Millennium Institutes Program

Form for Consultant’s Opinion – A&A

Project Identification
Process no.: 420.272/2
Coordinator: Luiz Cesar Queiroz Ribeiro and Suzana Pasternack
Title: Observatório das Metrópoles: territory, social cohesion and democratic governance: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Porto Alegre,
Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza, Belém, Natal, Goiânia and Maringá
Project period: 2005-2008
1. Evaluate if the initially proposed objectives and goals have been achieved. Comment.
a) Fully achieved. / b) Partially achieved. / c) Not achieved.

Comment: The research program supported by the CNPq gathered together researchers from institutions in the university fields, governmental and non-governmental entities, organized as Nuclei in 11 of the main Brazilian metropolises – Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Goiânia, Recife, Salvador, Natal, Fortaleza, Belém – and in the urban agglomeration of Maringá (one of the metropolitan regions in Paraná State). In the reports presented for evaluation, there are lists of the teams from each of the participating institutions, which provides an insight into the assembly of the research process and its complexity. Its main objective was to identify the major trends of economic, social, institutional and territorial transformations in these metropolises over the last 20 years. Associated to these academic objectives, it conducted activities aimed at assisting various levels of government and civil society involved with the administration of the Brazilian metropolises.

The project consolidated a research network of urban/metropolitan studies, involving, above all, the participating universities, which, in itself, is of undeniable merit. The program activities were performed along four lines of research: Line I - Metropolization, intra-metropolitan dynamics and national the territory. Line II - Socio-spatial dimension of Exclusion/Integration in the metropolises: comparative studies. Line III – Urban governance, citizenship, and administration of the metropolises. Line IV – Monitoring the metropolitan reality and institutional development. At present, the group functions as a virtual institute, involving over 200 researchers from 51 institutions in the spheres: university (post-graduation programs), governmental (state and city hall foundations) and non-governmental, under the joint coordination of the IPPUR - Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento Urbano e Regional da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro [] and FASE - Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional. We are aware that there is difficulty in articulating university research groups in the country, a fact evident, above all, in the so-called human and social sciences. Just achieving this objective would justify the CNPq investment.

Another outcome of the joint effort to consolidate urban research in Brazil, which I consider of academic importance, was the magazine"Cadernos Metrópole", indexed at the Library of Congress – Washington.It is half-yearly periodical, published since 1999, by EDUC, the PUC-SP publisher. It is oriented towards an academic readership formed of lecturers, professors, researchers and students, as well as political agents, members of technical staff in government organs and local leaderships, indeed, all those interested in understanding the processes, scales, actors and practices involved with public intervention in the spatial, territorial and environmental dimensions of the metropolitan areas, and in their economic and social development, in particular.) The Latin American Network – Large Metropolitan Regions in the Mercosul and Mexico: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago do Chile, Montevideo an Mexico City. Another activity implemented by the Research Program was "Interchange and Cooperation" involving the following: I) Latin American Network – Large Metropolitan Regions in the Mercosul and Mexico: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago do Chile, Montevideo and Mexico City; II) International Social Survey Program Network – ISSP by means of a program of cooperation and interchange with Lisbon University – Social Sciences Institute; III) International Cooperation - CNPq/CNRS – Project: “Economic and social restructuring and urban governance in the large metropolitan regions: Paris, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte”.

These actions, once implemented show that the Observatório das Metrópoles is institutionally consolidated, and academically and intellectually mature, above all, because it has carried out: evaluation of the most recent trends of the hierarchy of the urban agglomerations with metropolitan functions; systematic analysis of the social structuring of the metropolises considered and their transformations throughout the last 20 years (1980-2000), as well as their patterns of social mobility; a systematic and detailed analysis of the social organization of the territory of the Brazilian metropolises on the intra-urban plane, through which the tendencies for residential division, segmentation and segregation were evaluated; the construction of a databank about the intra-metropolitan inequalities compiled in the METRODATA with a dual purpose: on the one hand, the utilization by the network teams of standard indicators for housing, demographic, environmental and fiscal themes, and, on the other, access via Internet (www.observatorio.tk) reference to a broadly diversified range of actors – governmental or from civil society – involved in discussions of the public policies in the metropolitan areas. Besides this, various case studies were made about the impasses and difficulties in managing various metropolitan regions, presented as Ph.D. theses and M.A. dissertations, besides a national survey of the municipal councils and their members constituting one of the most comprehensive archives about the RM# researched, also allowing comparative studies among them Furthermore, it created the Inter-institutional Program for the Qualification of Municipal Council Advisors, which ran 10 courses spread among the metropolises of Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Belém, Recife and qualified around 1,200 advisors.

