Risk governance in the response to global health emergencies: understanding the governance of chaos in Brazil's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has shown how inadequate institutional strategies interact with, and exacerbate, social inequalities, thus impacting upon the intensity of the harm produced and amplifying negative consequences. One of the lessons from this pandemic, which happens against the background of other, interconnected systemic crises, is the urgency of adopting a 'whole-of-society' approach to determining what does and what does not work in the context of a health emergency response. However, how can institutional performance in health emergency response be assessed? How to make sense of success or failure? We argue that the adoption of a risk governance approach sheds light on institutional performance in the response to health emergencies. Risk governance is particularly pertinent in situations where the potential for extreme consequences is considered high, where there are enormous uncertainties regarding the consequences and where different values are present and in dispute. Based on a documentary evidence review, we analyse the Brazilian response to Covid-19 by considering: (1) how the Brazilian federal government performed on its central role of managing the national response, (2) the reactions from other actors prompted by this performance and (3) the main observed effects emerging from this scenario. We argue that the Brazilian federal government response was weak in five risk governance parameters that are essential in a health crisis response: risk communication, transparency and accessibility of data, negotiation between actors, social cohesion and public participation and decisions based on technical and scientific evidence, resources and contexts. The neglect of risk governance parameters, combined with an attempt to spread doubt, confusion and disinformation-which could be termed a 'governance by chaos'-is an important element for making sense of the effects and controversies surrounding Covid-19 in Brazil.

Co-creating sustainability indicators for the local water-energy-food nexus.

Sustainability indicators have become essential tools to deal with compartmentalized resources planning and management in cities. The development of water, energy, and food nexus (WEF nexus) indicators is a prominent goal of current research, but the focus is mainly on economic issues and material flows. Attention to the local scale and context, social aspects, and the inclusion of non-academic actors is mostly lacking. To address these gaps, this paper reports and reflects on the co-creation of sustainability indicators related to the WEF nexus in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. With a transdisciplinary approach, non-academic actors were included in the different stages of the process using the Urban Living Lab methodology, to improve the usability of the produced indicators' set. The case of São Paulo concerned on-going actions in the peri-urban and rural areas of the city which seek to improve environmental protection by stimulating more sustainable forms of agriculture. Thirty-four indicators were developed through a sequence of interactive activities, such as workshops, meetings, and field trips. The presented process aims to strongly enhance usability by actively involving users from the start, connecting the nexus approach to previous knowledge and familiar frameworks, paying attention to the local scale and context, and to social aspects, and by anticipating future use in various ways.

Contribuições das Ciências Humanas para o debate sobre mudanças ambientais: um olhar sobre São Paulo / Contributions of human sciences for the debate on environmental change: a look at São Paulo

Este artigo pretende contribuir com o debate sobre mudanças ambientais e climáticas no nível local a partir de uma pesquisa qualitativa na cidade de São Paulo. Busca compreender como tais mudanças são entendidas pelos indivíduos e percebidas (ou não) no cotidiano, em particular para aqueles que vivem em aglomerados urbanos bastante adensados, nos quais as questões climáticas podem agravar os riscos aos quais estão expostos. Para a análise, as autoras consideram as especificidades de São Paulo, particularmente das duas localidades estudadas em profundidade, dialogando com reflexões críticas provenientes das Ciências Humanas e buscando destacar, neste movimento de resposta aos problemas urbanos e riscos climáticos, a importância de considerar a população como parte integrante, se não fundamental, para as mudanças socioambientais diante da crise que se aproxima.

This article aims to contribute to the recent debate of environmental and climate change at local level. Drawing on qualitative research in São Paulo city, we seek to comprehend how people understand and perceive (or not) environmental and climate change in their daily life, in particular whom are living in densely populated urban areas where climate issues may bring a set of hazards that would further exacerbate the urban problems and risks. In this analysis, we consider some specificities of São Paulo (including specificities of two neighborhoods which have been studied in depth), and make references to reflections and critical perspectives from Human Sciences. In this movement of responses to urban and climate issues, we seek to highlight the role of local communities, who are central to the societal and environmental changes to deal with the approaching crisis.

