USA and Brazil: global role dynamic
areas
• Text: 2 Americas Brazil vs. USA
• Video: Brazil’s Rising Star 60 minutes
1. Strong insertion in the global
economy
• Brazil and the U.S. are two major
agricultural and industrial powers
– Except Vale and Petrobras, few Brazilian
firms compete against American ones
– US firms dominate on the world stage:
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Agro-food business (Cargill, Kraft Foods),
IT (Microsoft, IMB, Apple),
petroleum (Exxon, Mobil),
pharmaceutical (Pfizer)
Both countries possess a vast
domestic market which stimulates
the service sector
Unbeatable superiority of US firms in several
industries:
• insurance (AIG)
• retail (Walmart)
• entertainment (Time Warner, Walt
Disney)
Rapidly evolving economic sectors in Brazil
• rising standard of living
• emergence of a strong middle class
Brazilian Growth is much more
sustained than the U.S.’
• Mostly due to flows of FDI
– 1st trade partner with Brazil is China
– 1st foreign investor = China
• $30 B in 2010 vs 5 B in the U.S.
• Despite this, Brazil ranks only 21st as
global exporter of merchandise
2. Political-military influence very
unbalanced
• American power based on an enormous
military-industrial complex
– Largest military budget in world ($600 B/yr)
– U.S. Military force twice the size of Brazil’s
– Global military deployment by the U.S.
• Plays the role of the world police
• Often denounced as imperialistic
Brazilian political
cartoonist: Latuff 2011
Title: Obama arrives in
Rio
Bubble: Where’s the
petroleum?
Brazil’s Political Weight is largely
inferior to the U.S.
• Brazil’s diplomatic influence on the
world stage remains very low
– Despite Brazil’s recent extension of its
embassies network
– Despite sending the largest contingent of
UN peacekeeping forces to Haiti
Brazil is self-proclaimed political
spokesperson of the South
• Former president Lula activated his SouthSouth solidarity with emerging and
Portuguese-speaking countries
• WTO: Lula criticized protectionism of Northern
countries
• Brazil has evolved from net receiver of
development aid to net giver
– BUT Brazilian aid remains much inferior to that of
the U.S.
Cultural Americanization (Soft
Power)
• US has initiated cultural models which
are spread worldwide
– Malls, fast-food, mainstream culture
(cinema, TV series, social media)
characterize the American model of mass
consumption
– Based on the “American dream”, the
American way of Life attracts the largest
immigrant population in the world
Brazil unable to rival U.S. cultural
domination
• Brazil great producers of TV series exported
in more than 130 countries (primarily
Eastern Europe and Middle East)
• Brazilian culture has reduced impact due
to lack of Portuguese speakers on world
stage
Cultural hegemony of Brazil is
more regional than global
• Main media group in Latin America : Globo
– Television, cinema, press
• Brazil’s ambitions are planetary - organizing
international sporting events
– Football World Cup in 2014
– The Olympic Games in 2016 (Rio de Janeiro)
5. U.S., Brazil: Territories which
reflect their power
A. 2 immense territories but unequally
controlled
Surface area of US 9.8 million km²
Surface area of Brazil 8.5 million km²
15-17 times the size of metropolitan France
Major challenge: transportation networks
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New York & Sao Paulo highest rail traffic in world
Brazil: air traffic more than doubled from 2004 to
2010 but planes used less often than U.S. despite
long distances
Both Countries populated by
Pioneers
• Enabled rich natural resources to be
exploited
• Energy
– Brazil highly dependent on hydroelectric
power
– Thanks to recent oil reserves discovered
offshore, Brazil is self-sufficient in petroleum
unlike the U.S.
Risk Management less effective
in Brazil than the U.S.
• Brazilians vulnerable to tropic storms
– Flooding killed a thousand people near
Rio in 2011
– Southeast of the US is particularly exposed
to cyclones, tornadoes and flooding by
the Mississippi
– See Exercise on Natural Risks in the USA
B. Metropolises, mirrors of power
• Main metropolises in Brazil & the U.S.
along the coastline
– Historical Populating of both countries
from the coastline
– Similar urbanization rate (Brazil: 87% US:
82%)
– Cities of the American Sun Belt (Phoenix,
Dallas, Las Vegas) and those of the
Northwest of Brazil (Manaus, Fortaleza,
Brasilia) have grown the most rapidly
Cities at the Heart of Power
• Concentration of political functions
(Brasilia, Washington)
• Financial functions (stock markets of
New York, Chicago & Sao Paulo)
• Research Poles (Silicon Valley & San
Francisco)
• Manufacturing
• Tourism (Miami and Rio de Janeiro
tourist spots attracting global
population)
10 Largest Megalopolises in the U.S. and Brazil
City
Population (millions of
inhabitants)
Sao Paulo
19.9
New York
19
Los Angeles
12.9
Rio de Janeiro
11.5
Chicago
9.6
Dallas-Fort Worth
6.4
Philadelphia
6
Houston
5.9
Miami
5.5
Washington, D.C.
