CONSENSUS BUILDING: DEFINITION, FOUNDATIONS, STAGES, AND THE CASE STUDY OF THE CREATION OF PARQUE DO COCÓ IN FORTALEZA (BRAZIL)

Abstract

This article analyzes Consensus Building as a method for resolving complex conflicts, aiming at clarifying its conceptual founda­tions, procedural stages, and application in a concrete institutional context. To this end, it adopts a qualitative approach, combining a literature review on Consensus Building with a case analysis of the process that culminated in the definitive creation of Parque do Cocó, in Fortaleza, through the work of the Perma­nent Forum for the Definitive Implementation of Parque do Cocó. First, the article defines consensus building as a specific procedure of collaborative conflict management, distinct from generic labels of consensual dispute resolution, and systematizes its assumptions, premises, and criteria of suitability for com­plex conflicts. It then reconstructs its proce­dural stages (pre-negotiation, negotiation, and post-negotiation). In the empirical analysis, it demonstrates that the Cocó case constitutes a successful experience of Consensus Building, as it brought together plural actors in a struc­tured deliberative arena, produced a formally documented consensual proposal, and created conditions to transform a complex socio-en­vironmental conflict, previously marked by the low effectiveness of judicialization, into a legitimate and implementable solution. It con­cludes that Consensus Building makes a rele­vant contribution to the treatment of complex public conflicts by fostering interinstitutional coordination, qualified participation, and the production of durable agreements, and that its institutionalization should be further ad­vanced as a standard mode of action within the justice system and in public policy man­agement.

KEYWORDS: History of law. Excepcional criminal legislation. Dual level of legality. Indigenous people. Figueiredo Report.