Building Sustainable Cities Along the Dimensions of Democracy

Abstract

This research seeks to make evident the intimate connection between sustainable development and democratic concretization, characterized here not only by the electoral process, but also by a permanent dialogical relation between the State and civil society. The emphasis of the reflection is set on the local aspect with the purpose of studying forms of effective democratization of the urban space, and the possible means of achieving it. The starting point for this work is the hypothesis that the city is a space and territory in dispute, which reflects in contrasting expressions such as being the place of violations and denial of a dignified life, and yet, an environment of expansion of dignities and liberties. Therefore, what will be analyzed are the possible strategies to be elaborated, considering democratic planning and transforming institutional proposals, in order to enable the creation of a formal channel which effectively instrumentalizes dialogue with city population, considering all participants of the scenario, from the individual, to the private sector, up until, finally, the public power, which manages the public space. The following research is qualitative and deductive, adopting the procedures of bibliographic and documental research.

Keywords

• Sustainable cities
• Social participation
• Urban planning
• urban space
• Democracy