Potências do espaço público: político, urbano, radical

Abstract

This research seeks to understand the role of contemporary public spaces in the brazilian metropolis, discussing the potential and contradictions from its political and urban dimension. Public-private subordination reinforced by neoliberal capitalism, together with the public-state association, calls into question the very concept of public space. According to the dominant conception, public space should be a place of harmonious meeting and achievement of consensual democracy, however, the aim of this dissertation is to verify if the contemporary public space has the potential to be a place of dissensus and dispute by its meaning. In this sense, public space is an object of conflict, both on the part of the capital and on the part of those who aim at the realization of the right to the city. It is intended to problematize the public attribute and to recognize it as something more than the ownership of the State, referring to the public sphere, which can be built in and through public spaces. It seeks to establish a relationship between public and political space based on the principles of democratic radicalization, which is based on the legitimacy of the conflict. From this, three processes of dispute for the publicity of the space in Belo Horizonte are analyzed in different scales, temporalities and contexts: the public space as street, institution and buildings of public and private property that do not fulfill their social function. It is believed that spaces become public from public appropriation, that is, through a realization and socio-spatial construction. Thus, it is considered that the public space is a place of conflict and contradictions and that through dissensus as a means and democratic condition the public and political aspect can be realized.