2. Evaluate the suitability of the mechanisms utilized to promote interaction of the research groups participating in the project, aiming at the formation of a research network. Comment.
a) Very suitable. / b) Suitable. / c) Hardly suitable. / d) Unsuitable or non-existent.

Comment: The detailing of the actions developed throughout the project term and until the delivery date of the report is sufficient to prove its importance. As I have an effective participation in scientific congresses and seminars that discuss urban issued in Brazil, I can vouch for the effective presence of the group of researchers from the Laboratório Metrópole, which presents studies being conducted and the results of research of the most diversified nature. Today, the structure has, without doubt, created one of the most solid on urban themes in the country.

3. Was there formation and implementation of a research network in this project? Comment.
a) Yes. / b) No.

Comment: Without doubt, it is a solid network, as much in terms of the universities participating as in their diversity scattered throughout the country. This characteristic allows comparative studies about the urban metropolitan dynamics in the country, facilitating as much academic understanding of the process as aiding the policy formulators in the area at the federal, state and metropolitan levels.

4. Evaluate the relevance of the scientific and/or technological results obtained for the expansion, improvement and consolidation of the national technico-scientific competence. Comment.
a) Very relevant. / b) Relevant. / c) Little relevant. / d) Irrelevant.

Comment: There is an intense process of divulgation of the research results, the publication of a magazine in national e international circulation, the cooperation agreements between Brazilian and foreign universities, everything leading to a permanent concern for socializing the results conducive to consolidation of the urban studies in Brazilian academia. The elaboration of the Ph.D. theses and M.A. dissertations, besides the articles published in scientific journals and the participation in academic events prove this assertion.

5. Has the Institute developed or improved the product and/or the process or had patents deposited in the country or abroad? Comment.
a) Yes / b) No

Comment: I believe this query is not relevant, unless we consider the methodologies of analysis that develop, (some original). However, they are not motives for patents, and not usual in the human and social sciences sphere .

6. Do some of the results deserve to be highlighted due to their importance for society, and, if so, is there a possibility they will be divulgated by the CNPq? Specify.
a) Yes. / b) No.

Specification: I think the CNPq could support, above all, the publication of theses and dissertations developed within the scope of the project. There is an important mass of knowledge produced that would opportunely be divulgated to scholars here and overseas.

7. Has the Institute strived to achieve the results expected in the Program, that is, a substantial increase in the standards of excellence and productivity of the Brazilian C,T&I and its more competitive and integrated engagement on the international scene? Comment.
a) Yes. / b) No.

Comment: The participation of the researchers from the group in national and international scientific events, as well as the publication of, as much the "Cadernos Metrópole" as articles and books on the Brazilian urban metropolitan reality proves our advances in theses researches at world level.

8. Is there evidence of continuity of P&D&I activities in the Institute after the finance ended? Comment.
a) Yes. / b) No.

Comment: I think that innumerable results will be prolonged, as the creation of the Brazilian network of urban research is a fact. Evidently, the support of institutions like CNPq must not be underestimated. On the contrary, it has been fundamental. But the multiplier effects are already visible, as seen in the entry of new professor-researchers in the universities, many coming from the staff of the project under analysis. Obviously, benefits will arise.

9. Overall Evaluation of the Execution of the Project
a) Excellent. / b) Good. / c) Average. / d) Bad.
10. In your view, has the finance received by the group allowed the implementation of activities of scientific and technological research to be more consistent, structured and robust than without it, that is if it had depended exclusively on other lines of finance from the science and technology system? Comment.
a) Yes. / b) No. / c) No means of answering.

Comment: In Item 8, I have already partly answered this question. I would reiterate that the presence of the CNPq in the scientific and technological development of Brazil is absolutely fundamental. Thus, it is evident that this facilitated the accomplishment of the project goals, which would otherwise have been problematic. In fact, the human and social sciences, like other areas of knowledge, do not develop without effective State support, such as that of the CNPq.

11. Final comments

Comment: The project has been a success, the aims perfectly fulfilled, and the team is to be congratulated for its efforts.

12. Suggestions to the project coordinator.

Comment: See the Opinion.

13. Suggestions to the CNPq.

Comment: Continue supporting experiments and projects of this caliber. Above all, expand the research network to other cities of medium size and small municipalities that are still secondary in our urban studies.

Consultant:

Institution:

Signature: Date: 10/9/2009