A cartografia social como ferramenta participativa para a análise do território: o caso do Município de Riachuelo - RN

This paper presents a participatory urban diagnosis experience conducted by Institute of Architecture and Urbanism (USP) as part of Forte dos Reis Magos Operation (Rondon Project). Developed by the Defense Ministry of Brazil, in partnership with state and municipal governments and public and private higher education institutions, the Rondon Project is an extensionist action that contributes to the formation of university students and citizens to sustainable development in poor communities. The purpose of this activity was to build a forum for debate and politicization on urban issues that allowed territorialize, document and give visibility to urban problems through the civil society point of view. For that, social cartography was used. The content of this paper emphasizes the methodology of action research used to build this collective self-reflection environment that resulted in a participatory map as well an agenda with guidelines and actions. The participatory action research developed with the support of social cartography allowed a greater approximation with the complexity of the problems and the anxieties of the population of the Municipality of Riachuelo (RN) with focus on the construction and the relationship of qualitative information with spatial reference. In addition, the problems identified by the community itself allowed us to bring information that is often not identified through the analysis of census and socioeconomic data produced by government agencies.