ABSTRACT
The city has traditionally been viewed in its administration under the functionalist perspective, to be understood as professional field or object of public administration and urban management. However, studies concerning cities in a nonfunctionalist perspective have become increasingly applicant mainly within a perspective which focuses on urban complexity and evokes the organized social life of oppressed individuals and groups in different social environments. In this article, we analyze discourses that guide organizational practices related to graffiti in Belo Horizonte (Brazil), which was done through a qualitative study based on discourse analysis. Apart from research in official documents on government actions to combat graffiti, individual in-depth interviews were conducted with nine subjects, among municipal administrators responsible for fighting against graffiti, civil society participants of the actions of municipal project, and representatives of graffiti from Belo Horizonte. Data analysis was performed by French discourse analysis, in which we sought to identify and analyze discursive aspects and elements following a script consisting of: 1. lexical selections; 2. semantic paths; 3. interdiscursivity; 4. major discourses; 5. linguistic reflection and refraction; 6. defended and fought ideological aspects; and 7. discursive positions in relation to the hegemonic discourses in society. Main results suggest that the city government both directs representations of the fight against graffiti and is pressed to face the phenomenon according to several approaches , by which prevail control instruments over the organizational practices of the city, and establishing socio-urban agents of strategic legitimation. We conclude that the public administration is re-signified by different social actors, in particular by the taggers, who adopt a kind of graffiti code of ethics, which antagonizes the city government program, the police conduct and the dominant thinking on the graffiti and taggers, manifesting their position through graffiti.
KEYWORDS
City; Organizational Practices; Discourse; Graffiti; Urban Management