This article aims to explore the complexities involved in contemporary spatial dynamics – concerning the processes of gentrification of urban historical nuclei and its effect in territories – due to the massification of the tourism industry through the considerations of Michel Foucault on the art of government. Having as object of study the historical core of Mouraria, in Lisbon, we tried to perceive if – and in what measure – the advance of commodification of urban land and housing policies take place as well as the processes of “de-re-territorialization” of populations in this locality, through the analysis of biopolitical mechanisms, tactics and strategies linked to the production of space. The methodology used was the cartography carried out in different temporalities: the years of 2012 and 2016. This analysis in two moments provided the follow-up of the processes that we sought to understand about the reconfiguration of part of the territory of Lisbon, in view of the relations between the
State and companies. In this way, we perceived, in one hand, the increase in financial measures taken by the Portuguese government – with the intent to transform the old historical center of Mouraria into an attractive, cosmopolitan and multicultural space – and, on the other hand, the advance of new forms of city space management that took advantage of these changes. Thus, Lisbon has been inserted into the competitive tourism market among world cities – a central strategy
of the neoliberal art of government regarding urban planning.
