Contemporary Consumption Spaces: when marketing replaces urban planning

Abstract

Urban marketing has been establishing itself as an urban planning technique for integrating cities into global consumption spaces. To achieve this, it relies on a set of emblematic urban projects, often within a public-private partnership management model. The organization of large international events motivates cities to compete with each other, using a discourse to boost their development. This article discusses the relationships between marketing and urban planning and the differentiated impacts on the legacies of this model between cities in the global north and those with uneven urbanization, such as Brazilian cities. To demonstrate the theoretical points, the urban operation of "Porto Maravilha" in Rio de Janeiro is discussed, comparing it with the emblematic case of Barcelona. The conclusion is drawn that not everything beneficial for Barcelona is necessarily beneficial for Rio de Janeiro.