Nas últimas décadas, o êxodo rural e o aumento da população urbana impulsionaram o crescimento desordenado das cidades, alterando o processo de produção do espaço urbano, o que refletiu na construção de uma nova realidade social. Essas situações não acontecem somente nas grandes cidades, a exemplo disto Pau dos Ferros/RN, uma pequena cidade localizada no interior do estado do Rio Grande do Norte, há uma distância de 400 (quatrocentos) quilômetros a oeste da capital do estado, Natal, passou por rápidas e intensas transformações em função de vários fatores e provocadas por diversos agentes de produção do espaço. Isso pode ser constatado pelo surgimento de novos bairros, pela expansão do centro e pela produção de novos espaços de consumo, o que, por sua vez, acarretaram mudanças na formação da cidade, acarretando o surgimento de uma nova morfologia do município. Diante do exposto a cima, surgiu o interesse por esta pesquisa, que visa compreender o processo de produção e a expansão do espaço urbano em Pau dos ferros, a partir da análise da atuação diferenciada de cada um dos agentes produtores desse espaço. O delineamento da pesquisa adota um enfoque qualitativo, realizado através de estudo bibliográfico, no qual tivemos como base as considerações de Corrêa (2009), Campos Filho (2001) a respeito do tema em questão, com o intuito de discutir a realidade da cidade em estudo.
In the last decades, people leave the countryside and came to urban areas at the same time urban population has grown causing a non-ordered growth at cities, these facts changed the process of urban production and it has reflected on the construction of a new social reality. All of these situations are not specific from huge cities. For example, Pau dos Ferros, a small town located at Rio Grande do Norte, far from the capital, Natal, – 400 km in west direction. It has been inside a fast and deep transformation in what is concerned to urban area occupation, and these have happened due to several aspects present in this process of space production. We can see this through the urging of new communities, downtown expansion and by new consumption commercial space center that has changed urban morphology in the town. Taking into account all of those problems we decided to research this trying to comprehend how the production urban space occurs, and how urban space has grown in Pau dos Ferros. This research has a qualitative approach. We did a bibliographic study from which we took the contribution by Corrêa (2009), Campos Filho (2001) in what is concerned to the questions, just because we intended to discuss that reality in the city.In the last decades, people leave the countryside and came to urban areas at the same time urban population has grown causing a non-ordered growth at cities, these facts changed the process of urban production and it has reflected on the construction of a new social reality. All of these situations are not specific from huge cities. For example, Pau dos Ferros, a small town located at Rio Grande do Norte, far from the capital, Natal, – 400 km in west direction. It has been inside a fast and deep transformation in what is concerned to urban area occupation, and these have happened due to several aspects present in this process of space production. We can see this through the urging of new communities, downtown expansion and by new consumption commercial space center that has changed urban morphology in the town. Taking into account all of those problems we decided to research this trying to comprehend how the production urban space occurs, and how urban space has grown in Pau dos Ferros. This research has a qualitative approach. We did a bibliographic study from which we took the contribution by Corrêa (2009), Campos Filho (2001) in what is concerned to the questions, just because we intended to discuss that reality in the city.
