Gestão pública local: aprendizados acerca da atuação (online) do Conselho Municipal de Política Urbana de Belo Horizonte em 2020 e 2021

Abstract

Faced with the need of social isolation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study analyses the use of internet resources by the Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais, Brazil) Municipal Council of Urban Policy (COMPUR), to enable its activities in 2020 and 2021. For this purpose, the monthly minutes of meetings of that period were examined and an interview was conducted with a representative of the Municipal Department responsible for providing technical and administrative support to the Council. Created by the 1996 Master Plan (Law No. 7.165) and maintained by the 2019 Master Plan (Law No. 11.181), the Council – composed of members of the Executive, Legislative and organised civil society – has had its deliberative nature reinforced, consolidating its role in the promotion of a more democratic management of the city. Its operation over the last twenty-five years indicates that it is possible to maintain spaces for dialogue and dispute, even if they need to be adjusted, as they were recently, with the change of holding meetings by videoconference. Although measures need to be taken to ensure access to the technologies involved, the continuity of the Council’s work shows resilience in the national scenario of dismantling of participatory structures promoted by the federal government. By evaluating the issues discussed in these two years, this study confirms the hypothesis that COMPUR enhances social protagonism and encourages active citizenship in the urban agenda.