Passagens em rede imaginadas: as imagens do comércio do centro de Juiz de Fora (Brasil)

Abstract

This research analyzes the urban imaginary and the enmeshed passageways in downtown Juiz de Fora, Brazil. More specifically, it regards the imaginaries of said enmeshed passageways in the minds of contemporary tradespeople. Enmeshed passageways are the set of paths for pedestrians, which consist of walkable retail corridors and pedestrian plazas. Together with retail, they enhance diversity and vitality while maintaining downtown Juiz de Fora in the spotlight of the entire city. The peculiar form of the enmeshed passageways and the strong presence of retailers create a unique outdoor shopping complex. Its central location and historic architecture reinforce downtown Juiz de Fora as a symbolic place in contemporary times. Given the importance of the enmeshed passageways and the interference of the built environment on urban imaginaries, this research focuses on the following question: what are the imaginaries of the enmeshed passageways for tradespeople in downtown Juiz de Fora? Nevertheless, the general objective was to understand the enmeshed passageways in contemporaneity considering the urban imaginary of tradespeople and literature. Subsequently, through literature review, the researcher selected four categories to further investigate the urban imaginaries of tradespeople: (i) outdoor shopping mall; (ii) labyrinthine morphology; (iii) centrality, vitality, and sociability; (iv) symbolic place: memory, culture, and identity. On method, there were three stages: (i) literature review in Social Sciences about the imaginary and the enmeshed passageways in downtown Juiz de Fora; (ii) field research; (iii) analysis and discussion of field research results considering literature review. As a result, this study concludes that the enmeshed passageways, in the urban imaginary of the tradespeople that work there, express characteristics related to the four categories of analysis, which are reinforced by the theorists of the literature review. The tradespeople mainly imagine the enmeshed passageways as an outdoor shopping mall with bubbly life and energetic culture and identity, which are expressed through contemporary walkable retail corridors.