Tarson Núñez

Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul | Porto Alegre, Brazil

Tarson Núñez is a doctor in political science who is currently participating in a post-doctoral project at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. He works as a social researcher at the Department of Economy and Statistics at the Secretary of Planning of the State Government of Rio Grande do Sul. His experience with participatory democracy started as an activist and adviser for the urban social movements in Brazil in the early eighties. At the beginning of the nineties, he worked at the Porto Alegre Municipal government, as the head of the Planning Office, in charge of the Participatory Budgeting process in the city. At the beginning of the two-thousands, he was the director of the Urban and Regional Development Department of the state government, when they launched PB at the state level. In the same period, he worked as a volunteer in the first versions of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. His master's dissertation and his doctoral thesis both relate with the issue of participatory democracy, based on the experiences he and his team have lived in the last 25 year in his country. His post-doctoral research is a case study about the impact of the social movements in the development of our cities.