Diagnóstico ambiental das nascentes do Córrego dos Macacos – município de Álvares Machado/SP

Environmental diagnosis fits in analysis social-spatial organization insofar it contributes to understanding past and present aspects of how a territory works as well as enables the creation of statements for future ordainment. In this context, the present study aims at contributing with data for creating recovery and environmental preservation projects for the basin of Macacos‟ stream‟s headwaters, located in the north of Álvares Machado county in São Paulo state. To achieve this purpose, the main characteristics and existing uses in the basin have been analyzed and its main environmental problems were identified in the data and information collected in journals, field work and interviews with dwellers from the interested area and local government authorities. On this way, a diagnosis of the environmental state of the studied area was performed considering its specific issues regarding the natural and physical process as well as human influences. From the analysis carried out it was possible to identify environmental impacts on different levels resulting from the conflictuous relation between uses and occupations and the natural dynamics of the studied basin.

El gobierno de las megalópolis, el caso de Brasil, São Paulo: gestión metropolitana, descentralización y participación como desafíos simultáneos

The government of a megalopolis, such as São Paulo, shows singular challenges that do not exist in less complex urban contexts. Being a city of a country with a recent industrialized economy, with an income (functional and geographical) highly concentrated, that has resumed the democracy for only one quarter of a century, this megacity lives with its own political and organizational assignments, due to the contradictory character of the political behavior of its habitants/ voters and of the traditionalist nature of populism and patronage in the relationship between the rulers and the ruled and between the Executive and Legislative powers at the local level. In such context, the difficulties to prosecute the assignments of the metropolitan organization, the decentralization and the institutionalization of citizen participatory channels in the governance and administrative activities are huge. The centrifuge forces (of the decentralization of the local government, through subprefectures), the centripetal forces ( of the metropolitan organization process) and the diffuse forces (of the claiming popular participation) act simultaneously over the deciding processes, in São Paulo, receiving, still, state and national political influences, since the city is a very significant historically producer of political and electoral capital. The analysis of the recent experience of the creation of the subprefectures and the representative counsels (fixed in the Municipality Organic Law of 1990) and the attempt to implement the participatory budgeting, in two occasions (1989-1992 and 2001-2004), reveal some of the social and political reasons that make difficult the establishment of a solidly democratic governance and of a more efficient public administration in the metropolitan area of São Paulo.

Limites e possibilidades para a dinamização das atividades econômicas em assentamentos da reforma agrária no Estado de São Paulo

This paper provides an overview of the key findings of a survey that sought to examine the relationship between local government agencies and agrarian reform communities in the State of São Paulo, particularly with regard to the types of support that have been provided by these agencies to the economic activities of settlements. The research was part of the project "The agencies and services involved in the implementation of public policies for equity and growth", which was supported by the Instituto de Colonização e Reforma Agraria (INCRA/SP), whose activities were carried out throughout 2011. In methodological terms, the research was divided into two stages. In the first stage, it sought to identify the main economic activities, vocations and potential of the influencing areas of the Quilombola communities and settlements in their respective regions and micro-regions. Therefore, a survey was conducted based on secondary data. In the second stage, a qualitative, exploratory, empirical, and multiple case study research was conducted. Local public officials, in charge of the institutional relations with the agrarian reform settlements (and quilombolas communities, in this case, one of the municipalities investigated) were the primary source of data for this analysis that sought to evaluate the strength, types and quality of support (plausible or effective) provided by the municipalities to the economic activities of settlements. The results indicated a set of reasonably heterogeneous components, and frequently, distinct, of particular circumstances. Based on the results some proposals for action plans were indicated, which probably would constitute a standard reference for the formulation and implementation of public policies and actions to improve the economic activities of the settlements.

Orçamento Participativo (OP) após vinte anos de experiências no Brasil: mais qualidade na gestão orçamentária municipal?

This article consists on an analysis of dissertations and thesis on Participatory Budget (PB) in post-graduation courses in Brazil (from the CAPES data bank), from 2000 to 2009. It also makes the evolution of works explicit, the institutions where they were carried out, and the area in which they were produced. Results show that the Participatory Budget has not been often evaluated, understood and explained in terms of its finance and budget technical dimension, in spite of there are two decades studies have been carried out regarding this method on budget management in Brazil. Finally, the importance of understanding aspects on PB must be taken into consideration when carrying out new studies.

Convivendo com o lixo: a vulnerabilidade socioambiental no bairro Jardim Graminha, Leme, Sao Paulo

Urban space occupation occurs in an extremely disordered way. Political, economical and social aspects converge to create a problem that affects mostly poor people who are impelled to occupy areas where social and environmental problems are likely to emerge. Floods, landslides and different forms of pollution have more effects on the most vulnerable groups. In many cases, actions taken by the government legitimate this structure and reinforce its reproduction. This work seeks to confirm both that poor people are vulnerable to social and environmental problems resulting from inappropriate urban solid waste disposal and that the local government contributes to this situation. It is assumed that the issue is related first to the government’s disregard for poor people who live in unhealthy places and, second, to the inability of such people to demand for better living conditions. In this study, a waste disposal area within Jardim Graminha neighborhood in Leme (São Paulo) was selected to be analyzed by means of systematic observation. The study clearly shows that poor people living near that area where different types of garbage are disposed are vulnerable and the government does not control the situation. It is also pointed out that governmental intervention and the use of political and technical tools are necessary for planning and managing the area to mitigate these problems and to decrease poor people’s social and environmental vulnerability.

Sobre O tronco, romance de Bernardo Élis

The conception of O tronco was influenced by Hegel´s ideas. The genesis of this novel is in Bernardo Élis’ purpose of writing a monograph on land ownership conflicts in Goiás, later transformed into a new project, the novel O tronco. The same ideological position of the author gives the argumentative direction of the novel; his ideological background determines the choice of the theme, associated with images expanded by the procedures of argumentation that permeate the literary discourse. Thus, in face of the undeniable aesthetic value of Élis´work, we analyzed O tronco, specifically the argumentation that guides the literary narrative, enhanced by the artistic treatment of violence, its theme, as the result of the struggle for power. The novel was published in 1956; the author, heir to the literary regionalism of the 30s, through an artistic and calculated combination of the story of a local government and literature, accuses, judges the exacerbated domination of a particular social group in a region in Goiás.

Conselheiros do Orçamento Participativo nas franjas da sociedade política

This article suggests the need for change in focus of studies on new instances of participation in public policy management, which emerged in the Brazilian re-democratization. Moving away from the literature that addresses the role of civil society in these instances, the author reviews studies on Participatory Budgeting (PB) indicating how such experiences are marked by the dynamics of political society. The argument is reinforced by the presentation of a survey of PB counselors in Osasco-SP, by which we perceive, in general, a role filled by political processes of representative democracy. Most councilors compose the fringes of the political society, lie on the rise in, seeking better position in the local political field, internal disputes within the parties and the municipal government. This points the limits of the democratizing potential of the PB, since the expansion of participation in budget decisions would be just within the political society.

Detection of serum antibodies to parainfluenza type 3 virus, respiratory syncytial virus, bovine viral diarrhea virus, and herpes virus type 1 in sheep in the region of Botucatu, São Paulo - Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)