The traditional centre and the main centre in the polycentric cities: transformations and permanencies in Marília and Presidente Prudente - SP

Abstract

With this project research we intend to analyze the centre of medium-sized cities, especially Marília and Presidente Prudente, located in the state of São Paulo. This analysis is conducted by a dual perspective: the traditional centre and the main centre (Whitacker , 2013). Emerged and consolidated into compact cities so far, these centres exhibit, under certain circumstances, that still have high symbolic and material value, being representative the agglomeration of activities and the competition for its location, whether in relation to commercial and services use, as also residential, although there are significant changes in its composition. This scenario had important changes when the production of urban space was marked in cities to be surveyed, since the 1980s, through the emergence of new central areas, contributing to the formation of polycentric cities. Nevertheless, we have as research hypothesis that in these cities, the traditional centre would still present as the main centre and would maintain, for reasons to be investigated, a residential area with several standards, even with the changes that was verified in the goods and services offered and in its customers by means of a process of "popularization ." A second hypothesis is that reinforced by the action of the government during the emergence, the consolidation and expansion of traditional centre, the centrality is improve once more with interventions with the purpose of boosting the lives of these centres. Thus, we aim to analyze these dynamics, summarily presented in the two hypothesis above, linked to the study: of the existing urban instruments; the formation path, the consolidation and expansion of traditional centres; the importance of it over the whole city, from the spatial practices of the citizens and the concentration and/or the centralization of activities, and the process of formation of new central areas.