Description:
The crisis in the new metropolitan regions calls into question the ideas, hitherto inherent to the concept of city, defined as a space in which the processes of cultural creation, technological innovation linked to material progress, and democratisation have preferably been developed. A host of potential that is still present and whose historical development has not been free of conflict. The negative vision expressed as new «urban malaise», defines the boundaries of the conflict and highlights its main characteristics, which pivot upon three axes: urban ecology, social integration and governability, whose development appears to be dependent on the sphere of action located between two well-defined and closely-related limits: global vs. local and individual vs. community. In this necessary transformation it is indispensable to reconsider the design of cities and adapt the mechanisms of social and urban intervention to generate an intelligent way of managing cities. For this purpose, planning gains value as an adequate response.