This work deals with the perception of urban space in the framework of globalisation and the
withdrawal of the public sphere in the last decades of the XX century. The appearance of a new
"market oriented reason" has changed dramatically the way public urban policy is discussed and
carried out, with dramatic consequences to urban space. It is not only "form" that has changed, but
also the whole perception of the role and the function of urban space. Urban space is the space of
ideological constructions that hide its true identity. These ideological constructions are based on
discourses full of "gaps". If these "gaps" were to be filled, the ideological discourse that sustains
the commoditisation of space would crumble.
Because of this commoditisation, public policies have shifted to a more pragmatic and market
oriented course. In order to legitimise this process, a new discourse of public management has seen
the day.