Cidades médias - Contributos para a sua definição

MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES – HOW TO DEFINE THEM. The concept of medium-sized city was first referred to in France at the end of the 1960s when the 6th Economic and Social Development Policy was under preparation (1971-76). Nonetheless, many of the principles and criteria associated with it had already been borne in the mind of the experts in this field and politicians as well as in the their resources and potential, emerged as an alternative to large cities then undergoing a crisis and reinforced their place in regional urban systems. The second half of the 1980s was also important for medium-sized cities. The growing internationalization of the economy and increasing competitiveness led to a new framework of relations in which medium-sized cities began to play a different role. The concept of intermediary city emerged, based on what defines «innovative milieu» or «network territory». In the 1990s, the idea of the sustainable city emerged to offer medium-sized cities a new framework of possibilities as well as demands faced with an increasingly competitive and globalize economy which has led to new forms of economic, social and cultural exclusion, especially noticeable in small cities in depressed areas. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the difficulty of reaching a definition of «medium-sized city» and the manner in which the concept has evolved as it responds to the transformations within the European productive and socio-territorial system.