Regional development revisited: an analysis of economic, social and environmental indicators in the state of São Paulo at the beginning of the 21^st century

Abstract

The article aims to analyze territorial heterogeneity from the perspective of development in the State of São Paulo at the beginning of the 21^st century. The starting point is the critique of classic and recent approaches to regional development, highlighting the emphasis given to the economic dimension. The article is based on a set of theories of development that have been drawing attention to the need to give equal emphasis to the environmental and inequality dimensions. This review justifies the definition of a set of multidimensional variables applied to the analysis of São Paulo municipalities for the year 2010, in order to classify them in relation to their performance in each dimension. The research reveals that the best performances are not found in the areas usually emphasized by the literature, confirming the pertinence of theoretical criticism to the predominant classic and recent approaches, but in certain interior settings. At the end, a hypothesis is presented to explain the association between these configurations and positive performance.

Keywords:
Regional development; Territory; Sustainability; State of São Paulo; Vulnerabilities