Dinâmicas socioespaciais nas cidades médias: Uma análise dos shopping centers em Imperatriz (MA)

Abstract

Shopping centers (SC) make up what is known as large commercial areas. These ventures represent a significant transformation of retail throughout the history of commerce. They are evident in the urban landscape due to their large spatial dimension, in addition to presenting themselves as complex enterprises that bring together commercial activities, service establishments and leisure spaces aimed at their consumers in a single space. Due to the concentration of activities in the tertiary sector, shopping malls exert a relevant influence on urban space, as they create new centralities, modifying the areas around them, promoting new spatial dynamics. These spaces, despite being collective, are not public, considering that not every citizen is a consumer of this environment. In the city of Imperatriz-MA, object of study of this research, as well as in most medium-sized Brazilian cities, the installation of shopping centers implied direct transformations in the urban space, producing new centralities. Imperatriz, the second largest city in the state of Maranhão, located in the eastern portion of the Legal Amazon, gained regional prominence by housing two developments of this size. The installation of such undertakings was mainly due to a pre-established consumer market, since this city has an economic highlight based on the tertiary sector. Currently, according to ABRASCE, two shopping centers are in operation in the city. In this sense, the present study addresses as its main objective fundamental aspects of the socio-spatial dynamics in medium-sized cities resulting from commerce and services activities in Imperatriz - MA, focusing on the city's shopping centers. The study also brings a characterization of the main enterprises installed in the city, as well as the customers who frequent them. To obtain the results, with regard to methodology, we used simple observation, semi-structured interviews with shopkeepers and management representatives of Imperial and Tocantins shopping malls, in addition to interviews via form with customers who frequent these spaces. From the use of these methodological procedures, it was possible to understand the logic of urban centrality performed by Imperatriz in the region where it operates.