This research studies the production of urban space as a complex phenomenon that undergoes the present historical determinations, from the transformations in / of the city in expansion process. The urban is dynamic and marked by moments either of valorization of new areas, of devaluation or revaluation of others, determining new uses and functions to serve the capital. The urban space is social production, materialized in the various spatial practices of the subjects who experience the city. We investigated the production of urban space and the process of expansion from the city of Rio de Janeiro to the West Zone, focusing on the XXVI Guaratiba Administrative Region. The 21st century has been presenting management patterns with public policies focused on issues outside the city, with investments that favour major road works with a strong impact on the transformations of urban space. The city s expansion process introduces two rationalities that complement each other. One is the horizontal rationality that is in the daily dimension and that promotes changes in socio-spatial practices, reaching the subjects in various ways. The other is the vertical rationality characterized by hierarchical, organizational interdependence, configured in networks, causing changes in consumption patterns, in circulation of goods and services, as well as in ideas and innovations. In this perspective we propose a study of the interventions that arrive at the Guaratiba AR, promoted mainly by the State and the real estate market, significantly altering the life of its inhabitants, besides showing an urban reorientation of the city of Rio de Janeiro. This investigation starts from the representations of social subjects, based on dialectics, in order to understand the existent contradictions and conflicts, tensioned by power relations at multiple scales. The analysis of the discursive elements of the research subjects showed a development perspective linked to modernity; Guaratiba as a border area for the capital; and the presence of cultural and social aspects in the region related to the conception of Carioca Backland.