Design, democracia e cidadania: a experiência do Círculo de Cidadania do Bairro de Fátima e Vizinhanças no Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Issues of democracy, citizenship and popular participation have been themes not only in political debates, but have also aroused interest in the field of Design due to the introduction of critical perspectives on the socio-environmental impacts caused by its activity. Some effects of these reflections can be seen in the constant updating processes of the field, which transformed "designing" into a multiplicity of practices, methodologies and purposes, shifting their focus to think of the elaboration of spaces, landscapes, city and culture. In this new scenario, participatory and collaborative practices of Design have been gaining prominence and have been thought by various theorists and professionals in the field as approaches capable of building a democracy from the bottom up, thus giving rise to a vast field of research on democratization processes of democracy. In this way, we can perceive a Design closer to social issues as well as to public institutions, where some of its practices have been explored in order to promote both more open and participatory processes, and the elaboration of democratic political spaces capable of hosting the dispute and dissent as fundamental aspects in the construction of matters that concern collectivity. On the other hand, we have seen the emergence of multiple autonomous social initiatives in the urban territory that - although in a more experimental and intuitive way - try to experiment with collaborative and participatory ways of doing politics and fighting for the right to the city by means of direct democracy and citizenship. Based on the approximations between Design, Democracy and Citizenship, this research aims at exploring the points of contact between Design participatory and collaborative approaches and the experimental practices carried out in a citizen initiative in which the researcher participated for two years in Rio de Janeiro: the Citizenship Circle of Fátima's Neighborhood and Surrounding Areas. Thus, this work seeks to investigate how and to what extent design practices can contribute to citizen engagement in debates and actions that concern the collectivity and to the constitution of democratic political spaces. In addition, we will investigate how the experiences of democracy, citizenship and participation lived in the field exceed the limits of Design, provoking processes of re-signification of its activities, uses and functions inside experimental micropolitical practices.