Usos e significados dos espaços públicos contemporâneos: uma análise dos parques urbanos em Montes Claros / MG

Abstract

Cities have public spaces that represent the image of the city and its sociability, which produce a summary of the population's socio-spatial diversity. Based on this premise, this study aims to analyze the forms of uses and meanings of urban parks in the city of Montes Claros, according to the environmental perception of its users. This is a qualitative research of an exploratory nature, having as object three urban parks located in the city of Montes Claros / MG: Parque Municipal Milton Prates, Parque das Mangueiras and Parque Urbano Municipal Sagarana. The three urban parks analyzed have different locations in the urban fabric and are inserted in dif-ferent social, economic and cultural realities, presenting a characteristic socio-spatial imagery stemming from the needs, interests, values and lifestyles (habitus) different from their users. It is observed that urban parks are part of the daily experiences of a portion of the population that lives close to these equipment, or that even far from these spaces, they have greater access conditions. Such public spaces, historically with uses attributed to leisure, currently have new functions how as the practice of physical activities outdoors, containing gym equipment and infrastructure for activities in order to promote more health and quality of life for the popula-tion. The uses of the parks, which are subdivided into necessary and optional activities, are practically the same in the montesclarenses parks analyzed. The appropriation, in turn, for rep-resenting the ways of expressing oneself in the face of everyday rationalities, was revealed in each urban park in a different way. Thus, understanding the importance of this equipment for the city and analyzing the general overview of public spaces in the contemporary city, it is understood that they present some challenges to be overcome in order to remain vital, sustain-able and public, since the construction and the conservation of public space requires the com-mitment of all social agents.