Experiências brasileiras e o debate sobre comunicação e governança do risco em áreas contaminadas por chumbo / Brazilian cases and the debate about risk communication and governance in areas contaminated by lead

No artigo são apresentados dois estudos de caso sobre contaminação por chumbo no Brasil. As situações estudadas referem-se a Santo Amaro da Purificação, nordeste, e Adrianópolis, sul, onde comunidades convivem com a contaminação ambiental e a exposição humana ao chumbo em decorrência das atividades industriais e de mineração desenvolvidas durantes décadas, por uma mesma empresa, de forma inconsistente com os padrões ambientais e de mineração, com pouco controle dos impactos ambientais e à saúde humana advindos. Os principais objetivos da investigação realizada foram analisar as estratégias de comunicação de risco adotadas junto às comunidades locais e avaliar o engajamento delas no processo de gerenciamento do risco. A metodologia aplicada incluiu análise de notícias jornalísticas e entrevistas realizadas com diferentes atores sociais, como moradores, jornalistas, pesquisadores e autoridades. Os resultados indicaram a necessidade de promover o envolvimento público no debate e no processo decisório. Os resultados validaram também a hipótese de que os modelos associativos (representados por associações de moradores, por exemplo) são importantes na promoção e no estímulo da participação pública no gerenciamento do risco.

This investigation focused on lead contamination case studies in Brazil. The situations studied involve communities living in Santo Amaro da Purificação and Adrianópolis, in the north-east and south of Brazil, respectively. These communities have all had to live with environmental contamination and human exposure to lead as a consequence of industrial, mining and processing activities that were conducted by the same company for decades in a manner inconsistent with modern mining and industrial standards, with little control of environmental and human health impacts. The investigation sought to analyze the strategies of risk communication to local people, and to evaluate their engagement in risk management. The methodological approach included the analysis of newspaper articles, and interviews conducted with different stakeholders, such as residents, journalists, researchers and authorities. The results indicated the need to promote public involvement in the debate and in the decision-making process. The results also confirmed the hypothesis that associative models (represented by local neighborhood associations, for instance) are important for promoting and eliciting public participation in risk management.

[Brazilian cases and the debate about risk communication and governance in areas contaminated by lead]. / Experiências brasileiras e o debate sobre comunicação e governança do risco em áreas contaminadas por chumbo.

This investigation focused on lead contamination case studies in Brazil. The situations studied involve communities living in Santo Amaro da Purificação and Adrianópolis, in the north-east and south of Brazil, respectively. These communities have all had to live with environmental contamination and human exposure to lead as a consequence of industrial, mining and processing activities that were conducted by the same company for decades in a manner inconsistent with modern mining and industrial standards, with little control of environmental and human health impacts. The investigation sought to analyze the strategies of risk communication to local people, and to evaluate their engagement in risk management. The methodological approach included the analysis of newspaper articles, and interviews conducted with different stakeholders, such as residents, journalists, researchers and authorities. The results indicated the need to promote public involvement in the debate and in the decision-making process. The results also confirmed the hypothesis that associative models (represented by local neighborhood associations, for instance) are important for promoting and eliciting public participation in risk management.

O papel da mídia na construção social do risco: o caso Adrianópolis, no Vale do Ribeira / The role of the media in the social construction of risk: the Adrianópolis case in Ribeira valley

Analisa a influência da mídia na construção social do risco, a partir das diferentes percepções e atitudes de moradores de uma comunidade exposta à contaminação por chumbo. O estudo contemplou análise documental e pesquisa de campo com o objetivo de compreender o papel da mídia no processo de amplificação social do risco nesse caso e observar como as respostas a uma situação de risco interagem com processos psicológicos, sociais, institucionais e culturais. Além da influência direta da mídia, este estudo de caso revelou a incidência de outros fatores a moldar as percepções do risco da comunidade, como a falta de confiança nas instituições e nos políticos, a relação do risco com as atividades ocupacionais e os valores culturais e sociais.