The present-future role of urban planners. Influences from agro-neoliberal development on the living environment in small and medium size cities in Brasil.

The regional phenomenon of expended agriculture land coverage in the São Paulo State (Brasil) impacts small and medium cities locates in these areas, becoming environmentally vulnerably, witnessing fire events and sandstorms more often. Such events have impacted local residents with bad breathing conditions, air pollution and have increased the local loss of biodiversity. Through continuous urban development and expanded agriculture land coverage, cities present a a continuous shrinking of public greenery areas that could contribute with a better ecological balance and living quality. Therefore, this thesis tackles the emergence of agricultural monocultures in the São Paulo State and how such scarcity impacts the quality of living environment. In resonance with the research context in the Brasilian federal state of São Paulo, this thesis questions how small and medium cities undergoing processes of agro-neoliberal production regimes are actually being planned? Hence, how can present-future planners overcome these issues?

By using a combined quantitative-qualitative analysis and methodologies from human geography, worlded planning theory and urban studies, this research aims to departure from land occupation mapping analysis, and contextualise the socio-spatial and geographical phenomena in regional and urban planning. With a critical realism position, the objective is to elaborate a research project that can address new approaches to improve smaller and middled-sized city regions, and in general, post-extractivist ways of living.