The morphological sense of commerce: theoretical review and lessons learned in four Portuguese medium sized cities

Abstract

Shopping has been considered the principal wealth-generator of post-modern societies. Yet,two elements continually elude current theories and practices about the role of commerce on a widerperspective. Rarely is it considered an active agent in the structuring of the city and, furthermore, moststudies have solely focused on the geographical, economic and social dimensions of shopping, neglectingits morphological dimension. Only in the last 10 years have authors addressed this perspective, althoughsporadically and presenting focused views, resulting in a lack of knowledge and, ultimately, in the lack ofproper public policies. This paper aims to address the structuring nature of commerce and the influenceof its morphological component. For that it combines knowledge from various fields of research and alarge array of morphological variables at various resolution levels. Using as test-beds four Portuguesemedium-sized cities, GIS-models containing commercial, morphological, structural and temporalvariables were produced, explored and compared. Findings include i) the definition of commercial /morphological indicators, that can constitute values of reference or comparison for commercial policiesand other planning studies; ii) the evidence that morphological, rather than statistical similaritiesgenerate, on the micro-scale, more commercial similarities; and iii) the main bridging aspects betweencommercial activity and the form and structure of cities.