When the project disguises the plan: conceptions of planning and its metamorphoses in the city of Belém, state of Pará

Abstract The recent initiative of the municipal government of Belém to renovate the Ver-o-Peso open market, the main symbol of the capital’s historic downtown, is taken, in this paper, as a starting point to discuss conceptions of city and interventions conducted by local political groups based on coalitions with the private sector and the local media. The paper approaches, particularly, the contradictions observed in the attempt to internationalize Belém and the selective nature that strategic planning offers when the political sphere does not consider the complexity of the Amazonian urban environment. The text argues that it would be possible to create mediations for exogenous conceptions of planning in order to propose a philosophical basis for the modernization of Belém that takes into account popular participation, the inclusive party and the local socio-biodiversity.