Considerations about the city, the process of polarization and the production of the consumption spaces: the Maringá – PR case

Abstract

Since the genesis of the cities, the commerce and the consumption were the main activities that determined their core. In this way, this work intends to discuss aspects that provide a bigger insight about the cities evolution process, emphasizing the propulsion conferred by the trade activities. For both, in a first moment is presented a synopsis of the cities genesis until the contemporary patterns. Then, the complexity of these spatialities is emphasized in a hierarchical relation that founds the urban network, where the capital establishes the supremacy of the city pole in offering goods and services to the people of their complemental area, what generates a consumption mobility. Finally, it’s primordial to set up a correlation between some actions that the State and the property developers, while urban space producer agents, have realized in the cities. In this ambit, the Maringá-PR city will be presented, that since the last years has subsisted deep alterations in its central area, consolidating as regional pole with the construction of substructures and modern works, as the shopping malls and hypermarkets.