WELTSTADT

In preparation for the Nós Brasil! We Brazil! workshop, raumtaktik (Matthias Böttger, Filipe Serro) spoke with Márcio Rosa D’Avila, about city-making in Brazil, the specifics of public participation in Porto Alegre and expectations for the upcoming workshop.


raumtaktik: Weltstadt asks: “Who Creates the City?” So who is creating Porto Alegre?

MRD: Porto Alegre has a master plan that defines the project guidelines for the city’s development. But what is special about Porto Alegre is its long history of → Orçamento Participativo (Participatory Budget), through which the people play an active role in the public policy decision making process. There are several initiatives that serve as good illustrations of participatory city-making in Porto Alegre such as Vila Planetario, Vila Bom Jesus and Condomínio dos Anjos. Triggered by specific problems – the struggle for the right to housing and for the right to remain in an occupied area – these communities stated their demands with the help of the Orçamento Participativo. The residents managed to raise funds and to acquire their right to settle by working with the political processes and through a strong sense of self-organization. Instead of being displaced to other areas, as usually happens, they managed to keep on living where they were.

Can you tell us a bit more about Orçamento Participativo? How would you summarize its main features to someone who is unfamiliar with it?

The Orçamento Participativo is basically a management process through which the citizens are given the right to have a say in the priorities of the public budget. These processes are based on the participation of communities represented by respective local residents. These residents meet in assemblies to define their priorities and ultimately the financing of interventions such as kindergartens, urban infrastructure and so on. It’s a highly democratic process, which at the same time avoids the typical top-down approach associated with the figures of the planner and the mayor. As no one is more aware of local needs than the residents of a specific area, it goes without saying that these residents themselves are the main focus of this process.

Would you then say that Porto Alegre is shaped by its citizens through participatory budgeting?

Participatory Budgeting is a tool that allows ordinary citizens to express important demands. And the success of these demands occurs when the community is organized and cohesive. Participation is closely related to the strength of the community in a neighborhood or, as we call it, a → vila. In a well-organized vila one can find societies that have a strong sense of leadership. This works very well in Condomínio dos Anjos for example – a community with an impressively strong sense of self-organization that is now providing support to other communities so they can also fight for their own demands. Through their own participatory and self-organization processes, these communities end up seeing their requests answered by the local authorities through matching funds. And in some cases, these very initiatives take responsibility for services that should normally be provided by the municipality – for instance kindergartens or schools. It should be mentioned, though, that even within communities there are disputes of a kind, a struggle for resources. Many communities demand resources that are limited in the Orçamento Participativo. Therefore, the better organized a community is, the better the chances of its demands being met. This becomes very clear in the case of Bairro Farrapos, which finds itself in a process of self-organization and where the residents, through their own means, aim at ensuring their right to stay in that very space.

During the Nós Brasil! We Brazil! workshop there will be a specific emphasis on Bairro Farrapos" title="Bairro Farrapos">Bairro Farrapos. Can you tell us more about the current issues under discussion there?

Bairro Farrapos is a poignant example of an area undergoing a process of rapid change. This sort of occupation inside the city is a major problem in Brazil. These are areas that are not regulated and where ownership rights are not well defined. Consequently this poses many problems. In Porto Alegre we see interventions – namely investments in big facilities and urban mobility infrastructure – that have a large impact on the city. Bairro Farrapos is located next to Arena do Grêmio, a newly-built football stadium that triggered strong economic development in the area. New roads and high-end condos are being built – and along with this real estate up-valuation. Due to this phenomenon, many families that live in Bairro Farrapos are now facing tremendous pressure and are now beginning to fight for their right to remain in the neighborhood. Adding to that, there was recently a fire that ravaged Vila Liberdade, which lies in Bairro Farrapos, affecting more than one hundred families. Today, some of those families live in the neighborhood under the → aluguel social (social tenancy) program, while other families are sheltered in temporary houses. In order to ensure that those families can stay permanently in their neighborhood, I see the need to strengthen what is already there, to foster social cohesion and self-organization.

Can you give us an estimate of what will happen with Bairro Farrapos and its residents in the near future?

I see the future of Bairro Farrapos as a multi-layered process that is dependent on several factors. A first factor has to do with the struggle of this population to be granted the legal right to remain in their occupied area. Related to this, one should consider a second factor, which is the need for a political mobilization and the ability for self-organization. Thirdly, there are also market dynamics: Will these people be able to cope with market pressures? Due to all these factors, it’s hard to predict a specific outcome with certainty. One thing’s for sure, though, a positive scenario will require a lot of effort and involvement from the community. The residents will have to organize themselves in neighborhood associations, cooperatives, etc. I think this is very important. We’re talking about a community that is economically fragile; a big part of these people – the so-called catadores – live on income from refuse collection. So I think that the permanence of the residents and their will to stay must be matched with efforts towards social inclusion. Most importantly, these people need to attain a certain social and economical level. In Bairro Farrapos there are several initiatives, several popular actions that are helping to assure the permanence of the residents. The site where we’re holding the workshop, for example: the residents’ association of the neighborhood – Associação de Defesa da Comunidade do Bairro Farrapos (ASSDECOM).

