Popular participation within the framework of Capital: the Raízes de Cidadania Project in question

Abstract

In the present article we analyze the forms of popular participation in the Raízes de Cidadania Project of the Foundation of the Child and Family Citizen (FUNCI), an initiative of the Municipality of Fortaleza, state of Ceará, Brazil. This is an attempt to unmask the limits and the possibilities of popular participation mediated by local government. In our discussion of participation, we found it necessary to undertake a socio-historical review of the process by which the public sphere and civil society have been constituted under capitalism, considering that the challenges of the process of popular participation must find a path between the possibilities of constructing a “popular counter-hegemony” and the pitfalls of a society that mystifies the reality and intensifies social relations based on domination and exploitation.

Keywords

• Participação popular
• Sociedade civil
• Capital.