One-company towns in Brazil

Principal investigator: Dr Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos 

A remarkable characteristic of colonialism in Latin America was the extraction of natural resources for foreign trade. In post-colonial Latin America, however, many economies continued with the model of commodities export-based growth. This project looks at extractive industries in Brazil. Our aim is to identify, map, compare, and contrast municipalities that have mining or oil as a main economic resource. Amongst those extractive locations, we will focus on the ones that have one leading company: one-company towns. Many of these towns suffer economic, environmental and social impacts, as well as the diminished prospects for more inclusive development. While some mining and oil extraction towns have diversified their economic activities, many others have not. What decisions led to diversification or to the so-called monotown model? What does economic dependency generate spatially, politically and socially? 

Read more in the project’s webpage: https://companytowns.web.ox.ac.uk