No emaranhado dos trilhos: disputas, resistências e participação social na substituição do trem do Subúrbio Ferroviário de Salvador

Abstract

This Master's Thesis investigates the dynamics and elements of civil society participation in the replacement process of the Railway Suburb train system in Salvador. Situating urban politics as a field of contention, the study adopts a qualitative approach to analyze how civil society actors engaged in the construction of this urban mobility policy. Accordingly, the investigation follows an analytical itinerary to: (i) develop the theoretical-conceptual framework regarding civil society, collective action, and citizenship; (ii) discuss the literature on urban politics and the processes of neoliberalization of governance to understand the structure of disputes and articulate theoretical categories into an analytical model; (iii) examine the trajectory of the train replacement during the Monorail Public-Private Partnership phase, mapping the project designs and interaction repertoires; and (iv) analyze the repertoires, experiences, interpretative frames, and perceptions during the Light Rail Transit (LRT) resumption phase. To operationalize this analysis, the methodology articulates a bibliographic review with documentary research of administrative contracts, projects, bidding processes, reports, research, civil inquiries, and lawsuits, combined with direct observation of public hearings and meetings, as well as semi-structured interviews with community, union, and social movement leaders. The data were systematized, coded, categorized, and interpreted via categorical content analysis. The results demonstrate that the process is marked by the vertical imposition of a technical and market-oriented rationality that disregards preexisting territorial dynamics, triggering the mobilization of a heterogeneous set of actors who employed repertoires of direct action, proximity politics, institutional participation, and legal mobilization to dispute the intervention's direction. It is observed that, during the Monorail phase, strategic interaction with the Public Prosecutor's Office and the production of technical counter-expertise exposed the contract's weaknesses and pressured for transparency. In the current LRT phase, a political opportunity structure more permeable to movement action was identified, due to the project's internalization within State structures. However, the capacity for broader intervention remained restrictive regarding macro-structural aspects. In this vein, collective action exploited fissures to set agendas and achieve material gains, such as the inclusion of structures for cargo transport and commitments to local employability and women's employment. It is concluded, therefore, that the articulation of multiple interaction repertoires, even in the face of governance forms that seek to manage and/or instrumentalize conflict, enables action within windows of opportunity to influence public policy directions, shifting the conflict from the technical dimension of transport to struggles for recognition, permanence, and the defense of ways of life in the territory.