Assessing the relation between spatial proximity and socioeconomic integration along interactions between inhabitants of two shanty-towns and their surrounding affluent gated communities in Salvador, Brazil

Abstract

In this research, we shall inquire under what conditions neighborhood effects can be mitigated by the proximity of disadvantaged populations to affluent gated communities. Inferring from interview-based qualitative research conducted in the central shantytown of Calabar and in the peripheral shantytown of Vila Verde, Salvador - Brazil, we can attest the existence of mechanisms that either constrain individuals’ living conditions, such as the influence of drug trafficking, or entail positive effects on their lives, like the community’s collective mobilization. The relationships between socially distant groups have undergone important transformations. The study evinces that the relationship between spatial proximity and socioeconomic integration is conditioned by the existence of public spaces, by the neighborhood's functional autonomy and by the influence of crime. We concluded that, unlike Calabar, the recent construction of the upper-class gated community Alphaville II neither widened the opportunities of socio-economic integration of the poor inhabitants of Vila Verde, given its higher degree of functional autonomy and spatial isolation, nor improved their access to high-quality urban infrastructure, including public security.