The "First" Planned City in Brazil: A Case of Socio-Spatial Segregation and Territorial Exclusion

The planning of cities, based on territorial organization or urban restructuring, sometimes hides localized interests and anti-democratic practices, which lead to the marginalization of citizens with less purchasing power. This article aims to evaluate the change of the capital of the State of Minas Gerais, from OuroPreto City to Belo Horizonte City, specifically the project of the new capital under the prism of the concepts of urban restructuring, city-merchandise, city patriotism and symbolic struggle. Therefore, the following question is answered: has urban planning in the city of Belo Horizonte contributed to socio-spatial segregation and territorial exclusion? Regarding the methodology adopted, as for the purposes, it was the exploratory and explanatory research using, as for the means, bibliographic and documentary investigations. Thus, it was noticed that the guiding principles of the planning and structuring of a city, as a commodity city, contributed directly to the production of urban space. Belo Horizonte's development process, driven by the local government and hegemonic actors with localized interests, left out popular participation in the formulation and restructuring of the city. Finally, it was found that the urban planning of the city of Belo Horizonte contributed to the socio-spatial segregation and territorial exclusion of socially and financially marginalized people. The study also revealed that the proposed approach emphasized the generational repercussion of urban restructuring and the influence of city marketing on the patriotism of the city, which involves the middle-class citizen in a media hypnosis and alienates the lower class due to the absence of a sense of belonging.