Os bairros urbanos como lugares de práticas sociais

Abstract

Some forms of coexistence and social practices in urban environments are analy-sed with special incidence in the urban centre of Oporto. The objective is to demonstrate how, contrarily to the socalled 'administative centre' and 'commercial centre' (Central Business District), characterized essentially by the heterogeneous multifunctional residing or utilizing population, the boroughs, relating to intensity of signification and to quality of utilization and symbolic ownership, are the more valued, the more specified they are, in a dominant though not exclusive way, by a certain type of population and/or by a particular function.