From planning to action: Actors envolvement in urban space planning – Vale da amoreira at moita (Portugal)

Due the diversity of material and immaterial elements composing the urban space, the consolidation of space takes place not only as a result of the answers given by its planning needs, but also by the major forces at stake in a specific urban context. The lack of balance between those forces generates impacts in the urban structure of cities, shaping discontinuous spaces and marginalized areas, the so called “critical urban areas”.

Considering the multiplicity of actors in the urban space, the identification of their roles and interests may come as a tool that can promote social and spatial equality, as a way to avoid the urban space to be a reflection of the game of interests and powers. Collaborative planning is the theory that is based on communicative action and seeks to develop methods for participatory action at different levels. This theory implies the redistribution of the State's roles to the various formally organized agencies, laying the foundations for a joint urban governance.

Through the study of an experimental portuguese public policy application named “Critical Urban Areas Initiative” at Vale da Amoreira (Moita), the presented work, as a result of a master thesis, intends to analyze the practice of collaborative planning and to evaluate if the involvement of the several actors from that urban context facilitates the implementation of urban regeneration projects and the construction of more equitable cities.