Ninth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Participation processes, as instruments of participatory democracy, are increasingly being used to reinforce the weaknesses of representative democracy, especially in the current context of political mistrust and exponential rise in electoral abstention, usually implemented by top-down public agencies, or in “exceptional” situations by communities, inserted in the concept of “bottom up,” with or without recourse to Universities as partners of civil society associations. Citizen movements are a form of manifestation of the society that aims to promote the defense of the interests of the group. With great importance at the local/municipal level, they have been gaining greater visibility and dynamism in recent years and allowed the creation of participatory programs by the municipalities. The analysis showed that in the participatory urban processes, the transition from collaborative planning to collective governance implies the need for the projects to work in the four dimensions of governance - Policy and Public Policies, Local-based Policies, Strategic and Urban Planning, and Organizational Management. Simultaneously, they contain actors that integrate the four typologies defined by Michael Hall - hierarchies, markets, networks and communities - that is, public administration, local economic agents, associations and citizens. The participatory budget (PB) can be considered as an informal example of urban management, with the direct participation of the population in determining priorities regarding the part of the municipal budget. This is a mechanism (or process) through which the population contributes to the decision making.

Presenters

Maria Da Graça S.A. Moreira
Professor, Social and Territorial Sciences Department, University of Lisbon - Lisbon School of Architecture, Aveiro, Portugal

Jose Luis Crespo

Ana Rita Queirós