MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES IN RIO GRANDE DO SUL: URBAN NETWORK AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROFILES

Abstract

This article aims to analyze regional roles and socioeconomic and demographic profiles of the main medium-sized cities in the state: Caxias do Sul, Passo Fundo, Pelotas and Santa Maria. By valuing the comparative approach, the text shows that although they play similar roles of polarization, these cities have specificities of historical formation and socioeconomic structure, with Caxias do Sul being characterized by its industrial profile, Passo Fundo as a support city for agribusiness, and Pelotas and Santa Maria as economies more dependent on the tertiary sector. The concept of medium city adopted presupposes the performance of functions of intermediation in the urban network that go beyond the exclusively demographic criterion, and whose increasing importance justifies the efforts aimed at understanding its characteristics and specificities in the current period.