5.5
Metropolization: merging American
& Brazilian urban models
• Brazilian cities increasingly resemble American
metropolis models
• Organized around a Central Business District
– Concentrates the functions of power
• Phenomenon of urban sprawl
North American Urban Models
1. Concentric Zone Model
Argues that urban land use is best represented by
a series of concentric circles.
• Recognizes five distinct zones:
— The central business
district/nonresidential
— Zone in transition/poorest quality
housing/immigrants/apartments
— Zone of workingmen’s homes/secondgeneration immigrant settlement
— Zone of “better residences”/middle
class
— Commuters’ zone/high-class residential
1. Concentric Zone Model
The concentric pattern arises as land uses
compete and are sorted according to
ability to pay for land. As one moves
toward the central city, land becomes
scarcer but accessibility improves, the
rent therefore increases, and land uses
that cannot exact sufficient rent are
sorted out. Similar activities are likely to
be found at similar distances from the
central business district (CBD)
2. Sector Model
• This model assumes the land use is
conditioned by transportation routes
radiating outward from a city center.
• Industrial, retailing, and residential districts
extend out from the CBD like wedges.
• the best housing districts related to
natural landscape, e.g. north from
Chicago along Lake Michigan.
3. Multiple Nuclei Model
This model assumes that urban areas have more than one
focal point influencing land use.
• Land-use patterns are formed around several discrete
nuclei that attract certain uses and repel others. These
nuclei most often develop in response to the evolving
transportation network. They form, for example, around
major highway intersections and surrounding airports.
• These multiple nuclei may have arisen in one of two
ways:
— They were once separate settlements but were
absorbed by growth of the urban area.
— They appeared as urban growth stimulated
specialization and specialized centers outside the CBD,
around which complementary uses then located.
• Residential land use develops in response to the
influence of the various nuclei.
Activity: Comparing North
American urban models with
those of Latin America
Appendix A & Appendix B
Human geography / Urban Geography
Similarities and differences between
the Latin American model and the
concentric zone model
• Concentric zones of housing of different
quality exist, radiating from the city center.
• The housing in the zones, however, is reversed
from that which exists in North America. The
highest-quality homes are in the innermost
rings and the poorest quality are in the
outermost.
• The market is centrally located, as opposed to
North American cities where retailing is
becoming increasingly suburbanized.
Similarities and differences between
the Latin American model and the
sector model
• In both models spines of land use radiate
from the city center.
• The “Grand Boulevard” of elite shops is in
the Latin American model only.
• North American–style suburbanization
may occur - associated with the spine of
development.
• An industrial spine may develop along a
transportation route such as a railroad or
highway in both models.
Similarities and differences between
the Latin American model and the
multiple nuclei model
• Both may contain government housing
projects.
• Both may contain industrial parks.
• Disamenity zones exist in association
with less-desirable land only in the Latin
American model.
2 most important changes in
North American city models
• Inner cities that were once reserved for
business and a ring of the poorestquality housing are being “revived.”
• Suburbs have begun to take on the
roles more typically associated with
the CBDs
Latin American City Models
and Squatter Cities
Characteristics of Squatter
Cities
•Housing materials are
collected from
available resources,
e.g. corrugated tin
•Little sanitation
•No running water
•No cooking facilities
•Illegal hookup to
electricity, if any
•No political voice
•Lack of social services
Spatial Distribution of Squatter
cities
•On the periphery of
the cities in LDCs
around the world.
•In Europe and Latin
America the rich
choose to live in the
culturally-rich inner
city, the opposite is
sometimes true in
North American cities
Squatter Cities
• Video: Ted Talks: Stewart Brand on
Squatter Cities 3”
• Video Ted Talks: Eduardo Paes Mayor of Rio de Janeiro - The Future of
Cities, March 2012, 12”21