City between nature reserves : a case study of local governance for sustainability in Jundiaí, Brazil

Sammanfattning: As cities expand and climate change effects become more intense and frequent, local governance has gained increased attention as capable of implementing the necessary measures for sustainability. One city in Brazil, Jundiaí, has managed to integrate participatory processes in its local planning and has become an example for other cities in Brazil. This city lies between a water reserve and a biological reserve and became the case study for this research. Using a qualitative case-study approach, this study investigated the challenges in governance dynamics in creating a participatory process to address sustainability challenges. The study started with a content analysis of news articles in order to gain pre-knowledge about the local planning and environment in Jundiaí before interviews were conducted with key governmental and non-governmental actors. The content analysis revealed an especially important draft bill, “Plano Diretor Participativo”, the results of an extensive participatory process that included workshops, trainings, meetings and collaboration between government and civil society. This background informed interviews with key actors who represented different sectors and perspectives on the city’s development. The data was analyzed with a sociological institutionalist approach to reveal governance processes and culture and local governance dynamics. The main findings identify migration, power and neoliberalism as challenges for a path towards sustainability as population increase adds pressure on nature reserves and brings along different interests regarding urban planning. The results show that the identified success of the participative process in governance that Jundiaí has had in the last two and a half years seems to be an innovative milestone in these kinds of processes in Brazil. The participatory process and these findings are likely transferrable to similar settings. The participatory process analyzed in this case study seems promising as a means to achieve sustainable local governance. In order to achieve this, however, a shift in thinking is also required regarding trust in public authorities. The results emphasize the benefits of involving civil society to encourage dialogue and knowledge-sharing and to create a shared vision in local planning, but also express the need for more trust, communication and collaboration for such participatory processes to be guaranteed in the future.