Banca de DEFESA: ARNALDO DE SOUZA

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : ARNALDO DE SOUZA
DATE: 28/02/2024
TIME: 09:00
LOCAL: Programa de Pósgraduação em Desenvolvimento Urbano
TITLE:

PRIVATIZE OR NATIONALIZE ESSENTIAL PUBLIC SERVICES? The dilemma in the provision of water and sanitation services in the city of Recife

KEY WORDS:

Privatization. (Re)nationalization. Water and sanitation services. Public Policy. Sanitized City Program.

PAGES: 220
BIG AREA: Ciências Sociais Aplicadas
AREA: Planejamento Urbano e Regional
SUMMARY:

The thesis focuses on the dilemma of privatization or nationalization of essential services, choosing water and sanitation services among these and adopting as its empirical object the Sanitized City Program, implemented through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the Metropolitan Region of Recife (RMR). It starts from the observation that, since the late 1970s, several countries around the world have adopted privatization, as well as its variations, such as concessions and PPPs, as a response to supposed deficiencies in public management. This process has allowed the private sector to operate in various sectors, including those considered essential, enshrined in the social nature of public policies. However, since the 2000s, a strong movement has emerged, also at international level, which is moving in the opposite direction, contesting private management, especially in essential sectors. This movement has been promoting the reintegration of previously privatized services and infrastructures into national, regional and local public-government bodies in various parts of the world, amid criticism of the unsatisfactory performance of services under private management. As this international movement, defined in the thesis as (re)nationalization, gains prominence, showing a reconsideration of private management practices in essential sectors, there has been a greater inclination in the recent Brazilian scenario to privatize the management of services in these sectors, such as water and sanitation. The research behind this thesis sought not only to understand the phenomenon of (re)nationalization in its own terms, but also to contextualize the reasons that have promoted it in the Brazilian case, focusing on the privatization of the management of the essential basic sanitation sector and analyzing its specific impacts on the local scenario of the city of Recife through the analysis of the Sanitized City Program. The main objective of the thesis was to investigate the mechanisms that guided the formulation of this Program for private management, as well as the impacts of its implementation, focusing on the conflicts that emerge from the privatization of sewage services and their effects on the universalization of sanitation in the city of Recife, which is among the most unequal on the national scene. The theoretical-methodological approach of the research was based on the incremental model of public policy formulation proposed by Charles Lindblom. This model suggests that public policies are strongly influenced by the history of previous policies, providing a deeper understanding of the essential elements that link the national context to the specific case in Recife. To analyze these connections, the Process Tracing method was used on a set of qualitative data and information available on the local case, drawn from sources such as official documents, local academic production and empirical data and information. This approach made it possible to map and describe processes, offering a new interpretation of relatively new phenomena based on themes already established in the literature. In this sense, the study presents evidence that challenges the assumptions of the private provision of essential public services, concluding that, in parallel with the national and local progress of privatization of water and sanitation services, a set of factors has suggested that characteristics related to (re)nationalization observed in the international experience find deep resonance in the city of Recife

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 1132319 - MARIA ANGELA DE ALMEIDA SOUZA
Interna - 2133755 - EDVANIA TORRES AGUIAR GOMES
Interno - 1149640 - FABIANO ROCHA DINIZ
Externa à Instituição - ANA LÚCIA BRITTO
Externo à Instituição - JAN BITOUN
Externa à Instituição - MARIA DO LIVRAMENTO MIRANDA CLEMENTINO - FURG