Inter-ações para o desenvolvimento local: um estudo na comunidade Estação dos Ventos - Santa Maria, RS

Abstract

This research focuses on the Estação dos Ventos (Wind Station) Community occupation as a citizen-space at the context of Santa Maria city, central region of RS, through the perspective of complex social-environmental thinking. This study's objective was to investigate the relation between actions which were planned by the residents of the occupation and actions which were promoted by the public administration towards solutions for the social-environmental problems, aiming for the sustainable development on a local scale. To this approach of qualitative nature, the case study was adopted. Starting on an exploratory investigation, with the community residents, representative government and educator, through interviews and direct observations, the community was chosen for its different reality on the context of the city, and for having been study object of previous works. Data survey was done at the community by direct observations on field works done at the place, and also by other techniques: semi-structured interviews with distinct social actors (identification of the main social-environmental problems at the community; survey of the intentions which led to think and define actions for local developing; and verification of life conditions, identity, sense of pertaining and recognizing of the communitary subjects); and document analysis the records of reunions of the Communitary Association of Estação dos Ventos Development, its Social Statute, requests for water connections, petitions, the Neighbourhood Impact Study and maps. Data treatment was based on the thematic contents analysis method, looking for meanings in the subjects' discourses, about the question of the inter-relation between the different actions for local development. Results revealed that the community has social-environmental problems as many other areas of the city, but this one auto-eco-organizes itself to struggle and promote movements towards the conquest of their citizens' rights, seeking a life qualification which should be provided and offered by the local public administration. Field observations show public works wich were already initiated in order to solve some problems and ended up becoming new problems by being interrupted and forgotten during elections time, generating new popular mobilization and organization to demand their resumption. This social-spacial referral reveals the disregard and lack of concern of public administration for the local questions, promoting actions which aim to a pseudoconcreticity and to maintaining opressed people in an exclusionary space. Such findings show the need for a public administration representants' ethical and political commitment to the dignification of life in the community, including the resolution of the local social-environmental problems; in that sense, something that matters is to revise the ways of articulation of knowledge between community and public administration by planning or doing actions which are effective and commited to the local reality, creating opportunities of dialog and discussion to build a complex collective wisdom.