New economy and Territory: a study of Information Technologies

Abstract

The discussion presented here is related to the territory and the economic activities. In this context, globalization has produced a new economy in which competitiveness needs information, knowledge, technologies, and the territory needs content that provides these elements. Study has focus on the Information Technologies (IT), which are important technologies for the formation of global world and for the changes in all areas of society. There is an effort to better define this activity, which is already born digital and makes time and space more flexible, building its geography. Thus, it seeks to locate IT activities and unveil the characteristics of this territory in which it is located. The analysis part is Rio Grande do Sul, and IT classification is based on the National Classification of Economic Activities-CNAE, and uses data from the Annual List of Social Information-RAIS and, with this, absolute data are obtained from companies and employees in the state. This study is based on quantitative data, in which information from national databases is used to structure conclusions, statistical softwares help the analyzes and the study is supported by cartographies, graphs and tables, elaborated by the study itself. As a result, we have geographical concentration of these activities, and the territories in which they are installed are loaded with science and technology, infrastructure and capital, that announces territorial inequalities and a hegemonization of processes in the world, in which the metropolises seem to be the winners.