PUBLIC POLICIES AND PRESERVATION OF MATERIAL CULTURAL HERITAGE

a study in Guarapuava-PR

Abstract

The city represents the expression of the social, historical, and symbolic memory of the groups that build, inhabit, and transform it. This research aims to understand how the institutional design and normative framework of public policies for the preservation of tangible cultural heritage across different levels of government are articulated and formalized at the local scale. The investigation was conducted through documentary research, encompassing legislation, plans, and regulatory instruments at the federal, state and municipal levels, complemented by a literature review on heritage preservation policies, multilevel governance, heritagization, and memory. The findings indicate that the municipality of Guarapuava has recently advanced in establishing a legal framework for the protection of tangible cultural heritage, incorporating instruments and guidelines derived from federal and state levels. However, this incorporation occurs predominantly at the formal level, with no consistent evidence of continuous intergovernmental coordination, permanent technical cooperation, or consolidated mechanisms of local governance. The existence of only one officially designated heritage asset highlights weaknesses in the implementation of heritage policies and reveals a gap between normative advancement and its practical effectiveness. Furthermore, the analysis of recent urban transformations indicates that heritage preservation processes are also associated with disputes over memory, the selection of cultural references considered legitimate for heritage recognition, and the meanings and uses attributed to urban space. It is concluded that the effectiveness of preservation policies depends not only on the existence of legal instruments but also on the articulation of state capacities, governance mechanisms, and concrete conditions for implementation.