Políticas públicas e participação juvenil : o cicloativismo em favor da mobilidade urbana e do direito à cidade em Porto Alegre (2010-2014).

Abstract

The theme of the thesis is youth participation on the urban mobility and city management policies. It makes considerations about the growing emergence of juvenile expression in the public space, which claims for rights, public policies and direct democracy from the 21st century. The brand new social movements, characterized by fluidity, whose manifestations are summoned through social networks, without leadership but based on horizontality, attracts young activists to participate in their actions to claim the right to the city and urban mobility by bicycle. It is the case of the Massa Crítica (MC) movement, in the city of Porto Alegre, that is visible through media actions, enhanced by the internet and social networks, to constitute the culture of the bicycle in the urban space. This format surpasses the category of conventional political action, being developed by the new generations Y and Z, based on micropolitics, in which small individual actions of the daily life, such as to dispute the streets of the cities to democratize the non-motorized modes, are enhanced in spaces and networking. The general objective is to examine how youth participation interferes in the implementation of public policies for urban mobility by bicycle and in the right to the city. The problem is based on the question: what legal and political factors are leading to the mismatch between the demands of participation in youth activism in relation to the right to the city and the inclusion of urban mobility by bicycle in public policies. The hypothesis is how the mismatch between the demands of participation expressed by the youth activism, as the right to the city and urban mobility by bicycle, is associated with the shortcomings of the legislation, youth participation, the low participation of young people in politics and the governments' limited willingness to dialogue. The method of approach is the hypothetical-deductive. The research techniques used were bibliographic, documentary and field. In the field research, twenty young urban bicycle activists (cyclo-activists) were interviewed in the city of Porto Alegre to understand how they self-organize horizontally to influence public policy processes. In conclusion, it was observed that the most recent social movements, composed mostly of young people, want autonomy in their political activity, not linking to traditional institutional structures, preferring to act in unconventional spaces and with Direct Actions (DA), for their ability to control, nondelegation and representativeness. It can be said that, even so, the brand new social movements want to establish a channel of dialogue with the Municipal Public Administration. Finally, some recommendations, made from the research, are presented to enhance the participation of young people in the processes involving the right to the city and urban mobility.