A economia dos serviços na Região Metropolitana de Porto Alegre - RMPA: uma primeira leitura

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the dynamics of the territorial activities of the tertiary sector of the greater Porto Alegre city. In order to chieve our aims, locational quotiens were calculated for the total of productive and distributive services as well as for personal and social services for the period of 1995-2005. This first stage allowed the author to conclude that besides the three traditional service centers (Porto Alegre, São Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo), new centers emerged on account of the productive reestructuration on the one hand, and on the emergence of the diseconomies of agglomeration (localization and urbanization) on the other. This flow has induced some types of services to define their locational preferences for conurbered urban center, including the capital city itself. As a result, the service centers that have emerged are Canoas, Gravatai, Cachoeirinha, Viamão and Esteio. It was also possible to verify that, although Porto Alegre and São Leopoldo lost some types of services, these losses did not affect the hegemony of the capital city concerning its offers of service for the state of Rio Grande do Sul as a whole.