As políticas de saneamento no final do século XX e suas implicações em Minas Gerais: reflexões a partir da reestruturação produtiva da/na COPASA/MG

Abstract

In the first decade of this century, the Sanitation Company of Minas Gerais (COPASA / MG) has undergone many deep changes in internal and external structures. These changes happened due to policy outcomes in Brazil during the 1990s, when the government adopted the "Washington Consensus" ideas. Thus, the company went through a restructuring process whose strong reflections reached not only its workers but also the population in general. The study of this process in the context of (re)production of social space in the city of Belo Horizonte was configured as a privileged moment to analyze the conflicts involving different participants (employees, the population that was affected, the company, etc.) that search for the meanings and purposes of urbanization in the metropolis context. Thus, I tried to reflect on the company's actions, which from the so-called "management shock", introduced insightful changes in the structure of COPASA, both in its relation with the workers and with the people for whom the company provides services. Changes also affected its shareholders, once the company had become a joint stock enterprise. At the same time, I tried to examine how the COPASA workers Union, considered one of the most important of Belo Horizonte, organized and conducted the clashes. I also examined the meanings given by the company to the new structure for the provision of sanitation services in Minas Gerais. With the idea of deepening knowledge about the process of (re) production of social space, I came upon the importance of checking the extent to which Amelia Damiannis idea of Critical Urbanization and a new Fordism commitment , through the actions statists, was formed, in a labor and capital relationship, develop in the company on the first decade of this century.