Cultura e Agência – o engajamento no Or amento Participativo

This article is the result of an ethnographic research on the Participatory Budget of Porto Alegre, Brazil. It is based on the trajectories of the counselors of one of the 17 regions that compose the city, in attempt to understand the reasons that led them to engage in such a political activity and the order of their experiences along it. The broader objective is related to understanding the meaning of political participation; that is the reason why the viewpoints of the counselors, local leaders with a well-known political engagement in the Participatory Budget, are taken into account. Thus, this article stands for an attempt to cast light on the conditions of the acquisition of ‘agency’, as a modality of action in which the subject tries to carry out a personal project by assessing the strategies he/she avails. Therefore, the main question I pose is, precisely, about the objective and subjective processes that have to do with the agency and reputation of the Participatory Budget counselors.