The city marketing strategies of Porto Digital

Abstract

Porto Digital was a policy implemented in 2000, and managed by a social organization (SO) with the initial objectives of inserting Pernambuco into the technology scenario and contributing to the revitalization of the district in the city of Recife known as Bairro do Recife. Over the past two decades, this SO has established itself as a central actor in urban planning, by associating state-of-the-art concepts into the debate on innovation. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how these narratives have been used as city marketing. This was an explanatory research on the construction, evolution and main impacts of Porto Digital, enabled through the collection of bibliographic, documentary, interview and observational data. It may be perceived that a gentrification process has taken place with identity manipulation, an exodus of part of the population and the valorization of real estate chiefly for the consumption of companies. It may be understood that the instrumentalization of this innovation debate as city marketing has both boosted businesses and served as a smokescreen for social problems.