A praça é do povo? Diversidade e participação social na gestão das praças CEU de Feira de Santana (BA)

Abstract

This study analyzes the shared and collaborative management that occurs in the three CEU squares located in the city of Feira de Santana, Bahia, from two conceptual keys - diversity and social participation. The program Praça CEU - Centro de Artes e Esportes Unificados - is a federal government initiative, executed in partnership with municipal governments, which houses actions aimed at promoting culture, sports, leisure, social assistance, and labor qualification and improvement. The program was conceived to be managed, at the governmental level, in an intersectorial way and, at the local level, in a shared way with civil society, based on a tripartite management group composed of residents, entities and local government, with deliberative power. Thus, the objective of the research was to analyze the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed management model and, above all, to verify to what extent the discourses of social participation and cultural diversity are or are not materialized in the researched squares. The methodological strategy included a bibliographic survey about the conceptual keys and about the program; interviews were also carried out with federal and municipal managers, as well as representatives of the management groups, in addition to field work. In general terms, the research found that among the main mistakes and weaknesses of the program in the city of Feira de Santana are the superficial operationalization of intersectoriality and the failure to achieve a truly deliberative participation, as proposed. As for the main achievements and impacts caused by the implementation of the squares, the most noteworthy are the feeling of belonging generated in the community and the offer of varied activities, with a certain regularity and systematicity, in the areas of culture, sports and assistance.