ARAGUAÍNA–TO, COMPETITIVE CITY IN THE INTERIOR OF THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON: BETWEEN PRACTICES AND DISCOURSES

Abstract

Araguaína – TO is problematized, as a competitive city, considering the urban diversity in the Brazilian Amazon, as well as its socio-historical condition, which gives it regional protagonism. To this end, we handle the concept of the medium-sized city proposed in Trindade-Júnior (2015) and the theories of Lever and Turok (1999) on competitive city, also focusing on the conceptual framework on marketing of cities. Methodologically, we mobilized data on the concentration of companies and jobs, cold storage plants/slaughterhouses, as well as global economic partners, values and types of exports; and we demonstrate how these commercial practices attest to regional insertion and protagonism. We also mobilized different discursive materialities from the last three municipal administrations of the city (from 2013 to 2024), given our interest in the offi cial discursive production concerning the marketing of the cities. The analysis show the contiguous relationship between practices and discourses regarding Araguaína as an attractive city, being authorized, in terms of meanings, by the discourse of the
organization of its spaces.