Heads of the research line:

Prof. Sérgio de Azevedo – UENF and Rio de Janeiro Nucleus

Profª. Maria do Livramento Clementino – UFRN and Natal Nucleus

This line of research is meant to complement the evaluation of institutional conditions for the creation of a governance system of metropolitan areas which meets the standards of efficiency and effectiveness for the administration of public problems and of public policies in the institutional frame ruled by the Brazilian constitutional order, which affirms the principles of (i) decentralization, for member states, of the competence to create metropolitan regions, (ii) of inclusion of municipalities as entities integrating the federation, (iii) of the definition of urban policy as an essentially municipal competence, which must be guided by (iv) principles of participation, redistribution and regulation. This institutional frame imposes, at least for a medium period of time, the need for a system of urban governance of metropolitan areas founded on inter-governmental cooperation which includes public authorities and representatives of society. As already mentioned, social- territorial trends seem to generate obstacles for the construction of a system of social and political agents with a wider range of interests than strictly local ones. At the same time, the federative institutional frame seems to create little incentive for cooperative action, (or even to discourage).

On the other hand, social- territorial inequalities and processes of residential segmentation and segregation seem to create a frame hardly propitious for the collective social actions founded on a metropolitan consciousness.
The projects described below search more deeply into particular aspects of this problematic complex.

Research line III - Urban Governance, Citizenship and Administration of Metropolises