Network weaving: an ethnography of residents and merchants in downtown Sao Paulo between speeches and requalification practices

Author(s)

Bianca Barbosa Chizzolini

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2013-12-06

Examining board members

Heitor Frúgoli Junior; Silvana de Souza Nascimento; Silvana Barbosa Rubino

• Advisor: Heitor Frúgoli Junior

Abstract

This anthropological study analyzes middle class groups that participate of Ações Locais [Local Actions] and CONSEG-Centro [Downtown Community Safety Council], which are involved in speeches and urban requalification practices downtown Sao Paulo. These Local Actions, consisting of residents and merchants who represent a city center street or micro region, aim at involving the community in surveying and referring that regions problems to government agencies. The Community Safety Council is a state organ including civil society, police officers and other public authorities, focused in making a connection between these sectors to discuss public security issues. This study also analyzed Caminhada Noturna [Night Walk], a free activity that promotes a tour through city center at night, created by a Local Action to present the place in different points of view. The simultaneous study of these three initiatives wants to understand in which ways these people articulate agents networks involved in the debate of recovering the city center, and how they build dialogues between themselves and public power to reach their goals. The studys network approach mapped values conveyed by agents, disturbs associated to public space, internal controversies, and to what extent, through their actions, they point to a kind of public space usage they hope to see in that place. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/01936-4 - Network weaving: an ethnography of residents, merchants and property owners in downtown São Paulo. Between discourses and practices of requalification
• Grantee: Bianca Barbosa Chizzolini
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master