The maps as “spatial operators” in the construction of the São Paulo city in the early twentieth century

Abstract

What is sought is how the early twentieth century trans­formations environment influenced and was in­fluenced by cartographic production, in the case of maps that were being produced representing the city of São Paulo and its surroundings. The hypothesis is that the way the mapping reflected the changes began to take part in the city’s dy­namic and that the ingredients of this dynamic (the growth of ideas and expansion, for example) have to be guided by maps, thus turning maps into “spatial operators”. The main objective of the research is to contribute to the development of a cartographic geohistory in the perspective of analyzing the maps as social facts/phenome­na and thus reflect on the extent and duration of these phenomena on the organization and functioning of spaces of societies.