Perspectives of the Regional Planning of Paraíba Valley and North Coast: Milestones and Institutionalization of the Metropolitan Region in the Action Plan of the Macro-metropolis of São Paulo

Abstract This article presents a reinterpretation of the history of the regional planning centered in the Paraiba Valley and North Coast of São Paulo and in the main studies and plans developed since the 1940s. With this proposal, the recent historical period could be better placed in relation to the institutionalization of the metropolitan area (2012), the Action Plan of the Macro-metropolis of São Paulo (2014), and the Statute of the Metropolis (2015), and issues to be discussed were raised with the preparation of the Integrated Plan for Urban Development (PDUI). Thus, the ongoing debates regarding the drafting of the new regional plan (metropolitan) become more qualified to enforce a critical view and questions concerning the current historical contradiction, featuring side by side, the tendency of the planning required for the validation of a reinforced hegemonic project of social and territorial disparities and the upward movement of new agents for consistent participatory processes and social justice.