The reconstruction of Rio Grande do Sul following the climate catastrophe: social participation: for what kind of governance and to what end?

Abstract

This article analyzes the reconstruction of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) after the 2024 socio-environmental disaster, focusing on social participation in the institutional governance created for this purpose. Based on the theoretical discussion of Governance, especially the Collaborative Governance model, in cases requiring the involvement of society in solving complex problems, minimum variables for analyzing participation in the reconstruction in question are defined. The research adopts a qualitative approach with documentary analysis of regulations, analysis of the dynamics of the functioning of institutional bodies, official records, and media information. The results indicate decisional asymmetry, with social participation concentrated in consultative bodies and deliberation/monitoring centralized in governmental bodies; limited plurality, with a predominance of business and state actors and underrepresentation of environmental actors, the scientific community, and individuals directly affected; limitations in active transparency as a condition for social control and trust. It is argued that such an architecture distances itself from Collaborative Governance, risking the reproduction of previous patterns (path dependency) of the power and influence of traditional political and economic elites and the continuation of a development model that is distinct from the environmental sustainability required by climate change.