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In this article, the authors investigated the governance involved in the formulation process of the Brasília Solar Program (PBS). The PBS engaged forty entities in a partnership for the generation and use of photovoltaic solar energy in Brasília. The methodology involved the use of document techniques and semi-structured interviews conducted between 2017 and 2018. The study revealed that the number of entities participating in the formulation of the PBS was lower than expected, which can be attributed to the centralized decision arrangements and to low autonomy. The actors involved demonstrated homogeneity in the interpretation of the objectives and in the justifications of the program. The PBS adopted unilateral monitoring mechanisms that hindered the participation of the actors and was not able to provide channels for the resolution of conflicts and for the application of penalties for free rides.

O maior lixão a céu aberto da América Latina foi fechado em 2018 após mais de uma década de embate. Nós analisamos a trajetória do fechamento do lixão (2010 a 2018) à luz da literatura sobre implementação e participação em políticas públicas. Realizamos entrevistas e coletas documentais. Os resultados apontaram para dois momentos distintos do processo de implementação da política: o da descentralização (2010 a 2014) e o da centralização (2014 a 2018). Enquanto no primeiro momento houve autonomia na tomada de decisão dos atores envolvidos, num movimento de construção de diversos núcleos independentes e com capacidade deliberativa, no segundo período, esses núcleos foram descaracterizados, e o processo de decisão foi estruturado de forma a concentrar as ações na figura do governador. Ao mesmo tempo em que houve diferenças nos dois períodos analisados, em ambos observamos a exclusão dos catadores na tomada de decisão. Assim, mesmo que o fechamento do Lixão tenha sido considerado bem-sucedido, a falta de participação dos catadores nos processos decisórios gerou uma situação socioeconômica desfavorável para eles, que perderam suas precárias atividades econômicas dependentes dos resíduos sólidos recicláveis e não conseguiram se reposicionar profissionalmente em curto prazo.

The ‘frontier’ is central to a new wave of development scholarship, but the broad deployment of the concept has blurred several key dimensions of frontier development. We focus on the Brazilian Amazon to synthesize classical frontier theory and emerging perspectives with special attention to the role of governance in frontier development. Since 2004, primary deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has declined over 70 percent while agricultural production in the region has increased. Contrary to narratives that view this transition as the result of ‘frontier governance’ – i.e., the imposition of order on a pre-existing frontier – we propose the concept of a ‘governance frontier,’ which recognizes the role of politics in constructing and transforming frontier spaces. This concept politicizes economic accounts of frontier development and spatializes abstract notions of governance. We employ a ‘follow the policy’ methodology to trace the evolution of a governance frontier in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, drawing on original fieldwork across four Amazonian municipalities and inside an environmental non-governmental organization. We show that a key feature of the Amazonian governance frontier has been a distinct geographical configuration of ‘model municipalities’ that function as nodes of policy experimentation, legitimation, and transfer. Our findings support an integration of frontier theory and governance theory in a place-based, political geography approach to regional political-economic transformation, which demands greater attention to the political dimensions of frontiers and to the spatial dimensions of governance. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Este artigo discute o tema do esvaziamento demográfico das regiões rurais brasileiras e a crescente escassez de trabalho nas atividades agropecuárias, em virtude da pretensa generalização da abundante, ou até mesmo ilimitada disponibilidade de mão de obra no passado, segundo as premissas do modelo clássico de Arthur Lewis (1954). Conforme este modelo, o segmento rural e de outros espaços sociais fragilizados, vivendo em regime de subsistência, poderiam suprir as necessidades de mão de obra do setor industrial. A seguir, são discutidas algumas conclusões da literatura especializada, a fim de demonstrar a sua pertinência, de um lado, mas, de outro, a igualmente insuficiência do modelo de Lewis quando aplicado à realidade brasileira das últimas décadas.

Energy resources and their different forms of regulation are critical to sustainable development. Given this perspective, we compare two different energy resources and their governance systems – the Eagle Ford Shale in the U.S. and the Gaucho Biodiesel Pole in Brazil. Despite the differences in terms of the nature of the energy resource, stakeholders, and institutions, both systems perform poorly in terms of governance, defined here as equity, participation, transparency, and accountability. We collected data using semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, participated in public hearings, and archival research. We found patterns that reveal asymmetric power relations amongst stakeholders and institutions, especially the dominance of the energy industry’s agenda, which hinders self-regulatory autonomy of communities and societal participation.

International audience; In the Cerrado, the expansion of soybean cultivation since the 1990s has coincided withthe strengthening of environmental regulations. We analyze how the two mainenvironmental policies – Protected Areas and the Forest Code – have played out at theground level in western Bahia state. These policies in Cerrado have not been designedto curb the expansion of this agricultural frontier. These norms have, on the contrary,accommodated this expansion because the way environmental managers selectivelychoose environmental problems and publicize them through specific informationsystems depreciates traditional fire-dependent production systems. These ‘politics ofselection’ are likely to increase competition for resources in the margins of soybeanagriculture, which is where traditional populations have now become confined.

Global interest in and attention to forests have grown as concerns about global warming and climate change have taken a heightened position in international policy debates. Forests have been repositioned in international arenas as repositories of global value for their contribution to carbon sequestration and climate mitigation (Fairhead and Leach, 2003; Peet, Robbins and Watts, 2011). In this context, Latin American forests are seen as globally important in fighting climate change.