DISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE VERSUS PUBLIC PERCEPTION AND PARTICIPATION IN URBAN CONSERVATION

Abstract

This text discusses some issues regarded as essential for an integrated urban conservation theme, both from a theoretical viewpoint based on literature selected as reference for discussions and from practical viewpoints derived from recent experiences in Brazil, particularly in the Northeast. The advantages and limitations pertinent to the utilization of perception methods and environmental behavior, as well as users’ participation in the making of decisions concerning interventions in urban territories considered for conservation/restoration are here analyzed. The viewpoints from technicians, intellectuals and specialized professionals are placed in opposition to those from the general public whose needs the above professionals supposedly meet and address in studies and propositions. With basis on the utilized references some contradictions between discourse and actual practice are here identified in order to demonstrate that: 1) The analyzed cases show a prevalence of the technical view over the user’s perception. 2) The causes of the existing difficulties are not inherent to the analyses and diagnostic methods themselves, but to the essentially political aims to which they serve as basis. The experience (although rather incipient) pertinent to the built heritage in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, well illustrates the problems here focused.