The process of industrial decline in the São Paulo metropolis: restrictions, trends, and perspectives

Abstract The main objective of this article is to present and discuss the set of pressures that, over the past fifty years, have led to an industrial decline in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region. The article formulates and proposes a working hypothesis called ‘triple pressure’. Each of such pressures integrates a different causal set associated with a different scale. The three pressures are deindustrialization on the national scale, the formation of the São Paulo Megalopolis on the regional scale, and the real estate market’s insistence on repurposing industrial areas on the local scale. Our results suggest that the industrial decline, which is a long-term process in the city of São Paulo, might be spreading to São Paulo’s metropolitan surroundings.