Territorial planning: the necessity for metropolitan plans

Abstract

Planning is a good way of structuring decision making in a metropolis. It is a privileged space for social actors to engage in negotiating, confronting and articulating their interests and drawing up alternatives for social development. In Brazil, planning in metropolitan areas has recently reappeared in the government’s agenda. The urban crisis has fostered a debate regarding the nature of the city. Is the city the stage for compensatory social policies or is it strategic for social and economic development? In the wake of long-term social inequality, recent neoliberal policies have not benefited any sort of endured development and so the result has been the growth of urban poverty in the country. The main issue is thus how to foster a sustainable planning system for the metropolitan scenario. A recent experience in the context of Natal city (in the northeast of Brazil) will be more fully explored in the paper.