Resumo:
From a former cotton and textile manufacturing center in the Itapecuru river valley at the end
of the 19th century, the city of Caxias has now become an important node in the urban network
of the state of Maranhão, contributing to the supply of goods and services to the population and
companies. in its region of immediate urban influence. In recent years, the city of Caxias has
become a sub-regional hub for retail trade, as well as offering highly complex health services
and higher education to the population of municipalities in its area of influence. The study
sought to understand how the city of Caxias participates in the urban network of Maranhão and
Brazil, based on its contemporary functional importance and the socioeconomic and spatial
dynamics in the region where it is located. To this end, we sought to understand what currently
motivates the main interests of private agents, federal and state governments for the installation
of projects, infrastructures and services of a regional nature and their main implications for the
city. In this sense, we sought to understand the socioeconomic and spatial processes that enabled
the functional rise of the city of Caxias in the Maranhão urban network, in the last 20 years, as
well as, identify and analyze the functional and spatial growth trends of the city and its process
of transformation of status into the small town category.
