Poder local e gestão urbana

Brazilian cities have been the sites of significant experiments in participatory and deliberative governance. Participatory budgeting has to be singled out as one of the most important of these. After the landmark experience in Porto Alegre, participatory budgeting has been expanded to 170 Brazilian cities. Is the expansion of participatory budgeting equivalent to the expansion of the deliberative and distributive characteristics of the Porto Alegre experience? This article argues that the conditions that account for the emergence of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre are unique to that city’s social or political characteristics. It focuses on the role of existing civil society associations in the emergence of participatory budgeting, as well as in its institutional format. It also shows that the presence of civic associations is linked to the deliberative and distributive results of participatory budgeting and that these conditions may not be present in other participatory budgeting experiences.

This essay explores the reasons for the reduced negative effects of the 2008 global financial crisis on Brazil and its cities by applying an analysis that connects these urban effects with the national dynamics. Despite substantial variation within the country, reduced impact can be credited to the response to the crisis by the current Lula administration and to features of the country’s urbanization process. First, universal redistributive social programmes, together with an enlarged domestic market, better insertion in the global economy, prudential regulation and a stable fiscal situation, have put the country in a comfortable position to react to the crisis by adopting countercyclical policies. Second, given the advanced urbanization in Brazil, social and active macroeconomic policies have produced decisive and specific effects on the urban fabric. Recent processes of in land urbanization have created new areas of regional and urban dynamics, thus the impact of the crisis on cities has not only been mild, affecting the most industrialized and internationally oriented metropolises hardest, but has also become an opportunity for strengthening urban areas through active macroeconomic and social policies and helping foster a more decentralized national urban network, thereby leading to stronger links between social inclusion and territorial cohesion.

This paper presents the results of an international research project completed by the University of Geneva in partnership the ILO and consultants. This applied research project analyses whether the concept of decent work is known and applied by local authorities in their policy definition and project implementation in the construction sector and related services. This interdisciplinary research project involves a wide-ranging study of documentary sources and four case studies in Bulawayo (Zimbabwe), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Santo André (Brazil), and Esmeraldas (Ecuador). This paper briefly summarises the aims and rationale of this research project, the hypothesis tested and key research questions related to it. Then it briefly summarises the findings which clearly show that decent work remains a marginal concept which has not been widely applied at the international, national and local levels. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for the improved dissemination and application of decent work.

Cities are the major contributors to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They account for about 75% of global energy consumption and up to 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. With the ongoing rapid increase in urban population, expansion of middle class in urban centers in developing countries, and availability of cheaper vehicles such as Tata Nano and Bajaj RE60 in India, the demand for energy and associated emissions from cities are expected to grow rapidly. Though cities are in a better position to mitigate climate change, it does not necessary mean that there is a willingness on their part to capitalize on these mitigation opportunities. Climate change mitigation is not the priority for them because they face a number of competing priorities including local economic growth and development and service delivery. This paper suggests a range of policy tools that can help cities achieve both local priorities as well as reduce emissions, including GHGs. The suggested policies will be effective when used synergistically.

This paper presents one of the case studies of the international applied research project ‘‘Promoting Decent Work in Construction and Related Services: the Key Role of Local Authorities’’. An article in this special issue presents the aims, scope, methodology and rationale of this research project. The purpose of this article is to present the local employment situation in Santo André, using some indicators of the four key components of decent work. In this case study, quantitative data analysis included official statistics at both the national and local levels. In addition, qualitative information was collected by interviews with key actors of different institutions involved in the construction sector, namely staff of the Municipality of Santo André, workers’ unions and employers’ associations. The research also analysed the initiatives of the municipal authorities in Santo André to promote employment in the construction sector and related services. Special attention has been attributed to the Santo André Mais Igual (SAMI) programme, because it has been selected as an example of ‘‘best practice’’ for urban upgrading and social inclusion.

