Non-hegemonic Globalization and Changes in the Historic Center of Belém

Abstract

Since the last century, non-hegemonic globalization has been seen as a business opportunity by Asian countries, which started to produce and export low-cost products, through the establishment of networks structured as pyramids and composed by suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and sellers. At the end of these networks, there are the buying-selling relations, normally established between Asians and local consumers, who have been changing traditional tertiary urban spaces, considering that the counter-hegemony emerges as a reaction to globalization (hegemonic and non-hegemonic), through actions and/or fights for the democratic distribution of wealth. The present article will analyze how this process appropriates spaces and how the global-local dialectic results in changes in the use and occupation of the land of historic centers. Based on bibliographical research, the role of Asian transmigrants in the recent socio-spatial processes, observed in historic centers, will be discussed. Then, from the field survey, the spatial distribution of buildings used for commercializing popular merchandise, of Asian origin, in the Historic Center of Belém (CHB), will be measured, characterized and analyzed. Thus, the study will show: (i) the expressive number and spatial concentration of buildings in the CHB that commercialize merchandise of Asian origin from the non-hegemonic globalization circuit; (ii) that, in addition to establishments managed by transmigrants, there is a great number of stores commercializing, predominantly, products of Asian origin; (iii) that the popular commerce of products from Asian countries is redefining the social division of space in the CHB.