ABSTRACT
In the last half century, the Brazilian state consolidated and then liquidated a modernist model for the production of urban space. According to this model, best crystallized in the construction of Brasília, the state produces urban space according to centralized master plans that are conceived as instruments of social change and economic development. The role of government is both to articulate these plans and to create the means for their realization. During the last two decades, however, a constellation of forces – including main elements of the state, business and industry, popular social movements, political parties, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) – rejected this centralized conception of state intervention. In its place, they substituted a notion of planning in which government does not produce space directly, but rather acts as a manager of localized and often private interests in the cityscape. Moreover, whereas the modernist model entails a concept of total design, by which planners impose solutions, like demigods, the new model considers that plans should both be based on and foster the exercise of democratic citizenship.
