ABSTRACT
Drawing from the notion that our contemporary world is organized into a large “urbanized global archipelago” made up of “islands” that directly communicate and engage with one another in various commercial and financial exchanges, this article seeks to identify this phenomenon in the Brazilian Amazon, specifically in the city of Parauapebas, in the state of Pará. It examines the impacts of iron ore production in Carajás from an analysis of the physical and morphological characteristics of the Parauapebas urban landscape in three separate phases, which in turn produced three distinct “urban typologies”: the construction of the Vila de Carajás Company Town at the beginning of mining operations; the spontaneous urbanization that emerged along the PA-275 national highway; and the “financed” urbanization phase that accompanied the commodities boom in the first decade of the 21st century.
