A produção e o consumo na Área Metropolitana de Lisboa: novas geografias e reconfiguração urbana ao longo da EN10

Abstract

The changes that have impacted on the world economy from the 70’s onwards have led to e new geography of the special distribution of activities and employment, above all in the western society (FONT & VESCLIR). The relationship between the processes of growing globalization and increased regionalization of the productive structure and the current urban dynamics has brought into this debate (ASCHER, VELTZ, SASSEN). Some authors argue that we are faced with a new urban cycle and a new type of city, decentralized and consistent with the social, economic, technological and cultural processes normally associated to the process of metropolisation (INDOVINA, SECCHI, PORTAS, DOMINGUES). In the transition from the industrial or “fordist “city to the “post-fordist” city the structure (that was previously compact, continuous de functionally dependent on the public transport networks) is reconfigured and replaced by a discontinuous and scattered urban pattern. As in other urban areas, as Barcelona (FONT & VECSLIR, 2007), the most recent landscapes built in Lisbon metropolitan territory shows a growing polarization, with the emergence and gradual consolidation of new standards activities, functionally specialized. In the 70’s the EN10 area was characterized by heavy shipyards, steel and chemical industry. The deindustrialization process led to abandonment but also to the conversion of former industry into residential areas, warehouses and logistical infrastructures, some recently replaced by multinational corporations or new specialized commercial areas. The polarized and functional specialization feature is interrelated with the improved connection to the metropolitan network of high-speed roads where the EN10 upholds an increasingly complex connection.