Urban policies. Definitions, reflections, and analytical tools
Abstract
This article revisits urban policies from a conceptual approach, giving account of their specifics and characteristic traits. Our basic argument states that it is the urban space –i.e. the main locus of policy interventions- what differentiates the current theoretical approach to alternative, more frequent ones. We
see urban policies as territorialized policies, i.e. policies addressed at interventions in and eventually transformations of, the urban space. The objective of our discussion is twofold: On the one hand, it attempts to a de-naturalization of the category, pointing out that it is not a self-evident notion, but on the contrary, a category that may involve a variety of divergent meanings as well some misunderstandings. Thus, the article discusses alternative definitions as well their theoretic and methodological implications). On the other hand, the article provides tools to research urban policies drawing from contributions from the field of urban studies. In this sense, the text is intended to function as a toolbox, pointing out possible paths and instruments when analyzing urban policies.
