The aim of this paper is to discuss and examine some present Brazilian urban planning and management approaches and experiences in urban development which attempt to overcome the dominant “development-as-modernization” view. These approaches and experiences are all either directly (“new master plans”) or indirectly (“participatory budgeting”) related to the idea of an “urban reform.” In the contemporary parlance of Brazilian progressive scholars, “urban reform” possesses a particular meaning: It does not mean just a reshaping of the space, whatever its ideological substance, but a transformation of specific aspects of city life itself in order to attain the goals of social justice and equity. I assume that a significantly positive contribution of alternative urban planning and participatory budgeting from a radically democratic viewpoint is their contribution to a demystification of the planning process, which no longer can be considered as a purely technical matter. At the same time, they can contribute to the moral rehabilitation of urban planning itself as planning can then be understood as something necessary but radically different from technocratic planning—namely as a tool for social justice.
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