Por uma política urbana-regional

Abstract

This paper is based upon a critical study of recent urban and regional policies of nation-wide scope that were proposed between 1962 and 1985, and aims to show how these policies were excluded from the State's agenda. The study seeks to question why this occurred. In order to respond to such, a rereading of history must be carried out, overviewing the colonial period which points to the existence of “de facto" urban and regional policies implicit in colonisation policies. Such a rereading adopts a method of analysis that identifies the “protagonists", i.e., the holders of political and economic power and traces how this power was spatially materialised through a rationale that led to the construction of urban and regional spaces. The conclusion drawn is that recent urban and regional policies are “pseudo-policies” due to their disregard of aforementioned power. Moreover, what comes to light is that, historically, the “protagonists-actors" of “de facto" policies became prominent in urban and regional spaces simultaneously. Hence the need to discuss the notion of a regional-urban policy.