Possibilidades e desafios de práticas insurgentes: o caso da comunidade Poço da Draga, Fortaleza, Brasil

Abstract

This research seeks to understand the possibilities and challenges of insurgent practices of urban dwellers, in the face of conflicts of interest and disputes over decision-making power over territories. This problematization considers that most of the deliberations of space production take place within the scope of institutional practices of heteronomous production, implemented by state-sanctioned planning bodies and often in the service of private interests. Faced with this conjuncture, collective urban struggles in the face of capital-state expropriations of the common appear as sparks of hope: would they be able to drive more justice and equality in our cities? In this scenario, the notion of insurgent planning — which refers to planning as collective actions that take place outside the formal structures of representation — has gained acceptance in the national and international theoretical debate, by radicalizing democratic processes and ensuring the direct action of citizens in the production of space. urban. Through the empirical investigation of the case study of the Poço da Draga community, the research seeks to raise relevant elements that contribute to the theoretical debate and to the unspecialized discussion about the self-organized performance of civil society in urban planning. In the last decades, the strategic planning, which advocates the commodity city, has contributed to the aggravation of territorial disputes in Fortaleza. This pattern of governance, in meeting the interests of capital, has jeopardized the maintenance of some communities located in potentially lucrative real estate areas, such as Poço da Daga, which has withstood the threat of removal for decades. The research sought to investigate, interact and act collaboratively with the various actors involved in urban struggles for the right to the city, through actions of mobilization, mapping and knowledge production. Given these issues, the research points out some aspects of the conflicting relationship between the practices of the government and the direct action of residents of Poço da Draga against the undemocratic way of conducting decisions that affect the community. This is an ethnographic effort, whose methodological procedures focused on participant observation, the elaboration and analysis of field diary and semi-structured interviews with different social actors and resistances acting in the territory. Despite the obstacles and enormous asymmetries of political and economic power between different social classes, research suggests that insurgent practices may contribute to the constitution of a more democratic urban common good.