Repertórios de ação e atuação em Arenas Públicas: a Rede DLIS do Grande Bom Jardim no enfrentamento à Covid-19

Abstract

This thesis analyzes long-term experiences of association and collective mobilization, considering the contexts that motivate associative experience as well as the possible repertoires of action mobilized. The empirical focus is the work of Rede de Desenvolvimento Local, Integrado e Sustentável do Grande Bom Jardim (Rede DLIS). The study investigates the context of the collective's formation, its functioning, and the Network's motivations for its mobilization, maintenance, and action – focusing on the description of its collective action and mobilization at specific moments during the pandemic and after the easing of sanitary measures between March 2020 and July 2024. The objective is to understand the contexts of the group's formation and maintenance, to observe how they represent and perceive themselves, and to evaluate the repertoires of engagement and collective action mobilized. To this end, a case study of the DLIS is conducted, using as methodological instruments the systematic observation of the Network's monthly plenary sessions, the analysis of primary and secondary data, and interviews with DLIS members to understand the understandings created and shared among the subjects that make up the Network, in addition to evaluating the experiences of collective associations and the repertoires of action mobilized collectively. The research is based on pragmatist theories on collective action and social movements, understanding that mobilization processes originate around problem situations that can mobilize both individuals and collectives in public or private spheres. This dynamic is verified through public arenas, based on the investigation of a public problem and the complex structure that forms around it, considering the individual and collective actions of evaluation, definition, and resolution of the problem. Empirically, this is verified through the collective actions undertaken by the DLIS Network in confronting the Covid19 pandemic in the Greater Bom Jardim area. The research shows that the structural and contextual aspects of the territory and social movements within the Grande Bom Jardim area corroborate their maintenance and mobilization over a long period. It is observed that DLIS, through its network of relationships, operates permanent changes and (re)creations of its operational structure and its repertoires of action to address various public problems, as well as to maintain its own existence and that of its constituent entities in various public arenas, based on a well-defined set of political ideals of social and territorial development, which sustain a common identity, grounded in mobilization around key areas of public action of the group.