Climate change and biodiversity loss have led to a need for significant changes in cities. The “green agenda” has been prioritized by diverse actors worldwide, such as governments, civil society and private stakeholders. Not by chance, concepts such as Nature-based Solutions, and ecosystem services, among others, are broadly recognized. Moreover, those concepts seek to expand green topics without disassociating them from socio-economic and cultural issues. With the COVID-19 pandemic, inequalities such as problems of mobility, housing, access to nature and well-being are beginning to feature on the public agenda. Society on a global level seems to be witnessing a shift from a desire for untrammelled globalization to placing greater importance on local communities, the neighbourhood, the place and the home. Any city project based on a sustainability perspective must take these issues into account, and therefore understand their multidimensional character, by considering responses integrating environmental, social, and cultural perspectives as part of the process and not as the end. Aiming to discuss solutions both based on nature and on socio-cultural dimensions, this session will rethink public spaces to be more integrated and resilient.
In Brazil, the right to the city is described in the City Statute, which provides for the right to sustainable cities.The Master Plan, provided for in the City Statute is the main instrument of urban development and expansion policy, presents itself as a mechanism capable of ensuring the planning of the performance of the Government, enabling the orderly management of cities, combining the performance of the Government and the participation of civil society, in the direction of state actions, in the achievement of the well-being of individuals. This article aims to analyze the importance of political education, considering the construction and dissemination of knowledge from citizen participation for the practice of advocacy in the management of cities. Thus, through documentary research, the pedagogical political strategies developed by Projeto de Educação Ambiental da Bacia de Campo (NEA-BC) in two cities located in the state of Rio de Janeiro: Quissamã and Armação dos Búzios.Although there are constitutional mechanisms that guarantee participation in public administration decisions, implementing them constitutes a challenge for the management of cities. The work developed, community-based, committed to those impacted communities and with low decision-making power over socio-territorial and environmental resources has, in political education for democracy, the construction of a critical and liberating process. The occupation of decision-making spaces and social control is one of the strategies to be adopted to strengthen the decision-making power of these communities, which must be organized and prepared for political action. The NEA-BC has built teaching-learning processes with the community, taking into account articulations between action, reflection and action. For Borja (2013), with an increase in urban populations, there will be a need to manage public policies that guarantee quality of life in cities more efficiently, effectively and effectively. It should be noted that the democratic city is a permanent conquest, an open field of confrontation of values and interests, a challenge to political innovation, urban imagination and civic mobilization (BORJA, 2013). For more emancipatory and transformative urban management we start from the assumption that it is necessary to create mechanisms that boost local citizen participation. According to Souza (2008), as the individual acquires a broader view of local dynamics, they gathers elements to act on issues directly related to theirs daily life, from a perspective different from that which moves theirs peers, they start to consider the complexity of the situation and all those involved. It is up to the municipal government and representatives of civil society to build or improve dialogues and actions that guarantee the quality of life of all citizens, through the implementation and supervision of urban public policies, orchestrated not only with an institutional architecture that legally guarantees the right to the city, but, with a management and planning that roots, according to Gohn (2011), a process of absorption, re-elaboration and transformation of the existing culture, generating the political culture of a nation.
BRASIL. (2013). Lei 10.257, de 10 de julho de 2001. Estatuto da Cidade. Regulamenta os arts. 182 e 183 da Constituição Federal, estabelece diretrizes gerais da política urbana e dá outras providencias.
BORJA, Jordi (2013). Revolución Urbana y derechos ciudadanos. Madri: Alianza editorial, p. 23- 62.
CARVALHO, José Murilo de (2015). Cidadania no Brasil: o longo caminho. 19. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira.
GOHN, Maria da Glória (2011). Educação não-formal e cultura política. São Paulo: Editora Cortez
GOMES, Paulo Cesar da Costa. A condição urbana: ensaios de geopolítica da cidade. 3. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil, 2001.
SOUZA, Marcelo Lopes de. Mudar a cidade: uma introdução crítica ao planejamento e à gestão urbanos. 5. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil, 2008.
