The depressed zone of the Contestado and the lack of leisure spaces in small cities

Abstract

The present work had an exploratory and qualitative nature allowing reflections on the reality of the municipalities of Calmon, Irani, Lebon Régis, Matos Costa and Timbó Grande in the state of Santa Catarina (municipalities that were the scenario of the Contestado War). It was notably evidenced that the breakdown of the identity of the Caboclo people who lived there kept their descendants away from their own identity recognition and awareness of belonging to that land. The Contestado War initiated a fertile game of interests, generating a discontented and relegated population who faced incursions of those who held power. These municipalities earned political autonomy, but due to public policies linked to municipal management, not all of them included incentives to retain population and to run economic dynamics. Most municipalities have a retracted economic situation linked to the primary sector of the economy. The small expressiveness contemplated in the tertiary sector is linked to small local establishments and the provision of services in public agencies, reaffirming the poverty existing in the center-west of Santa Catarina. It was also evident the meager investments in leisure equipment, in their vast majority, provided by private companies, where the public space has either equipment of poor quality or non-existent. Most of the Contestado municipalities favor the enclosure of their population, precisely because they do not have leisure opportunities in public places, inducing the consumption of their leisure time in their own residences. At most, once a week, in religious events such as masses, cults, opportunely private dance parties or even playing the famous “pelada” in vacant sites by improvising soccer fields.