THE SPATIAL METAMORPHOSIS OF THE ISLAND OF SÃO LUÍS DO MARANHÃO: PERSPECTIVES FROM URBAN SOCIOLOGY ABOUT THE CITY

The city is a geographic space characterized by occupation, culture and tradition, climate, vegetation, political-cultural and economic-social, religious practices. This space, once a manor, a village, characterized commercially and administratively. In this space, the gaze of its rulers is dichotomous. The State benefits specific geographic-social spaces and social strata in a differentiated way. The empirical field of this research is the island of São Luís Maranhão composed by the municipalities: São Luís, Raposa, Paço do Lumiar and São José de Ribamar. When traveling along Avenida dos Africanos, you come across craters in the middle of the street (holes that are already part of the city's landscape) and Avenida dos Holandeses being constantly resurfaced - is that why? The government directs quality projects to Avenida dos Holandeses by building a viaduct that has an exit to São Luís, Raposa and another to Paço do Lumiar and the colossal BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) – which starts and ends on that avenue. The objective is to discuss the ways in which the public power conducts urban mobility in São Luís and the consequences of this.