The metropolitan region of Natal:

An emerging brasilian metropolis

Abstract

As in the rest of the world, Brazil and Latin America are facing an excessive expansion of their urban areas, in processes that appear to be contradictory: the multiplication of cities of different sizes. This process points incisively to the need to build federative agreements capable of addressing the complexity of territorial management, organized according to new spatial scales. Most cities, regardless of their size or dimension, have fragmented political and administrative structures to manage the shared interests of their municipal jurisdictions. Attention has been drawn to the need to establish federative systems of governance that facilitate coordination at all levels of government and consolidate efficient mechanisms for decision-making regarding the territorial and economic development of regions. Understanding the most recent urban phenomenon, beyond the metropolitan sphere, thus becomes a central objective. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of relevant aspects of the Brazilian metropolization process, regarding the future of its urban network, and to highlight the importance of territorial planning in metropolitan regions, emerging urban clusters, or developing metropolises, taking the city of Natal (Rio Grande do Norte) as an example. The text is based on the accumulated knowledge and results of research conducted in recent years on territorial issues and governance practices, acknowledging that the expanding morphological configuration makes it even more difficult to implement public policies suited to the demands of urban development. Although the formulation of such policies foresees the execution of public functions of common interest to more than one political-administrative unit, their management requires cooperative practices that find little resonance within a political-institutional structure lacking the necessary agreements to overcome existing fragmentation. Hence the need to address the issue of metropolitan governance in contemporary Brazil.