Understanding the Multiple Roles of Participation in Urban Mobility: An Investigation of Spaces for Participation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Public Participation in Transport in Times of Change
ISBN: 978-1-80455-038-0, eISBN: 978-1-80455-037-3
Publication date: 3 May 2023
Abstract
After a technocratic period predominating in mobility literature and practice, the rhetoric of participation has been incorporated as a vital condition for the sustainable mobility agenda and, more recently, for achieving transport and mobility justice. Considering the social significance of mobility beyond simple movement and participation as a term that can accommodate a wide range of motivations and implications, this chapter explores the complex interplay of participation and mobility in the global south context. To this end, this study adopts the spaces for participation framework to investigate the multiple roles of participation in urban mobility. With a focus on the Brazilian context, this chapter uncovers the nature, dynamics, and reach of invited and claimed spaces for participation in mobility planning. Using Rio de Janeiro as the case study site, the chapter examines the invited spaces for participation enabled by the city's mobility plan and analyses whether marginalised populations engage with and/or create further spaces for participation. This was achieved through document analysis, online photo-elicitation interviews with residents of Favela Santa Marta as well as semi-structured interviews with municipal government professionals and representatives of non-government organisations involved in the development of Rio's mobility plan. The chapter discusses the interconnectedness or lack of, within invited and claimed spaces for participation and the multiplicity of meanings attributed to participation and mobility by different actors. The chapter closes with a reflection on what this means for participatory mobility planning in Brazil but which may apply to similar regions in the global south.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
This research was funded through a Global Challenges Studentship at the School of the Built Environment, Oxford Brookes University, during the period 2019–2022. These studentships seek to address significant problems or development challenges in the Global South by investigating how governance and social justice can be developed to support equitable access to healthy urban mobility and reduce inequality.
We would like to thank the book editors for their useful comments and for all participants that contributed to this study.
Citation
Barata, A.F., Jones, T. and Brownill, S. (2023), "Understanding the Multiple Roles of Participation in Urban Mobility: An Investigation of Spaces for Participation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil", Hansson, L., Sørensen, C.H. and Rye, T. (Ed.) Public Participation in Transport in Times of Change (Transport and Sustainability, Vol. 18), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 33-51. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2044-994120230000018005
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023 Aline Fernandes Barata, Tim Jones and Sue Brownill