BRIEF DISCUSSION ON THE CONCEPT OF MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the various concepts, approaches and interpretations of medium-sized cities in Brazil. The central problematic of this paper is to show the difficulty in defining what is medium-sized city, either by the heterogeneity of the realities, whether by temporality of economic and social phenomena, whose constant changes conditioning the framing  of non-metropolitan territories (COSTA, 2002). In this sense, we emphasize that our intention is not to propose a definition of medium-sized city and so little to defend a concept of average city per se, but to confront the different perspectives, approaches and criteria of authors and researchers about the challenges of working with of medium-sized cities in Brazil. Our justification endorses the interest in verifying the main criteria and parameters used in the time to classify a city as medium-sized. With regard to research methodology, we promote a dialogue among authors from different theoretical lines. Among them we highlight the contributions of Corrêa (2000), Santos (1993), Fresca (2009) Amorim Filho (2001), Castello Branco (2006), Sposito (2007) among others, constitute the theoretical and methodological references. The results indicate that are countless possibilities of analysis in the context of medium-sized cities given the disparities and diversities of cities and by the functions performed by these cities in Brazilian urban network.