CITIES, GLOBALIZATION AND ECONOMIC DETERMINISM

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss and compare two contemporary approaches to urban planning and management: 'entrepreneurialism' and 'urban reform'. As a framework within which several crucial aspects of local public policies and urban management have to be (re)considered, both approaches can be either directly or indirectly linked to the question of 'globalisation' and its implications. After examinig some major controversies around the concept of globaliation as well as in relation to the practical consequences of this phenomenon, 'urban entrepreneurialism' is briefly discussed, 'Urban entrepreneurialism' refers to a situation in which the local state often abdicates of a part of its power to regulate the production of space in favour of private companies and developers ('public-private partnerships', land use deregulation, and so on). An alternative to 'urban entrepreneurialism' is the left-wing approach know in Brazil as 'urban reform' (reforma urbana). In the contemporary parlance of Brazilian progressive scholars, 'urban reform' possesses a particular meaning: It does not mean only (or even primarily) a reshaping of the material space, but a transformation of specific aspects of city life itself to attain the goals of social justice and equity. It is above all a kind of structural social reform which encompasses a clear spatial dimension - and the purpose of which is the reform of the institutions regulating the production of space, in order to avoid or reduce land speculation, residencial segregation, and so on. However, this approach also presents some political and theoretical limits, especially due to an exaggerated emphasis on the role of the state apparatus detrimental to social movements (and civil society as a whole) as agents of socio-spatial change.