A Social Representation of the Environment in the Community Reading of Palmas (TO) Developing Plan

Abstract

The developing plan is the instrument that guides the management and occupation of a municipality, and its development process must rely on broad participation of society via public hearings. In 2005, the city of Palmas, Tocantins, began the construction of its first participative developing plan, culminating in Complementary Law nº. 155/2007. The present study sought to trace the history of the construction of this developing plan through interviews with team members that managed the process, review of documents and the final legislation. In order to understand how the environment was represented in the documents, we used the theory of social representation, and environmental issues were associated with categories of social representation of the environment. We verified that the community hearings represented the environment with man as the central element in most cases. We found that the content raised by the community during the hearings for the plan’s construction was contemplated in the final law, but in a diluted form and generalizing expressions that can detract from the application of this law in serving the aspirations of the community. This characteristic demonstrates the need for further reflection on popular participation and its reformulation for review aiming the next Palmas Participative Developing Plan.