Gestão social e controle social das águas: o caso do comitê de bacia hidrográfica do lago de Palmas

Abstract

This thesis explores some of the possible relations between Social Control and Social Management within the scope of Water Governance, and aims to contribute to the expansion of the theoretical perspectives of the concept of Interest Well Understood. It is considered in this thesis that water is one of the most important Resources of Common Use of our planet. Thus, it is understood that a collective space that deals with such a relevant Resource of Common Use should have its management subjected to Social Control implemented via Social Management, in line with its theoretical category of Interest Well Understood. Thus, our general objective is to understand and discuss, based on the analysis framework constructed, what impact a Hydrographic Basin Committee has on water management from the perspective of the concept of Social Control implemented via Social Management. To this end, we chose a case study: the Lake Palmas Hydrographic Basin Committee, located in the state of Tocantins, Brazil. For this analysis, a semi-structured interview with government officials, water users, and the organized civil society was carried out besides the analysis of the Committee’s official documents and of government data, plus direct on-site observation. The collected data were evaluated using the content analysis method and systematized into eight categories: popular sovereignty aimed at the common good; transparency; social participation; social control tools; public sphere; negative dialectic; interest well understood and emancipation. Based on this proposed theoretical framework, the categories were explored within the scope of the management actions performed by the Lake Palmas Hydrographic Basin Committee. The survey results seem to indicate that some members of this Committee, when reflecting on water as a Resources of Common Use, came to understand that it could be subjected to Society's Control over State Actions via Social Management. However, in effective terms of actions performed by the referred Committee, the data pointed out by the respondents indicate that such Committee, as a collective decisionmaking body related to the management of a Resource of Common Use, until then, had not been fully performing (effectively) Management subjected to Social Control implemented via Social Management.