Urbanismo e antiurbanismo no debate nacional

Abstract

This study highlights aspects of the debate on the building of the Brazilian nation and nationality over the first decades of the 20th century, to the extent that such discussions involved issues related to urban planning as a principle and to the role of cities in the country that was tentatively being built. At that time, urbanism counterposed ruralism, agrarianism and other schools of thought that took a bleak view of large urban centers. In general, the ideological positions at the time struggled between contradictory terms: on the one hand, the aspiration of modernity, with its urban, European and North American references; on the other, the pursuit of the Brazilian national character, with the predominance of traditional and rural elements. Urbanism and anti-urbanism are elements that can illustrate these dilemmas and depict the ideological limits of the introduction of modern urban planning in Brazil.