The distance between Salvador planning and effective social participation

Abstract

The context of socio-spatial issues that surrounds the research that underpins this article is characterized by the historical and strategic ineffectiveness of the means of participation made available by public bodies in general and, in particular, by municipal governments, and the consequent distancing of residents on the outskirts of the city. municipal planning and management. Such means are ineffective in implementing social participation initially because they are distant – from conception to practice – from the realities of different places, which prevents the subjects affected by the actions from being decision-making agents. Far from implementation and contrary to it, there is an increasingly explicit strategic appropriation – by public bodies – of social participation as a discourse, a factor that contributes to the perpetuation of social injustice, maintenance of the status quo with regard to actions of urban planning and the favor of dominant elites, historically represented by the State. The research brings elements of the gap between effective social participation and planning in the city of Salvador/Bahia/Brazil and concludes by the emergence of empowerment of peripheral subjects based on the valorization of the living relationships that configure their different places, bringing spatiality as a path to effective social participation, through spatial awareness.