Abstract
Commuting is frequently used in the study of functional organisation of regions and consequent delimitation of Metropolitan Areas. This research study expresses a change in the scale of analysis used for this phenomenon, because it tries to characterize commuting flows generated around Évora.
Évora is a medium sized city in the interior of Alentejo region, head of the regional urban system and a structuring employment centre within an emerging employment basin.
Throughout this research the author aims to characterize the social and professional structure of flows generated by Évora, using the statistical data from the 1991 Population Census, and also to identify the individual motivations presiding the separation home-place of work. Another goal of this study is to understand the relationship between daily commuting flows and the dynamics of change of the transport system.
The research ends with some reflections and recommendations that, hopefully, may be used as a basis to formulate future policies and management measures inside the Évora employment basin.
Key words : commuting, employment basin, medium size city, Évora.