A modernização do campo nos municípios da Microrregião de Frutal (MG): as transformações socioeconômicas das pequenas cidades

Abstract

Academic research on the modernization of the countryside and small towns in the contemporary context is fundamental to understand the socioeconomic dynamics and urban hierarchy in Brazil and, for this, it is important to carry out a historical retrospective in order to cover the unfolding of the urbanization process, including territorial relations as the initial basis of this process at the national level. Therefore, the objective of this work is to understand the process of modernization of the field and changes in the socioeconomic organization of the small cities of the Geographical Microregion of Frutal (MG). Specifically, the research aims to analyze historical formation; agricultural and agribusiness activities that interfered with socioeconomic aspects; also aims to understand the theoretical-conceptual framework on small cities based on the contributions of Portugal, as well as the infrastructure of interaction roads and flows linked to higher education and health, as well as to evaluate the economic dynamics of the field and the commercial ones. This research is justified by the need to understand recent transformations in the field that directly affect local and regional dynamics. Therefore, the methodological steps allowed to develop the study based on the objectives and questions proposed, since they were carried out by the collection of primary and secondary data obtained through IBGE sites and fieldwork. In this context, it was possible to understand the homogeneity in the region, the territorial formation, the geographic location and the dynamics of the Triângulo Mineiro (MG), while the presence of significant internal differences was detected and camouflaged by the similar regional reality. In the current verifications, it is possible to observe how the agricultural modernization brought to the municipalities new socioeconomic dynamics that are reflected in the infrastructure and availability of the services and commerce of the small cities, thus allowing to investigate details of these processes in each place. The layout of the highways in the region and the direction of the flows identify the relations established with its hinterland. Therefore, in the Microregion of Frutal (MG), there are two centralizing locations — Iturama (MG) and Frutal (MG) —- that stand out when establishing relations with São Paulo in its positioning to the northwest of the state with Jales (SP) , São José do Rio Preto (SP), Ribeirão Preto (SP) and Barretos (SP); and Uberlândia (MG) and Uberaba (MG) in Minas Gerais. The two locations define a dynamic linked to agricultural and livestock activities, explained in diversity and agribusiness through a modernized field that defines other sectors of the economy, such as sales of machinery, streamlining student flows and the consumption generated by them, as well as reorganize the urban space. In this way, it is verified that the process of appropriation of the small towns of the region by the agribusiness has left urban agglomerations with population less than 20 thousand inhabitants, over the years, more and more vulnerable to deep transformations of the space allowing to understand how the basic infrastructures the "way of life in the city" to modernize.