https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/21768 2026-07-28T08:30:36Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/48866 Title: A escola do bairro: impactos socioespaciais do Centro de Atenção Integral à Criança e ao Adolescente (CAIC) no bairro Novo Tempo II, Ituiutaba–MG Abstract: This research aims to analyze the socio-spatial impacts of the programs developed by the Centro de Atenção Integral à Criança e ao Adolescente (CAIC) – Escola Municipal Aureliano Joaquim da Silva, located in the Novo Tempo II neighborhood in Ituiutaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil. From the perspective of Critical Geography, the study is grounded in the analytical categories of form, function, structure, and process, as outlined by Milton Santos, and adopts the Right to the City, as formulated by Henri Lefebvre (2001) and David Harvey (2004), as the central axis for interpreting urban reality. The CAIC is understood as a multifunctional public facility whose role transcends the limits of formal education by integrating social, cultural, welfare, and health policies, thereby assuming a strategic function in territorial organization and in the promotion of peripheral urban centralities. The methodology is based on a qualitative approach, combining different research techniques: participant observation, document analysis, bibliographic review, and the application of semi-structured questionnaires to neighborhood residents, school professionals, and social actors who experienced the implementation and development of the CAIC’s subprograms. Data analysis made it possible to grasp representations, everyday practices, and lived experiences, revealing how the presence of the school and the provision of public services materialized in networks of sociability, forms of spatial appropriation, and new meanings attributed to the territory. The results indicate that the subprograms linked to PRONAICA, focused on early childhood and elementary education, culture, school meals, sports, health, and preparation for work, played a significant role in shaping both the physical and social configuration of the Novo Tempo II neighborhood. These actions contributed to expanding access to basic rights and strengthening community bonds. In this context, the school has consolidated itself as an institutional reference point in a territory historically marked by deficiencies in urban infrastructure, promoting both material and symbolic transformations in the daily lives of residents. However, the research also highlights the limits of institutional action, particularly regarding the discontinuity of public policies, the lack of intersectoral coordination, and the fragility of communication strategies with the local community. These weaknesses undermine the effectiveness of the programs and place the sustainability of the social gains achieved at risk. The analysis of socio-spatial dynamics allows us to affirm that the CAIC has become a structuring agent of the territory, but that its impact depends directly on the continuity of integrated public policies, recognition of local specificities, and the active participation of the population in the management of common goods. It is concluded that the experience of the CAIC in the Novo Tempo II neighborhood represents an important analytical key for understanding the effects of public facilities on the production of urban space in medium-sized Brazilian cities. The research contributes to the debate on spatial justice, socio-educational inclusion, and territorial transformation, demonstrating that the right to the city can only be fully realized when public policies are conceived in an integrated, democratic, and context-sensitive manner, attentive to the realities of those who inhabit marginalized urban spaces. 2025-07-10T00:00:00Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/48856 Title: Direito à cidade e arquitetura hostil: análises a partir de Uberlândia/MG Abstract: This study investigates the practice of hostile architecture and its implications for the right to the city, with a particular focus on its impact on social inclusion and access to urban space. The empirical scope centers on the southern zone of Uberlândia, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Hostile architecture is understood as a set of deliberate physical interventions—such as the installation of uncomfortable benches, metal barriers, spiked surfaces, and other devices— designed to deter specific social groups deemed undesirable, especially individuals experiencing homelessness. These practices are rooted in aporophobia, the aversion to poverty and the public presence of the poor. They reflect an urban planning strategy aimed at the sanitization of public spaces and the production of a selective city, where sociability is governed by socioeconomic and aesthetic criteria. Based on an analysis of urban dynamics in Uberlândia’s southern zone, this study proposes a broader conceptualization of hostile architecture—one that includes practices not traditionally labeled as such, but which similarly contribute to socio-spatial exclusion. These include the construction of walls, the proliferation of electronic surveillance