ABSTRACT

Are we still able to produce images of the future for our cities and will we be able to stimulate hope for change through effective actions? It is these kinds of questions that are central to the link between issues of democratic governance and planning evaluation throughout this chapter. It is not a straightforward question if we consider that the city can be an ambivalent place. It is the place of hope, new ideas, of creativity, but it is also the place of inequality and desperation. The city is contradictory because it mirrors human contradictions.