Public space is a key element for sustainable urban dynamics and is vital for creating equitable and democratic urban spaces, present and futures. Parks, streets, sidewalks, markets, beaches, gardens, playgrounds, libraries, and community centres offer a wide range of functions to contribute to a city’s cultural, social and economic development; and prompt civic empowerment and political engagement (Chong, 2022). However, awareness about the importance of public space has not yet been fully established, and the concept of public space remains ambiguous and not actively promoted, both in the Global North and in the Global South. As a consequence, public spaces are often poorly designed, maintained or managed as a leftover space, while publicness is jeopardised by private interests, political regime, or improperly planned or un-planned urbanisation. Additionally, top-down decision-making processes are mostly guided by economic issues and globalisation trends, with housing policies that do not contemplate adequate public spaces (Bravo, 2020).
Public space is not simply a well-designed physical space for public enjoyment; it is primarily a way of re-thinking cities and human settlements so that they can powerfully contribute to the effective implementation of the main pillars of the right to the city, such as:
The Right to the City is based on the theoretical approach of Henri Lefebvre (1968) and has since inspired struggles, experiences and mobilizations. Nowadays, the concept is linked to a more complex urban scenario made of socio-spatial discrimination and exclusions, increasing inequalities and neglecting civil rights, due to globalization phenomena and neoliberal political and economic systems.
As stated by the Barcelona declaration on public space, the right to the city is “a new paradigm that provides an alternative framework to re-think cities and urbanisation” (Habitat III, 2016) on the basis of principles of social justice, equity, democracy and sustainability, for the effective fulfilment of all internationally agreed human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals of the Agenda 2030.
References
Bravo, L. (2020). Public Space and the New Urban Agenda: fostering a human-centred approach for the future of our cities. In Mehta V., Palazzo, D. (eds.), Companion to public space (pp. 85-93), Routledge.
Chong, J (2022). Inclusive urbanisation: ‘Global Public Space Programme’ experience. https://www.constructionplusasia.com/my/inclusive-urbanisation-global-public-space-programme-experience/
Habitat III (2016). Barcelona Declaration for Habitat III. United Nations.
Lefebvre, H. (1968). Le droit à la ville. Anthopos.
The International Seminar Cidades Inclusivas e Natureza: diálogos Brasil-Europa¹ was proposed by the Environment, Ecology and Animal Protection Commission (CEMPA) of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Paraná (ALEP) as part of its experience as an observer of URBiNAT Consortium. The Seminar was a collective work made by CEMPA and URBiNAT, in collaboration from Goura’s mandate and Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra (CES/UC)². The event aimed to increase the integrated relationship between cities, nature and people in the municipal government agenda, looking for inclusive and sustainable urban transformations and the diffusion of Nature Based Solutions (NBS). The partnership with Paraná’s Architecture and Urbanism Council and Paraná’s School of Management allowed the online event to reach municipal servants and public managers.
The main topics discussed in the event were: (i) Co-governance and public policies; (ii) Sustainability and co-creation of solutions; (iii) Inclusive economy and urban regeneration; and (iv) Networking and cooperation between cities. Addressing examples from Brazilian and European cities, the experiences exchanged at the seminar involved public managers, academics, social activists, technicians, and members of civil society, integrating different sectors and knowledge in the workgroups. In addition to that, the opening and closing sessions of the event had lectures, respectively, by PhD Professor Claudino Ferreira (CES/UC) and PhD Professor Ermínia Maricato (BR Cidades).
The Seminar welcomed 165 attendants from 47 Paraná municipalities, among other Brazilian and Portuguese cities (Lisbon and Porto). 43 people took part in the seminar workgroups, representing 14 Brazilian cities, between 20 thousand to 2 million inhabitants .Two collective intentions were mentioned by them at the end of the event: to establish a collaborative network among the participants of working groups and to propose pilot projects in their municipalities. These projects may work as laboratories to engage citizens and as workshops to municipal and regional technicians and managers.
At the final session, some points were highlighted by the promoters: (i) the relevance of introducing NBS to some municipalities of Paraná, allowing them to plan and monitor urban projects; (ii) the importance of bringing different actors together at the seminar, especially public managers and researchers, promoting the construction of an “evidence-based policy”; (iii) the emphasis on diversity: diversity of scales – from neighbourhoods to metropolis and regions; diversity of actors; diversity of looks; and diversity of realities – from the north-south global to the internal differences of the cities themselves. This scenario shows that citizen engagement can be a strong ally of local governments with benefits for both sides. Therefore building collective projects and genuinely listening to the communities is a strong path to more fair and sustainable cities.
¹ Inclusive Cities and Nature: Brazil-Europe dialogues
² Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra