A transforma？？o cultural de cidades médias, segundo os seus agentes culturais

within the framework of a research project on urban cultural dynamics, carried out in the second half of the 1990s in connection with medium-sized cities in the northern region of portugal, in-depth interviews were held between march 1999 and march 2000 with people who occupied positions and carried out activities involving promotion of the urban cultural scene (management personnel in public institutions and services, cultural association officials, activists from artistic production structures, owners of art galleries). in this article, the information gathered in 31 interviews held in aveiro, braga, coimbra and guimar？es will be the source for an analysis of the respondents’ discourses, taken as the representations of cultural agents on the recent past, the then present and the development routes of medium-sized portuguese cities and their cultural scenes.