Turismo, patrimônio e território: uma interpretação multidimensional dos distritos de Lavras Novas e São Bartolomeu, em Ouro Preto/MG nas primeiras décadas do século XXI

Abstract

The general objective of this thesis is to analyze the articulation between patrimony and tourism in the districts of Lavras Novas and São Bartolomeu, located in the municipality of Ouro Preto (MG), Brazil. Specifically, it investigates the political intricacies that guide the formulation of cultural patrimony preservation policies in Brazil, the (im)material dynamics intrinsic to the constitution of the territorial identity of the districts under study, as well as the processes involved in structuring the tourist territory and the resulting spatial differentiations. Methodologically, the thesis combines bibliographical review, documentary analysis, iconographic and cartographic interpretation, and fieldwork involving interviews, non-participant observation, and questionnaires. The triangulation of empirical sources enables the use of Discursive Textual Analysis as a method to grasp meanings, with dialectics as the guiding interpretive horizon. The research demonstrates that Lavras Novas and São Bartolomeu occupy a peripheral position within the heritage field of Ouro Preto, historically dominated by the centrality of the UNESCO-listed historic core. Territorial identity is anchored in ontological bonds between the community and the territory. In Lavras Novas, the process of touristification - more evident since the 1990s - has resulted in a capitalist territorialization characterized by a dialectic between exogenous and endogenous forces, the latter striving for reterritorialization processes oriented toward the construction of community-based governance. In São Bartolomeu, the territorialization of external agents encounters local resistance, despite the fragilities of sustaining long-term opposition to the growing exogenous pressures associated with the ongoing process of touristification. At the level of institutional governance, Ouro Preto maintains a centralized, economistic, and verticalized model in which municipal power remains under the control of historically hegemonic groups. The erosion of genuinely participatory mechanisms reveals the difficulty of establishing territorially rooted tourism governance, reducing popular participation to mere rhetorical artifice and relegating the districts to the condition of “peripheral patrimony territories”. In the absence of horizontalized governance, tourism developed spontaneously, without the guidance of structured public policies. Consequently, capitalist territorialization in Lavras Novas fostered the supply of tourist services and infrastructure, transforming the territory into a commodity. The prevailing types of tourism show little alignment with the district’s historical values, as rurality – once its essence – has been commodified. Conversely, São Bartolomeu still preserves these characteristics, though it suffers from insufficient infrastructure and tourist services, thereby revealing profound contradictions in both realities. Ultimately, the thesis is grounded in the necessary utopia of constructing emancipatory alternatives for territorial development within so-called “peripheral patrimony territories.” In these contexts, tourism is not conceived as a panacea, but as one of multiple potentialities capable of reconfiguring the territory and affirming new horizons of autonomy, resistance, and belonging.