Institutions and territorial development: a case study from the productive arrangement of oil and natural gas located in Macaé, Brazil

Abstract

In recent years the institutional approach has been gaining ground in urban and regional studies, defending that the norms, rules and cultural conventions should be taken into account in research and policies on territorial development. In this sense, the objective of this paper is to empirically examine some implications generated by the institutions in the economy of the productive arrangement of oil and natural gas in Macaé, Brazil. During the research it was found that the institutions operate at different scales, which in the study area can be segmented into two: external norms, which are imposed to the local level by agents with great power of usage of the space (the State and large companies) and institutions of local origin, formed from the reactions of local agents to external pressures. The main articulation was held by Rede Petro-BC, and its analysis is very suggestive to the understanding of the local institutional environment.

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