Participação popular e ordenação da cidade: reflexões a partir da Constituição Federal de 1988

Abstract

This study broaches the subject of direct popular participation in decision-making processes concerning regulation of urban spaces and uses of property, in the historical perspective of rise and urban development of Brazilian cities. In Brazil, the emergence of cities has been marked by state interference that allowed the construction of “invisible barriers” between social classes. Since the abolition by the end of First Republic, rules involving construction and occupancy of buildings were used to establish urban areas not accessible to the poor classes.This kind of state intervention resulted in concentrations of poor people around remote and inhospitable areas, under homes similar to today’s slums. With advent of selective and exclusionary globalization, cities were also modified through political and economic pressures to set up urban spaces suitable for international commerce. From these assumptions, it is concluded that popular participation in urban policy is efficient mechanism to allow directly affected people decide about relevant issues concerning urban policy and use of property. As a result of this democratic process, the configuration of local spaces could restore sense of cultural belonging.