Description:
<jats:p>This paper addresses the production of urban space in Mossoró, in Rio Grande do Norte State, through an analysis that articulates the social division of space and socio-spatial fragmentation. The hypothesis is that, in the context of contemporary urbanization, the fragmentary urban logic plays a significant role in structuring and restructuring urban spaces. The center-periphery contradiction is redefined, associated with the production of new spaces for consumption and the profusion of popular housing forms and closed residential spaces. For this, the mapping and cross-referencing data from these same spaces, the forms of habitation and, consequently, interviews with inhabitants, were fundamental for the analysis So, this article highlights the study of socio-spatial fragmentation as an expressive possibility to understand contemporary Brazilian urbanization. It concludes on spatial practices and the appropriation of space as a fundamental element to understand the fragmentation process in Brazilian medium-sized cities. Keywords: Sociospatial Fragmentation, Urban Centrality, Social and Territorial Division of Labour, Mossoró, Brazil.</jats:p>