Desenvolvimento Regional e Desigualdades Sociais entre as Macrorregiões de Planejamento de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The capitalist system in its process of reproduction promotes concentration of income and wealth, favoring certain spaces in this process, both at the global level, between countries, and within countries themselves, creating differences between territorial portions.This process is marked by uneven economic growth between regions, as well as by the reproduction of social inequality, marginalizing certain spaces. In this context, to a greater or lesser degree, the movement of capital is instrumental in the uneven development of regions. The search for profit, by investing in regions where wealth is already abundant, deepens, in many cases, regional differences.This logic is at work in Minas Gerais, where the most economically developed areas attract more investment. Investment in the least economically dynamic regions, while negligible in many cases, generates mostly precarious and low-paid jobs.The state of Minas Gerais is thus, in terms of development, representative of Brazil as a whole, reflecting the samedegree of regional imbalances. The Human Development Index illustrates why, inassessing development in Minas Gerais, we cannot think of a predominant pattern throughout the state.We find the lowest HDI levels, ranging from 0.568 to 0.707, mostly in the cities of the Norte and Jequitinhonha macro regions, while the macro-regions of the Triângulo, Alto Paranaíba, and Southern Minas concentrate most cities with highest HDI levels, between 0.744 and 0.841.Thus, regional development constitutes an important reference when analyzing inequalities in Minas Gerais, a state where a markedly heterogeneous development pattern resulted in significant differences in the socioeconomic dynamics. Aiming to contribute to the analysis of the regional asymmetries in Minas Gerais, this the sisreviews social and economic data of the ten Minas Gerais planning macro-regions, namely: Norte, Jequitinhonha/Mucuri, Rio Doce, Central, Triângulo, Sul, Alto Parnaíba, Noroeste, Zona da Mata and Centro-Oeste. However, the analysis focused on the comparison betweenthe historically most economic and socially developed Central and Triângulo, and historically less developed Norte and Jequitinhonha / Mucuri. Research relied on the database of the Sample Survey of Households (PAD-MG) performed by João Pinheiro Foundation in 2011, the 2010 census (synthesized by João Pinheiro Foundation) and the Atlas of Human Development in Brazil 2013, released by the United Nations Program for Development.