Abstract
The paper aims to discuss the sociotechnical transitions regarding urban rivers policy in São Paulo Municipality by focusing on programs and projects conducted since 2000. Accordingly, we use a theoretical reflection on sociotechnical transitions and just transitions in interventions related to water and cities. Our work is based on a documental analysis of programs and projects for urban rivers in the municipality conducted via theoretical discussion. The primary focus is on the current sociotechnical regime, the channeling of streams and construction of road systems on its banks, and disputes and pressures brought by the technological landscape and niches, which lead to the construction of linear parks and leisure areas along with the bodies of water. It also shows how the issue of justice has been losing ground in this transition, which although is “in the making,” already presents many factors of injustice. This is due to the low presence of the theme of precarious settlements, in innovative speeches and practices, and the different treatment given by the programs and projects for rivers in the consolidated middle- and upper-class regions and for those located on the peripheries.
Highlights
The paper aims to discuss the sociotechnical transitions in urban river policy in the Municipality of São Paulo by focusing on programs and projects carried out since 2000
The proposals for urban rivers from 2000 to the present have been representing an inflection over the standard practices of the 20th century; it has been done without continuity and with disruptions along with incomplete projects and interventions
São Paulo is located in the headwaters of the Tietê River Basin
Summary
The paper aims to discuss the sociotechnical transitions in urban river policy in the Municipality of São Paulo by focusing on programs and projects carried out since 2000. The three levels are closely related, there is a debate as to whether innovations necessarily emerge from niches or whether they are a response to landscape and regime pressures from an adaptive perspective (Hodson and Marvin, 2010) Another important point is the role of places for transitions, especially that of cities in urban sociotechnical transitions (Hodson and Marvin, 2010; García Soler et al, 2018). The reason is that, in the first place, the overcoming of the structural inequalities is not considered in the program or the majority of the proposals received These three main issues are linked to the dimension mentioned: the concentration of experiences in cities in central countries; the insufficient space for communities to participate in decisions linked to projects; and the existence of acts of omission and commission, established from another important work that analyzes adaptation plans, by Anguelovski et al (2016). Routledge et al (2018, p. 79) claim that the state is “a continued terrain of possibility for positive social, economic, and environmental change, noting the imperative of historically attentive state-enabled redistribution along persistent axes of difference.” This emphasizes the large cities where strategic transition projects can be held by supportive state actors and civil society groups (Routledge et al, 2018)
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