Between the river and the road: space and contradictions in the urban Amazon.
Amazon Cities, Urban Morphology, Socio-spatial Segregation, Space Syntax.
Starting from the need to expand the understanding of Amazonian urban structures, particularly regarding their spatiality, which interacts with social dynamics, this research aims to contribute to the field from a configurational perspective. To this end, a sample of urban structures of different scales located in the Northern Region is investigated, interpreted at two levels of analysis: a) a global level, where the set of 101 urban nuclei in the sample are compared with each other and with cities from all Brazilian regions, using data obtained from Medeiros' research (2024), in order to characterize local cities in relation to those from other regions and to understand how the historical and socioeconomic processes that occurred in different parts of the region relate to their spatial structure; and b) a local level, where informally produced settlements (FCUs) located only in cities within the Northern Region are comparatively analyzed to examine their internal articulation and the overall city structure. Additionally, there are two categories of variables: a) configurational, of a geometric and topological nature, explored through the theoretical-methodological support of Spatial Syntax (Theory of the Social Logic of Space); b) non-configurational, composed of socioeconomic variables that encompass aspects such as income, education, human development, among others. The study aims to contribute to the characterization and identification of potential configurational patterns specific to the urban structures of the region at both levels. The research seeks to answer two questions: 1) Are there configurational specificities in the cities of the Northern Region compared to other Brazilian regions? 2) Are there configurational specificities of local FCUs compared to the urban set of cities in the Northern Region and those in other Brazilian regions? 3) If they exist, what aspects promote (are related to) these specificities?