Planning the periurban rural space: from functionalist approach of territory to territories of autonomy

Abstract

This text discusses the issue of growing urban demand for the preservation of natural resources in
periurbans territories. In that sense, warns to the fact of rural periurban space is currently characterized
as an environment of conflict through use of the territory, being designed by the policies of territorial
planning as an area of environmental interests and conflicting area of risk as socially constructed. Therefore,
highlights the relationship, often opposite and confrontational, between city and countryside, closing itself the contradiction between economic development projects and environmental preservation. On the
other hand, points to a need to the spatial approach of agricultural practices, which can enable the
understanding of relationships between family farmers and ecological nature, through the study of
representations and perceptions of the landscape, which are materially expressed in the territory of
family farming. It is defended the idea that this approach to suggest alternative policies of territorial
development consistent with the local social realities.