Soft spaces and soft planning in Portugal and in the Sao Paulo macrometropolis

Abstract

Faced with a scenario of intensified interspatial competition, and the phenomena of reterritorialization and rescaling, the concepts of Soft space and Soft planning have been highlighted as key approaches in the emerging international planning system. Although its origin is related to the United Kingdom planning system, such approaches are being used increasingly in the European continent, but it is still not used as a category of analysis in the Brazilian planning system. For this reason, the objective of the research is to understand how the theory and practice of soft planning and soft spaces is used in the context of the Portuguese planning and governance system, with a view to reflecting on the macrometropolis of São Paulo. To this end, an analysis will be carried out on the Community-Led Local Development (CLLD), an instrument recently implemented and considered to be a Soft planning engine in the planning and governance of practices in Portugal. Complementarily, semi-structured interviews will be used with researchers and planners linked to the theme SOFTPLAN. With this, it is intended to contribute to the field of planning and governance by articulating the new approaches of Soft space and soft planning with the context of Brazilian planning and governance, in particular, the context of the São Paulo Macrometropolis.