Redes de consumo entre Brasil e Paraguai no segmento de fronteira formado por Guaíra (Estado do Paraná) e Salto Del Guairá (departamento de Canindeyú) a partir de 1980

Abstract

This thesis is about the consumption networks between Brazil and Paraguay in the border segment formed by Guaíra (State of Paraná) and Salto Del Guairá (Canindeyú Department) as of 1980. The analysis was carried out from the point of view of Political Geography, of which concepts of territory, limit and border help to understand the cross-border interactions networks of the local scale of the border area and of wider scales. With this work, we conclude that the border region is influenced by the international boundary. It creates economic, political and social differentials, which are usually the motivators of the interactions between Brazil and Paraguay. Even though cross-border interactions are common to all border regions, between Guaíra and Salto Del Guairá, they are more recent, because they started to happen after the Brazilian State created an infrastructure work that facilitated the circulation between the countries and also, the establishment of networks that previously did not exist, such as economic-commercial ones, capable of mobilizing consumers from the border area scale and also from wider ones. It was possible to verify that, although the interactions between Guaíra and Salto Del Guaira are recent, they are intense and complex: there are daily interactions, which are established by health, education, supermarket consumption and work networks; and there are also the consumption networks, which are established by the Brazilians who go to the commercial area of Salto Del Guaira. This last network is not quotidian, but it is able to reach several scales of the Brazilian territory. Consumers from various states go to Paraguay in order to make purchases. This leads us to reflect upon the border and, mainly, on the great relevance that the consumer society has today.