Calçadão de Bangu: projetos, fluxos e cotidianos.

Abstract

The research analyses the daily lives produced by the informal and formal markets at Calçadão de Bangu. The Calçadão opened in 1991, closing several streets for vehicles in the center of Bangu, thus creating spaces that should be exclusive for pedestrians. Divided by the railway of Bangu Station and surrounded by commercial galleries, departments stores, bank branches and street vendors, this urban intervention intensified the commercial character of the neighbourhood and its centrality in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro. Through observations, conversations, interviews and research in local papers, this dissertation goes through the mobi-lities, immobilities, sounds and negotiations involved in the routine of a public urban space. Iunravel the social organization of Calçadão’s space and the meanings attributed by traders to the environment they occupy and circulate. The development of commercial strategies, places of trade, trajectories and imaginaries about the urban environment are explored throughout the chapters.