This paper aims at presenting the global tendencies of urban planning as they are captured through the urban mutations of Athens. Firstly, an attempt is made to provide the reader with an understanding of the ways global and local networks affect “the urban”. This is done through the analysis of the transition process from strictly vertical power structures to the diffusion and management of human and market networks. The latter are also viewed from an angle that shows their importance in defining tendencies in urban planning. We try to decode the mechanisms that construct tendencies for urban renewal and answer the main question of this paper :
Who runs this city? What are the key actors/ factors and how their interactions and conflicts form urban design tendencies and trends.
