Deliberating for sustainability: lessons from the Porto Alegre experiment with participatory budgeting

This paper analyses the practice of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil, through an interdisciplinary lens that combines the theories of right to the city, environmental justice and deliberative democracy. It examines the democratic and deliberative nature of the participatory process as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
Main Author: Martin Calisto Friant
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2019-01-01
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2019.1570219
Description
Summary:This paper analyses the practice of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil, through an interdisciplinary lens that combines the theories of right to the city, environmental justice and deliberative democracy. It examines the democratic and deliberative nature of the participatory process as well its social, environmental and ecological outcomes. While participatory budgeting has been widely studied and internationally recognised, it has rarely been assessed in its ability to bring about urban sustainability. This analysis demonstrates that it is principally the deliberative nature of the participatory process that has allowed it to have a positive impact on the urban environment. In doing so, this article proposes key recommendations to successfully replicate this mechanism in order to face the various environmental and social challenges of the Anthropocene and contribute towards achieving the sustainable development goals.
ISSN:1946-3138
1946-3146