Reestruturação espacial e produtiva na indústria de calçados de Campina Grande-PB: espaço e trabalho no regime de acumulação flexível

Abstract

This research presents an analysis of the relationship between industry and urban space, revisiting the debate about industrial concentrations in a historical and spatial perspective, centered on power relations. Thus, we analyze the transformations of the footwear industry in Campina Grande and its current productive spatial configuration. Considering the expansion of the footwear industry after the productive restructuring that has taken place since the 1990s and its growing impact on the economy and urban space of the municipality. The research focuses on investigating, from the framework of the flexible accumulation regime, the productive restructuring in the Industrial System Located of the footwear in Campina Grande, as well as the reconfiguration of the city's productive space and the transformations in labor relations. We point out the importance of the general conditions of production generated in the city by the textile and metal mechanics industry between the 1930s and 1970s. Subsequently, we observed the occurrence of two restructuring processes in the localized industrial system for footwear in Campina Grande: the first would have occurred in the years 1983-1990 by the insertion of big business. The second would be taking place from the 1990s to the present day, through the expansion of big business production and the reconfiguration of low capital productive clusters. Furthermore, based on data from the Federation of Industries of the State of Paraíba, we carried out a spatial analysis of the existing productive clusters, taking into account the different activities existing in the sub-sector. This investigation allowed the identification of two productive models in the city: that of big business, with a Fordist base, and another with a semi-handmade base, linked to micro and small businesses. Thus, we verified that the production flexibility is processed differently in the two models. We emphasize the influence of bodies and institutions in coordinating the localized industrial system for footwear in Campina Grande, as promoters of collective learning processes and discipline of workers. In addition, we reflect on the role of the capitalist state as a promoter of the process of valorization and accumulation, especially of big capital.