The urban growth and suburbanization in Greater Oporto - a relational perspective

Abstract

The analysis of some of the ways in which the urban centre of Oporto grew together with its adjacent areas during the first half of the century, as well as the mechanics which induced them, constitute the central theme of this article. In these ways, are condensed and revealed a set of processes and socio-spacial relationships, which allow the phenomenon of urban and suburban growth, in Greater Oporto, to be placed in a relational perspective. Therefore, both the influence of selective growth of the main urban centre in the dominant suburbs and the impact of the dynamics and logic of the intrinsic territorial organization of the peripheral spaces, which regulates the evolution of the city of Oporto, is defended. This article concludes, by questioning the adequacy of the main principles, which explain the phenomenon of suburbanization and that reveal themselves as insensitive to the nature of urban spaces.