of the city of Viçosa, MG. Our sample was made of dwellers of the condominium Residencial Recanto da Serra. The methodology employed interviews with the dwellers of the condominium, a socioeconomic questionnaire and nonparticipant observation. In the within the walls level, we identified that, even composing a homogeneous group in relation to the city, in the internal area of the condominium, the dwellers presented significant differences among them, forming subgroups and establishing power relations. In the relations established with the neighboring suburbs, we verified that contacts were motivated by the need of use, without investments on friendship by the condominium dwellers. As for the city of Viçosa, the areas in which the condominium dwellers socialize with people from other areas are marked by segregation, such as shopping malls, clubs, restaurants and school. In this kind of habitation, such as the closed condominiums, the relations that families develop among them tend to be similar to those they establish with society. As for Viçosa, it must be highlighted that, currently, there is an increasing trend towards social and spatial segregation, which has been historically constructed under the symbol of distinction. When we reconstruct the history of the relations established among the different social groups that form the local society, we observe the presence of the Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV) as a distinguishing factor, not only because of economic capital, but mainly because of the cultural capital of part of the population directly linked to the UFV, such as its faculty. In our research, we observed that most dwellers of the condominium Recanto da Serra had jobs somehow related to the UFV. Nowadays, the great challenge for the development of the city is to harmonize the potential of this institution, mainly its human capital, with the lack of resources and investments of the city, with its peripheral suburbs and the rural area with poor conditions to provide life quality for the population.