Urban requalification and popular commerce: conflicts, regulation, and the production of space in the center of Mossoró-RN, Brazil

Abstract

This article examines the urban redevelopment process of downtown Mossoró, Brazil, focusing on the implementation of the Novo Centro Comercial and the institutionalization of street vending. Drawing on Critical Urban Geography, the study demonstrates how formal and informal commercial practices have historically shaped the city’s centrality, revealing territorial disputes, unequal power relations, and divergent spatial rationalities. Based on documentary research, fieldwork, interviews and photographic records, the analysis shows that informal commerce is not a residual phenomenon but a structural component of the urban economy. Recent interventions, driven by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the enforcement of accessibility regulations, indicate that redevelopment operates beyond physical forms, transforming uses, flows and the legitimacy of central urban practices. Findings show mixed outcomes: improvements in pedestrian circulation and spatial order coexist with challenges relating to visibility, operational costs and adaptation to the new commercial facility. The study concludes that Mossoró’s urban redevelopment reflects ongoing tensions among the right to work, the right to the city and hegemonic projects of territorial reordering.