Legal and administrative challenges of the community cultural policy - a study of the Pontos de Cultura in the state of São Paulo.

Author(s)

Luciana Piazzon Barbosa Lima

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades (EACH)
• Defense date: 2013-09-19

Examining board members

Pablo Ortellado; Lia Calabre de Azevedo; Ranulfo Alfredo Manevy de Pereira Mendes

• Advisor: Pablo Ortellado

Abstract

The Cultura Viva program, created by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture in 2004 is an innovative experiment in cultural policy that included historically marginalized groups in this field. By means of a direct funding to cultural associations\' self-demands, with no predefined objects, support for Pontos de Cultura (Culture Hotspots) became a reference policy for cultural democracy. Nonetheless, its implementation has found legal and administrative barriers in the difficulties face by recipient institutions to report expenses. Seeking to contribute to the expansion of Pontos de Cultura and improvement of the program, this research conducted a detailed study of the implementation issues. From the main difficulties reported by the Pontos de Cultura in the management of public resources and expenses reports, the hypothesis that guided the development of this work was that the transfer in the modality of convention does not fit the inclusive perspective of the program, so that only institutions with greater administrative structure and previous experience in the management of public resources could handle appropriately the expenses reports. An additional hypothesis was that a simplified form of convention - along the lines implemented by the state level Pontos de Cultura network - would reduce the problem. Through the application of a questionnaire to the Pontos de Cultura of the state of São Paulo, we found that the structure of institutions and administrative experience in the management of public funds was not relevant to their capability of doing apropriate expense reports. On the other hand, what did impact this capability was the format of the expense report, the training received by managers of Pontos de Cultura and communication with the government bureaucracy. Demystifying the discourse that the problem of doing appropriate expense reports must be assigned to the administrative incapacity of the Pontos de Cultura, we point to the need for revision of the regulatory instruments of the program and, more broadly, of the policies settled on the partnership between state institutions and civil society. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/05375-7 - Cultura Viva - tensions between the inclusion of new actors in cultural policies and its administrative instruments
• Grantee: Luciana Piazzon Barbosa Lima
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master