In this research, the “Smart City-edifice” of Lisbon has been examined through qualitative field work carried out in the city. The concept of the Smart City- edifice has been designed by the author in an attempt to grasp the ambiguous Smart City ambition as an assemblage of (i) specific techniques incorporated into the urban environment (ii) the modes of governance which these techniques allow for, particularly real time data collection & (iii) issues of city branding, placemaking and urban, Smart regeneration. The highlighted empirical material has been produced in collaboration with interlocutors from three different projects, and relate to the three different facets of the Smart Cityedifice: A developer of a gamification scheme (e-governance), a sustainable neighbourhood project (Tech-driven sustainability and governance/civic participation) and lastly a creative hub (branding, creativity & regeneration). These facets are being examined in the context of Lisbon, a city which has gone through a re-formulation of urban agendas in the capitalist restructuring of the economy in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The post-crisis strategy in Lisbon is interpreted as a sort of “attraction hysteria” (Anttiroiko, 2014), as much effort has been placed on attracting global capital and tourism, incentivised not least by a liberalized, profitable housing market. This attraction hysteria is understood by the author as producing specific implications for the development of the Smart Cityedifice. Main findings include the hinderances that said politics have produced for ambitions of civic participation and other democratic visions of the Smart City. These findings are understood in the light of the Lefebvrian framework of the “right to the city” and critical understandings of the touristified city. The field work itself has been guided by two key research questions, these being: a) How are Smart City narratives being operationalized locally by actors in Lisbon? B) What possible tensions could arise between Smart aims of global urban competitiveness and aims of civic participation, in the context of Lisbon?

[pt] A presente pesquisa pretende investigar como os mecanismos de mercantilização do espaço urbano da zona portuária performatizam a construção de uma nova imagem de cidade para o consumo global, através do projeto de intervenção do Porto Maravilha. Dessa forma, a partir de uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o tema e de uma pesquisa de campo com a realização de entrevistas, buscase refletir sobre o planejamento urbano das cidades contemporâneas, interpretadas enquanto produto mercadológico e vinculadas a um pensamento estratégico citadino. Assim, pretende-se elucidar o debate a respeito da construção de imagens-sínteses de cidades portuárias, das relações entre seus agentes sociais e culturais, assim como dos impactos sociais e econômicos dessas intervenções, especificamente do caso do Porto Maravilha, sobre essa população e o seu território. Além disso, é oportuno destacarmos alguns elementos-chave que fundamentam a análise conceitual e teórica a respeito da mercantilização urbana, tais como o branding urbano, o planejamento estratégico e a gentrificação, uma vez que esses três mecanismos operam numa reificação da cidade enquanto objeto, produto. Por esse viés, pode-se apreender o funcionamento dessa sistemática de planejamento, que visa à produção de ambientes criados para uma expectativa de consumo alinhada a uma cultura do espetáculo, que, por vezes, fere a própria memória do lugar pela prevalência de demandas globais (Sánchez, 2013). Desse modo, a questão central que se pretende explanar é como essa mercantilização do espaço urbano opera no território e seu impacto econômico e social para a área retratada. / [en] The present research intends to investigate how the mercantilization mechanisms of the portuary zone s urban spaces produce the construction and resignification of a new city image for the global consumption, through the intervention project of Porto Maravilha. Therefore, it is proposed a theoretical and conceptual analysis that allows a critical reflection on the urban planning of contemporary cities, interpreted, in this way, as a marketing product and linked to a strategic urban thinking. Thus, it is expected that this critical analysis provides elements to support the debate about how the relations with the portuary zone s social actors are made, as well as the economic and social impacts of this intervention on the population. The matter in question raises the approach to other topics such as urban marketing, strategic planning and gentrification, since these three items operate in the contemporary city in order to transmute it as an object. Urban branding works in order to implement in its intervention field a new identity and image, while influencing not only its structural operation but also the readability of these spaces by its users and inhabitants (SILVA, 2011; LYNCH, 2003). Regarding the transformation of the port area into a large business district, driven by urban and financial capital forces, it is hypothesized that there is an ongoing process of urban gentrification in the region, whose degraded and empty spaces are result of a conception that enhances the objectification of the city, for example the Mauá Plaza, in which we can locate th Museum of Tomorrow and MAR, synthesis-images of the Porto Maravilha project meaning (SÁNCHEZ and GUTERMAN, 2016).