Imagine the city

Plural praxis and the production of shared places

Abstract

This article approaches the processes of collective action and technical collaboration, starting from the premise that the project is an instrument of transformation of the territory toward social innovation. In this sense, "imagine paraisópolis" was a collaborative experience of urban design in informal settlements, whose main objective was the exchange of knowledge, practices and experiences, between professionals and students of architecture and urbanism and adolescents, residents of Paraisópolis, a slum in the city of São Paulo, for the collaborative production of shared places. Organized around five plural praxis - strategy, collaboration, experimentation, reflection and expression - this article criticizes the participatory project in the microscale. Thus, concepts that are part of the current urban debate – "insurgent citizenship" as resistance to hegemonic planning are presented; "plural praxis" as collaborative project processes; "urban commons", fields of action in public spaces; and, finally, "shared places", territorialities favorable to the embodied presence and difference in public space. Thinking about ways to improve everyday life in the city, favoring the human being and social relations as essential to the city, proved to be an opportunity for reflection on the role of plural praxis in the production of shared places.