The relationship between Participatory Budgeting and territorial justice: a theoretical and practical contribution

Abstract Participatory budgeting (PB) is considered one of the main democratic innovations in urban management developed in the last decades. Today, most experiences lack the core values that guided the creation of PB in the city of Porto Alegre (Brazil): inversion of priorities and social justice. Based on the assumption that PB is an institutional and political object of dispute for power within a territory, it is argued that it must be studied under the lens of territorial justice. A qualitative study was conducted (document analysis, fieldwork, and interviews) in two mid-sized cities with deliberative PBs, Araraquara (São Paulo, Brazil) and Vallejo (California, USA). The results point out a significant difference between the case studies, but also to PB’s relevant potential as a tool for territorial justice, demanding a context of massive institutional and political support.