(Re)thinking Urban Planning: Urban Technology and Planning in São Paulo

Abstract

Planners and planning departments are increasingly losing their importance within contemporary public administration, as exaggerated reliance on technical and design practices continue to fragment the public treatment of space. Koolhaas and Mau (1995) argue that planners and, in fact, urbanism are outdated, and that both failed to keep pace with the rapid modernization of urban space. Many studies show that ‘proactive’ planning initiatives related to information and communication technologies tend to appeal to the ill-grounded utopianism of technological deterministic approaches. This chapter aims to explain what has been changing in the world of spatial and urban studies as a response to new patterns of communication supported by information and communication technologies, as well as to shed some light on the challenges posed to planning and governance. This will be done together with the observation of real case scenarios in medium and well-developed cities in Brazil.