Linguagem técnica e (im)possibilidades para a produção democrática do espaço urbano: uma análise a partir de duas experiências participativas no município de Belo Horizonte

Abstract

The recognition of a distance that separates the feeble practice of social inclusion in decisionmaking processes related to space production in Brazil and the progressive legal and institutional framework on the matter is the trigger for the development of this analysis. In order to unveil some of the (im)possibilities for a more democratic urban space production, this work attempts to deepen the understanding on the internal dynamics among two institutionalized participatory processes that took place in the city of Belo Horizonte (Brazil): the Operação Urbana Consorciada Antônio Carlos/Pedro I + Leste-Oeste and the Plano Global Específico da Vila Mantiqueira, thereby exposing the conditions of the dispute over the city when theres an institutional opening for its collective remake. Approaches towards democratic theory regarding the role of the expert in an inclusive context and towards social communications theory focusing on interaction and language as the foundations of subjects and of social reality shape the interdisciplinary research strategy adopted for questioning participatory urban planning practices. Acknowledging the impact of social structures and, simultaneously, making room to the recognition of openings for human agency is the challenge tackled by this work through an articulation between the theories of Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault and Michel de Certeau. As a result, a critique is constructed concerning the imposition of technical, scientific and academic language as a power reproduction mechanism within institutionalized participatory processes, meanwhile these forums are also recognized as spaces where these power relations are exposed to the possibility of challenge.