INTERMEDIATE CITIES AND CONTEMPORARY URBANIZATION

Abstract

This paper addresses the role played by intermediate cities in contemporary urbanization. The first section highlights the difficulty of defining what exactly an intermediate city is; reviews the limitations of current demographic criteria; and calls attention to the importance of these cities in the structure of the urban network. The second section discusses some theoretical constructs set forth by Milton Santos, such as verticalities, horizontalities and changing urban networks in a context of variable geometry. The third section examines the relationship between intermediate cities and modern agriculture. Finally, the author provides insights on current challenges of research on intermediate cities.