Basin rivers commissions in Brazil: challenges to shared and participative management

Abstract

This article introduces the theme of participation in the public management of water resources and the qualitative transformations between State and Society, as a reference of a turning point related to public policies centered in the enlargement of citizenship in Brazil. The impacts of participatory practices in the
management of water resources, although controversial, point to a new concept of citizenship, that institutes the citizen as an individual that defines rights to enable new spaces of socio-political participation, aspects that indicate the existence of bottlenecks to overcome and multiply initiatives that strengthen participatory management. The analysis is centered on the relevance of public space and the role of Civil Society in the proposition of public policies, and in the always complex and contradictory institutionalization of innovative participatory practices that establish ruptures with the prevalent dynamics,
overcoming utilitarian and patronage based logics. There is an increasing need to understand the ambiguities of social processes and the possibility of new arrangements, but also the limits of social practices and the attitudes of the different stakeholders involved in the process.