Políticas públicas de esporte e lazer na cidade de João Pessoa/Paraíba: uma análise do ordenamento legal

Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate the Sports and Leisure Public Policies developed in the city of João Pessoa/Paraíba, through its legal budget. To accomplish this goal, it was designed the following research problem: considering sport and leisure as a constitutional right, what connections and relationships are established between the public policies of sport and leisure developed in the aforementioned city, in the aspects related to the legal budget, with the public policies at the federal and state level. From the methodological standpoint, the study takes a qualitative approach and uses of the method of explanatory and documentary research, for the analysis, we use the ―método de análise de conjuntura‖. We take as reference the historical and dialectical materialism as a theory of knowledge. To achieve the objectives of this research, we mapped out the legal budget related to sport and leisure of that city, the state and also at the federal level. We develop an analytical framework drawing on two significant landmarks for the politics and also for the sport and leisure in our country. They are: The enactment of the 1988 Federal Constitution and the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2002. To this end, the study started with the evaluation of the existent data and pointed to indicators for these regional policies for sport and leisure at the municipal and federal level, from the perspective of democratization and socialization of the sport and leisure. The path taken alongside the object of study, brought the following results: a) Public policies for sport and leisure at the municipal and federal level are guided by neo-liberals orientation which favor the interests of the logic of the market at the expense of human needs. Neglecting, thus, the sport and leisure to the poorest section of the population, that is, the children of the working class, b) Currently, the legal budget of the city does not present a consistent policy that effectively enables the democratization and socialization of this section, and that it raises the degree of development of sports and leisure culture of the population. There are missing elements to make a public policy in this perspective. The access that the poorest people have in this section is restricted and precarious; and c) However, there are proposals under consideration at ―Câmara Municipal‖ of João Pessoa, which, if approved and implemented, will enable a greater access to sport and leisure, and possibly help raising the standard for sports and culture of its population as well as to collaborate in the structuring of the Brazilian Sports System. For this, policies for sport and leisure in the city cannot be guided only by the possibility of the city to become one of the places for a mega sports event, in this case, FIFA s 2014 World Cup. They need to take into account the socio-historical determinations of Brazilian society and assume that sport is a part of humanity's cultural heritage, a social right supported by the constitution and one that should be present in the lives of all people. This requires the force of properly regulated public policy and this regulation should provide for benchmarks related to: finance, public spaces, projects and programs in all areas - education, participation and high performance. With guidance, planning, personnel and infrastructure that actually create viable and articulated policies around access to sport that universalize and democratize it.