Análise comparativa de três cidades médias mineiras: Ponte Nova, Viçosa e Ubá no contexto da rede urbana da região geográfica intermediária de Juiz de Fora/MG.

Abstract

The investigative efforts of this research followed the direction of analyzing, comparatively, the roles that Ponte Nova, Viçosa e Ubá play in the regions and geographic networks where they are located. For this purpose, the three cities were here problematized within the scope of medium-sized cities, i.e., from that urban centers that in the system of the cities unroll intermediary relations. The heterogeneity that integrates the complexity of medium-sized cities put them into different levels. Some of the cities are more integrated to the vertical systems of the global economy, while others such as the three cities here analyzed are more restricted to their respective immediate regions. This group is here assigned as medium-sized cities of regional roles. Regardless of the range of the spatial relations of each medium-sized city, which is essential is the transescalarity that is over this debate, i.e, the city scale must be associated with others spacial scales, considering that the contemporary urbanization is arranged by actors and multidimensional phenomena. For this purpose, besides the scale of the cities, other two spacial scales were listed in this work: the regional scale and the urban network scale, in their regional and local frameworks. Methodologically, this research was based on three fundamental and complementary pillars: the bibliographic research, the secondary data and the fieldwork. From this, it was possible to comprehend that the three cities are important knots of the regional urban network command of Juiz de Fora and they develop close links with their respective immediate regions. However, none of the three cities has reached, totally, the restructuring process, for this reason, these cities haven't changed their functions in the regional division of the work. Besides that, these cities have ratified their role of medium-sized regional cities that develop more horizontal relations than vertical ones.