URBAN-REGIONAL DYNAMICS IN INTERNAL BORDER TERRITORIES

ABSTRACT This work aims to understand the Upper West Potiguar as an internal border region, located in Rio Grande do Norte (RN) state, between the states of Paraíba (PB) and Ceará (CE), scaled by the urban-regional dynamics led by the municipality of Pau dos Ferros / RN, as a polarizing center. To this end, a theoretical course was set involving the concepts of territory, borders and urban-regional dynamics, and also a metho dological course, which articulated these concepts to the analysis of residential data regarding the origin of higher education students and the commuting movements of people for study and work in Pau dos Ferros. It was found that the Upper West Potiguar is characterized as an internal region-border because it is located on the limits of states whose development was marked by this condition, distant from the ecumenes, and because it contains specific urban-regional dynamics, in the tempo of a polarizing center that converges hodiernal social and economic dynamics to itself.