| Summary: | Urban research focusing on Brazilian cities tends to describe peripheral areas through a binary center-periphery approach. In recent decades there has been a shift of classical models of urban peripheries, marked by a socio-spatial diversification of these areas, as well as an increase of segregation and fragmentation. Thus, we call for a renewed approach of Brazilian cities’ suburban areas, by considering that cities of the semi-peripheries now cover trajectories comparable to those of the Global North. This paper aims at discussing the issue of urban sprawl in Brazil and at constructing a renewed framework for the analysis of suburban areas in the Global South by studying the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte. This metropolis is an interesting and original field of study due to its rapid sprawl and the many transformations observed in its suburban areas in last two decades: from the expansion of the real estate market, the sprawl of amenities and services and the arrival of the middle and upper classes, the suburban areas of Belo Horizonte are undergoing an important process of diversification, mirroring many metropolitan areas in Brazil and other countries of the Global South.
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