This research examines how digital and in-person participation reshape public voice in urban governance in Niterói, Brazil. It understands the digital not merely as a tool, but as a territorially situated field that reorganizes visibility and institutional listening. Using a qualitative mixed-methods approach, the study combines analysis of participatory platforms, institutional regulations, territorial data, and participation outputs. By cross-referencing social, spatial, and administrative datasets, it explores how algorithmic mediation filters presence and conditions democratic processes. Grounded in Brazil’s constitutional commitment to social justice, the research argues that digital and physical arenas can function as complementary civic spaces, while also revealing the limits of digitally mediated participation in unequal urban contexts.

Institution

Fluminense Federal University (UFF)
PPGAU — Graduate Program in Architecture and Urbanism
Architecture and Urbanism, Graduate Program in Architecture and Urbanism (PPGAU)/Master’s degree

Community Organization

NEPHU – Center for Housing and Urban Studies and Projects,

Additional Team Members

of Professor Dr. Regina Bienenstein