Ana Lucia Britto

Public participation for urban sustainability: investigating relations among citizens, the environment and institutions – an ethnographic study

The purpose of this article is to evaluate public participation as a driver of sustainable urban governance. This study deals at a theoretical level with a relational view of urban sustainability, conceived as a multidimensional process determined by the socio-ecological interconnections that modify the local environment. It observes these interconnections in the practice of urban governance, presenting an ethnographic investigation of the case of the Iguaçu Project, in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region. The analysis provides two levels of results: the micro-level (the participatory process) and the macro-level (the public environmental policy). At the micro-level, the research shows the capacity of participatory arenas to enhance relations between citizens and the environment. At the macro-level, it highlights the existence of concurrent policy mechanisms in the same local environment, which undermines the results of public participation. The conclusion stresses a politicised organisation of the public engagement process so that local environmental governance achieves sustainability.

Implementação da Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos

In Brazil there has been great difficulty in politically and administratively integrating the different levels of government that are formulating and implementing these policies, especially in regard to the relationships between the government bodies formulating guidelines at the national level and those at the local level. According to current legislation, the municipalities are responsible for the management of urban solid waste (USW) and urban sanitation. Federal Law 12,305/2010, establishes the Brazilian National Policy on Solid Waste (PNRS), and establishes principles and objectives for the country, but these activities are to be implemented at the municipal level. Are these municipalities capable of fulfilling this task? This article proposes a methodology based on gap analysis using data from the National Sanitation Information System (Snis) to identify the extent to which PNRS has been implemented in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Area (RJMA). The results show an increase in the universality of the service in RJMA municipalities, but most of the PNRS objectives have been ignored and there are no local policy guidelines to be put in place and monitored. In addition to this, we have found that there has been poor implementation of the federal law. By interpreting this finding through the theoretical framework of institutionalism, our conclusions raise new questions and identify possible paths for future research.

Local Democracy and Metropolitan Governance: The Case of Rio de Janeiro

Having as basis the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, this chapter is designed to contribute to the debate around the issue of a certain political atrophy that marks the Brazilian metropolitan territories. Despite the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro standing as the second economic metropolis of the country located in the geoeconomic space of the Brazilian Southeast which concentrates the most dynamic urban agglomerations of the country’s economy, there is no current institution in this territory capable to assume its governance.

A política pública para os serviços urbanos de abastecimento de água e esgotamento sanitário no Brasil: financeirização, mercantilização e perspectivas de resistência

Este artigo busca analisar a politica publica de abastecimento de agua e esgotamento sanitario durante as gestoes do Partido dos Trabalhadores, entre 2007 e 2014, identificando, nos instrumentos da politica, uma ambiguidade entre uma logica mercantilizadora e uma logica do saneamento como direito social. Sao examinados o crescimento das empresas privadas de saneamento no periodo, evidenciando suas caracteristicas, e as mudancas recentes, com entrada do capital internacional. Finalmente, sao apresentados, como o contraponto ao que vem ocorrendo no Brasil, casos internacionais de retomada da gestao publica, que demonstram que a privatizacao nao e a unica alternativa, e que e possivel conciliar eficiencia e uma logica de saneamento como direito social.Resumo Este artigo busca analisar a política pública de abastecimento de água e esgotamento sanitário durante as gestões do Partido dos Trabalhadores, entre 2007 e 2014, identificando, nos instrumentos da política, uma ambiguidade entre uma lógica mercantilizadora e uma lógica do saneamento como direito social. São examinados o crescimento das empresas privadas de saneamento no período, evidenciando suas características, e as mudanças recentes, com entrada do capital internacional. Finalmente, são apresentados, como o contraponto ao que vem ocorrendo no Brasil, casos internacionais de retomada da gestão pública, que demonstram que a privatização não é a única alternativa, e que é possível conciliar eficiência e uma lógica de saneamento como direito social.

Gestão metropolitana e gerenciamento integrado dos recursos hídricos

The article deals with the need to integrate land use planning into water resource management, seeking to establish relations between the forms of use and occupation of urban land and problems involving urban floods. What new planning and management paradigms may emerge from the articulation of the national water resources policy with the new tools of land use planning, consortium management of public entities and basic sanitation, which have been recently approved? The article brings these issues to the debate by proposing alternatives that lead to integrated management in urban basins.