Urban public services in the face of socio-environmental, technological, and democratic issues

The provision of urban public services, whether delivered directly by public administration or granted through concessions, faces contemporary challenges stemming from the accelerated implementation of global agendas to combat climate change and to ensure socio-environmental sustainability (ALFONSIN, 2017; BALBIM, 2016). At the same time, “smart” technological artifacts have become decisive in the planning, provision, and control of these services (REIA and CRUZ, 2021). However, such artifacts operate within complex urban spatialities marked by multiple socio-economic inequalities, in which the constitutional democratic commitment to guaranteeing access to fundamental rights must be ensured (OLIVEIRA, KRAUS et al., 2021).

The economic-financial and legal designs of public services—considered decisive in decisions regarding direct operation or concession-based provision (BAPTISTA, 2023; AMARAL, 2019; ARAGÃO, 2013)—constitute instrumental stages in the planning of these activities, making mandatory and feasible the priorities derived from agendas established by public authorities and society. It is essential that, alongside the instrumental conception of abstract models of contractual typologies and mechanisms for reinforced guarantees of economic-financial balance, reflections and proposals be developed that allow public administration decisions regarding the services under its responsibility—optimized by information and communication technologies (ICTs)—to be transparent, democratically constructed, and capable of effectively addressing the social and economic issues considered priorities by citizens. In this context, the central question of this project emerges: when supported by ICTs, are the provision and regulation of urban public services, while responding to global socio-environmental agendas, ensuring socio-spatial justice?

This research project, in dialogue with other ongoing initiatives, aims not only to promote critical reflections but also to propose pathways for understanding how contemporary issues shape models for the implementation of public services. By bringing into dialogue the contexts of municipalities in three regions of Brazil—Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Belém/PA, and Ponta Grossa/PR—and by fostering an exchange with the French context, it will be possible to understand how concrete socio-territorial and institutional issues permeate decisions concerning urban services, thereby enabling new perspectives on the conditions and processes to be considered in their provision and in the realization of the right to sustainable cities.