The city of the burnt: Abandonment and hyper-peripheralisation in post-plantation Brazil

Abstract

Geographic research on abandonment has often focused on disinvestment processes in the context of uneven development intensified by neoliberal restructuring. Focusing on the hinterland of Rio de Janeiro, this presentation draws attention to the longer-term processes of ‘hyper-peripheralisation’ that have shaped this region. Hyper-peripheralisation, it is argued, is characterised by forms of de-linking that exceed interdependent centre-periphery relations, as commonly conceived. At the same time, such de-linking does not ensue from any straightforward withdrawal of state or economic actors. Instead, it is related to configurations of power, property and government that first emerged in the context of the colonial slave plantation and are currently being reassembled by networks of political, institutional, private and armed actors. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the city of Queimados, the presentation exemplifies how abandonment manifests at intersecting discursive, infrastructural, political and social levels. Moreover, it highlights that political movements’ ways of contesting abandonment serve as a valuable guide to understanding its dynamics. Abandonment, it is thus argued, is best understood as a multi-faceted process whose contestation needs to address historically shaped formations of power and government alongside issues of investment and infrastructure.