What do you think would be interesting questions for the residents of Bairro Farrapos?

I think the questions or the themes to be addressed with the residents should be related to their participatory processes. Bairro Farrapos comprises several sub-vilas. Then it would be important to know how each sub-vila organizes itself. And how do they interact with each other? I think these are some questions that should be addressed. Another question that should be asked is related to social inclusion, because, actually, there are certain dynamics in such communities. Dynamics both in the sense of meeting demands – urban infrastructure projects, and other responsibilities of the state – but also dynamics of social inclusion and access to employment, the issues of the middle class. The background of a good part of the middle class is similar to the situation faced by these people. So, how do the residents perceive this inclusion within their society? This discussion will revolve around employment, urban infrastructure and so on.

Another question that we could ask them would be: How are they dealing with the dramatic transformation of Bairro Farrapos? How are they reacting to what is happening there? The stadium can serve as an example: can it become an income generator for the residents? How do they see the relationship with other citizens of Porto Alegre – from other social strata – that are now also using that neighborhood? I think this can also be a question. And I think these questions will help clarify what the potential of such transformations is. To what extent can these transformations encourage the permanence or displacement of the residents? I also think it’s important for us to learn from other experiences that proved to work out, that successfully managed to improve the neighborhood without displacing their residents, like Vila Planetário or Condomínio dos Anjos that I mentioned before. I see this as an important challenge: in order to build a strong foundation we need to establish a network, a web of experiences and knowledge, which will be able to help us to understand things more thoroughly and to consequently think of better solutions together with those communities.

One theme that we’re addressing in our workshop is the emergence of the so called the “New Middle Class”. What is the role of this new middle class?

Brazil today is undergoing positive economic growth. During the past years, Brazil changed a great deal and people now have access to consumer goods that were not accessible before. Social programs started by the federal government – like, for instance, → Minha Casa, Minha Vida (“My house, My Life”) – are today not only helping low-income families, but also assist higher-income families . Likewise, one can see that access to consumer goods also means that more families can access education.

The social question has a lot to do with the economic question. Social inclusion in Brazil occurs via consumption. With easier credit, hundreds of thousands of Brazilians have access for the first time to consumer goods ranging from automobiles to homeownership. Consequently, my definition of the “new middle class” is related to income increase and to today’s demand for consumer goods that were not sought after in the past. I see the middle class as a symbol for increasingly easy access to money, which, depending on the situation, also entails the question of indebtedness.
So, I see that this emerging middle class, the increase in purchasing power and easy access to credit are being reflected in the urban context and in mobility. The rate of construction is experiencing a boom; there are many new developments in the country. And all this has a big impact on the cities and on the demand for urban infrastructure. I also see it in the context of income growth, which is having an impact on the demand for consumer goods. Ultimately, all of this has an impact on the city. But then, it is also important to note that we in Brazil have a very fragile infrastructure that can’t support this accelerated growth. In the context of consumer goods, the risk of a clash that in the past has often followed such developments becomes evident.

Is the middle class particularly involved in participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre? Does it play a role?

Yes. In communities that successfully implemented participatory budgeting, like Condomínio dos Anjos, we can see families that have been living in those neighborhoods for a long time. Many of those families now have two or three cars and they’re sending their children to university. Through this example we can understand that the new middle class comprises many people that already have a strong history of participation in the Orçamento Participativo. And certainly these are still active people in this process of decision making.

How do you think the world can learn from Porto Alegre?

I think that the big legacy of Porto Alegre is the Orçamento Participativo. This envisions a democratic process focused on stimulating participation in the decision-making of public policies to the largest extent possible. The process is often focused on investment decisions, but also to make people’s real demands heard. Therefore, I think this is a very valid experience from which other parts of the world could learn as well. But, of course, I think nothing can be replicated on a 1:1 basis. One can take this as a reference and adjust it to other specific realities. Ultimately, one could see the Orçamento Participativo as a democratic process of public management.

The experiences that we discussed before showcase situations of social exclusion, non-access to housing and so on – scenarios that can be found all over the world. In Porto Alegre, the Orçamento Participativo is being used as a tool to finance interventions in urban infrastructure and to foster the permanence of local residents. But it also encourages the participation of ordinary citizens in public policies. For me, the Orçamento Participativo also has this ideal: It gives ordinary citizens the chance to have a voice in the process of political management. This is a very important aspect that we can witness in the vilas.