Meio urbano, suas vocações e suas regras: atividades terciárias e instrumentos de organização em busca do desenvolvimento do território de Belo Horizonte

Abstract

Third sector activities are the primary source of jobs and major generator of financial resources in Belo Horizonte. It is the businesses related to service providing and product distribution that are the most responsible for the populations improvement in quality of life and the recognition of the capital of Minas Gerais as a hub of national economic development, whose reach is of great amplitude and a result of the diversity of the centres and centralities that it provides. To understand Belo Horizonte as the urban centre that it is, it becomes necessary to first try and recognise the urban reality lived. The research then seeks to identify how the city has developed itself to increase its influence as aspace where market practices take place, as well as what the urbanismlegislations role is in this process. It also tries to understand the context that created the ongoing urbanism laws and how these laws act in the distribution of third sector equipment in the urban network. Although the urbanism legislation has provided conditions for the third sector to expand itself into a large part of the citys territory, it has been observed that it is not currently able to manage the dynamic and variable realityof the city, to control the interventions made by the space formation agents and to correct the structural inequalities existent in the urban life.The conclusion indicates the urgency for popular participation in thedecisions related to the citys life and the adoption of constant planning and management actions, directed to recognize smaller portions of the urban space and the characteristics that make them unique within the city's reality. The execution of planning in the local level should be able to stimulate the development of centres and centralities that promote quality of life to the population and are integrated among themselves and to a main centre, that holds the citys history and tradition.