Fifteenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge & Society

Abstract

The historical city centers have been suffering with a continuous process of economic and populational decline and, despite the innumerous revitalization plans, due to a displacement of the business and commercial center, associate with the institutional negligence, the neighborhood of Ribeira, in Natal, is still undergoing those impacts of abandon, turning into an insecure area surrounded by ruins of ancient buildings. The “Ribeira’s Eyes” project came as a winner of the BID UrbanLab 2017 Competition of ideas due to the use of web platforms that could involve the local residents into the construction of a vivid community in different ways such as: discussing, evaluating previous proposals and even creating means of tax incentives and investment funds within the neighborhood to develop retail activity and attract more residents. This paper takes that proposal as reference to discuss the innovation about the use of technology and social media by Ribeira’s Eyes project, comparing it to previous attempts of urban renovation, and how engaging the population associated with a monetary incentive could revert the urban decay of that historical city center and inspire to rethink the urban development in different context of scales and dynamics in order to revitalize their city center in more innovative ways.