New articulations of the Brazilian cities network: an analysis of the heterarchies by the air flow system

Abstract

Faced with the global order increasingly associated with the networks of connections, their flows and their relations with the cities, the fixed articulators provide elements for new understandings of the network of cities. In the present article, we aimed to analyze the relationship between air flows and the Brazilian urban network, based on data and information from the studies on the regions of influence of the cities (REGICs). In this context, we have used the theoretical-methodological proposal of Urban Heterarchy, a complement to understand the multi and interscalar articulations in the urban network that explode to the rigid hierarchical pattern. For that matter, the article is structured in three analytical focuses: a) to the analysis of the REGIC content, showing the previous studies and the details of its current methodology; b) the definition of what we understand about the relation hierarchy-heterarchy and c) the analysis of the spatial content through the empirical study of the regional flows of the air movement system. The analysis, therefore, showed changes in the structuration and  articulations of the network of cities: the flows of the air traffic movement system revealed that, at the same time that there is a reinforcement of the urban hierarchy, there is also a consolidation of the complex relations in the medium cities, promoting the urban heterarchy