Para além da informação: dilemas e desafios da participação

Abstract

In the age of the so called society of information, one tends to think that "to know about the things" makes the difference in the moment of the choice for a determined behaviour. What can be perceived, however, is that, without undeserving the relevance of the information in the processes of constructing consciousness and social empowerment, such correlation is far to have a that direct evidence. Nevertheless, many institutions dealing with development, even thus using an advanced discourse, still remain leashed to an outdated diffusionistic understanding, which treat information and communication as synonyms. To try to understand the relation between communication and participation of citizens, was what motivated this study, which focuses the Amazonian country side, considering a process defined by an external induction of sustainable local development (Project GESPAN), with prominence on the processes of participation of a specific social actor (The Municipal Council for Rural Development of Moju City). It turned evident that communication itself and the central actors in the communication process play an ambivalent role in the dynamics of agricultural development. They can contribute for participation and inclusion of rural communities or on the contrary, can delimit, manipulate or even obstruct the access to information and therefore, promote an even increased isolation of communities in peripheries. Also a correlation between social capital and dissemination of relevant information in the communities has been revealed.