Territory perspectives and local development: study on the constitution of Naviraí, MS, as a regional urban pole

Abstract

This paper aims to understand how occurred the constitution and development of Naviraí as a regional urban pole, having as a theoretical support the discussion about local development and territory. Specifically, we seek to identify relevant actions and actors for the constitution of the city, to describe historically how occurred the constitution of the city and its condition of regional urban pole, as well to examine the territorial aspects and their contribution to the local and regional development. Therefore, we made a descriptive qualitative research, using secondary data and semi-structured interviews with three residents related to the city’s history. The results show that several aspects converged to the constitution of Naviraí as a regional urban pole, beginning with colonization, fomented by the federal government, associated with the existence of abundant natural resources, and, consequently, through the use of local potentialities, as the agricultural vocation. In this context, we indicate the use of E-P-C-N analysis, proposed by Saquet (2009), to understand the configuration of a territory and as a basis for thinking about sustainable endogenous local development. We also discussed the need to create conditions of endogenous development from the combination of local efforts with external support, such as the various universities installed in Naviraí, which can − through joint efforts − instruct the actors to promote local development.