Over the past decade there has been a sudden, extraordinarily large, and simultaneous expansion of multi-billion dollar housing programs in many emerging and developing economies. This shift occurred after a long period of limited public involvement in social housing production. Yet, despite the fact that countries and cities have introduced such large-scale programs, there has been little independent analysis of the rationale, efficacy and potential long-term effects of these interventions. Adopting a perspective that expands beyond typical public finance approaches, this paper examines the renewed shift in public housing provision. It provides an outlook of recent experiences in housing provision, showcases general trends in housing, proposes an evaluation framework, and offers a series of recommendations aiming at strengthening the programs. The paper concludes that if large-scale housing assistance is to help accommodate the almost 2 billion additional people who will live in cities over the next 35 years, as well as help to address the growing housing affordability issues, much more attention should be paid to the lasting effects that such programs can have on the structure of cities for generations to come.

Popular participation consolidates one of the ways for the accountability, on the one hand from the State to the society, with the political responsibility of the managers, and on the other hand, to receive population demands. This beneficial dynamic provides social control, which can guarantee the efficiency of public policies. This control in the municipal sphere is latent since the provision of public services occurs, in practice, in the place where the citizens’ life is developed, i.e. in the city.The municipality, therefore, constitutes the form of political organization closest to the population, playing an indispensable role in the viability of the permanent process of participation in the regulation, oversight, and control over services and public goods of local interest.

What can the Participatory Budget (PB) teach us about slum upgrading in the cities of the Global South? This article describes the process of slum upgrading via PB in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Participatory budgeting (PB) is a renowned mechanism of resource allocation that transfers decision-making power over the capital expenditure portion of the municipal budget from the City Council to public assemblies. However, the impact of PB on municipal service delivery in general and housing in particular is understudied. Ethnographic findings are based on slum upgrading process via PB in an informal settlement in the East District of Porto Alegre. Fieldwork included 16 interviews with residents who had been PB delegates, PB councilors, municipal architects, lawyers, and the social worker involved in the slum upgrading project of Vila Radiante, East District. Furthermore, analysis of district-level expenditures on public works required for slum upgrading as well as analysis of site plans informed the conclusions. The Porto Alegre PB demonstrates that slum dwellers' involvement in all stages of the slum upgrading process, from resource allocation to service delivery, contributed to the effective distribution of housing and basic infrastructure. Slum dwellers are a heterogeneous group with diverse housing needs. Housing via PB addresses this diversity and provides an alternative to the dichotomist debate in international planning between, on one hand, slum clearance followed by public housing projects and, on the other, the promotion of assisted self-help housing through programs of land tenure and basic infrastructure provision.

The objective of this article is to analyze the implementation of climate change related policies by subnational governments in 3 countries: Japan (Mie Prefecture), Germany (Saxony-Anhalt) and Brazil (São Paulo). Through an empirical research, the article develops the 3 cases to understand the achievements and obstacles to implement mitigation and adaptation policies. The cases provide an interesting sample, including countries that range from a developed country more pro-active in environmental international negotiations (Germany) to a more conservative developed country (Japan) and a developing country (Brazil). The results have pointed that, as compared to adaptation, mitigation policies (such as energy conservation) have a much longer implementation history and government support at the subnational level, especially in more progressive governments, but adaptation policies have gained space in the policy agenda recently because of the increasing public interest. The success of implementation of climate related policies is linked to the way they are integrated with sectorial policies, with policies of other levels of government, with civil society and within themselves (integration of mitigation–adaptation policies).

O artigo analisa os discursos e práticas acionados por diferentes candidaturas ao pleito municipal de 1996 nas cidades de Natal, Maceió e Fortaleza, articulando pontos convergentes e simbologia típica do que poderia ser nomeado de “imaginário citadino de campanha”. A hipótese desenvolvida é a de que as campanhas políticas mobilizam símbolos sociais e ideológicos que se organizam em torno da construção de uma imagem de cidade. Seja na acentuação de “sua história”, na promessa de gestão das desigualdades ou acenos à participação popular, as eleições possuem a marca dos ritos de passagem. O artigo discute a cidade como campo de investimento simbólico que se explicita na luta por domínio de espaços e na emergência de uma espécie de “linguagem” das obras e edificações urbanas, vistas como sinais de eficácia e visibilidade na conjuntura atual.