Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

Experimental GEO TRADUZIR

About the publication - 2023 - Methodological Proposal for the Classification of Rural, Urban and Nature Spaces in Brazil

Throughout its history, the IBGE has published statistical and geographic information for rural and urban areas, and these categories have been used in institutional sociodemographic surveys, structured according to these classifications. Currently, the new trends is trying to overcome the dichotomy in relation those two dimensions towards a new understanding of a rural-urban continuum, in the face of new organization models in society.

Aware of the debates, the IBGE publishes the present study, which results from a deeper analysis of the Brazilian territory and the evolution of instruments for collecting geographic data. The present study was developed based on the conceptual path built by Geography at different moments in its history, and by the Institute itself, with regard to the urban-rural relationship to culinate in the contemporary discussion on this theme and the proposition of a new category for classifying spaces, nature. It should be noted that the inclusion of this dimension of analysis stems from the recognition that the dichotomous model conceived so far no longer encompasses the complexity that shapes current spatial realities, which demand the proposition of more detailed distinctions of the geographic space. The methodological proposal thus undertaken, which is the object of this publication, has an experimental nature, for conceiving new geoscientific information, which is still being tested and under evaluation.

The publication presents the typology created within the scope of this study, in which each of the types identified in the three spatial categories (urban, rural and nature), in a total of 16, is outlined by the description of their attributes and their distribution in the territory. The study brings a reflection on the results achieved and seeks to present, on a national scale, an approach that, in the set of typology created, apprehends the rural-urban-nature continuum. Additionally, the publication signals the improvement, through new criteria to be adopted, of the elaboration of a final typology that can be used for the dissemination of the surveys carried out by the IBGE, including the 2022 Population Census. on the theoretical discussions and methodological aspects involved in this proposal. A glossary, at the end, brings together the terms and concepts considered essential for understanding the results obtained.