systems, and the adoption of private security strategies. Often legitimized by discourses of security, these practices consolidate mechanisms of separation and reinforce both symbolic and material boundaries between social groups. Although Brazilian law guarantees the right to the city, as well as dignity and equality, such forms of segregation persist and even intensify, particularly through private initiatives tied to real estate speculation and the reproduction of market logics. These practices contradict constitutional principles and operate as mechanisms that deny the urban space as a democratic sphere, undermining the ideal of the city as a common good and deepening socio-spatial inequalities. The research adopts a qualitative approach, combining bibliographic review with fieldwork—through direct observation and photographic documentation—to identify and analyze exclusionary urban elements and their effects on everyday urban life. The results indicate that hostile architecture, by promoting the expulsion of the "undesirable" and the exclusionary aestheticization of public spaces, functions as a tool of social control and management of the poor, intensifying inequalities and restricting full access to the city. The study concludes by emphasizing the need for inclusive urban policies committed to sociospatial justice, as well as the strengthening of state regulation over urbanization processes, in order to curb practices that normalize exclusion and deepen socio-spatial divisions. 2025-05-30T00:00:00Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/48807 Title: Os desafios da saúde do trabalhador no setor sucroenergético de Ituiutaba- MG Abstract: This dissertation's main objective is to understand the challenges of worker health in the sugar-energy sector of Ituiutaba-MG, with an emphasis on the reality experienced by these professionals and the occupational risks to which they are exposed, as well as the precarious working conditions that compromise their health, safety and dignity. The research investigates the work trajectory of these workers, the level of knowledge they have about the risks in their work environment and the difficulties they face in complying with basic protection standards, such as the use of PPE and carrying out adequate training. Based on the understanding of the territory as a space of power relations and exploitation, based on the Geography of Work, the investigation highlights how the expansion of sugar-energy agribusiness has deepened socio-spatial inequalities and intensified the vulnerability of workers. Based on professional experiences and direct observations in the sector, the study highlights the recurrence of occupational diseases, work accidents, lack of preventive measures and weaknesses in supervision. It is concluded that workers' health must be recognized as a fundamental and non-negotiable right, with the urgent need to implement public policies, effective health surveillance actions and protection strategies that guarantee dignified, safe and humanized working conditions for workers in the sugar-energy sector. 2026-04-24T00:00:00Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/48654 Title: Infâncias e direito à cidade: perspectivas de crianças participantes de projetos sociais sobre a produção do espaço urbano em Ituiutaba-MG Abstract: This research aims to analyze the Right to the City from the perspective of children, particularly those living in socially vulnerable conditions in Ituiutaba-MG and engaged in social projects led by third sector institutions. The study is part of the research line "Production of Rural and Urban Space" and seeks to understand how children's urban experiences shape their appropriation of the city, their representations, and their social participation. The main objective is to explore how these children perceive the Right to the City, how they engage with urban spaces, and how urban dynamics, which often overlook children as active city makers with specific needs and desires, impose limitations on their experiences. Drawing from the author's experience as a social worker, CREAS coordinator, and former president of the Municipal Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents (CMDCA), the research highlights the gap between public policies and the actual needs of children. The study uses theoretical frameworks by Lefebvre (2001), Harvey (2014), Sarmento (2007), and Aitken (2014), and adopts a qualitative methodology, including literature review, document analysis, and field research conducted at Instituto Avivar. The study focused on mental maps produced by children aged 6 to 11 to uncover their experiences, perceptions, and expectations of the city. Key findings reveal a persistent invisibility of children—especially the socially vulnerable—in urban planning processes, resulting in restricted urban experiences that shape limited perceptions and projections of the city. Therefore, including children in the making of urban spaces is not only a matter of rights but also an ethical and democratic imperative. Listening to them means acknowledging their full humanity and committing to a more just, inclusive, and diverse urban future. 2025-05-23T00:00:00Z