A comparison of participatory budgeting in Brazil and Canada

Loretta Murphy is a certified translator (ATIA & ATIO) working from PT and ES ->EN. In February, 2007, she successfully defended her masters thesis entitled “The Migration of Meaning: A Comparative Analysis of Orçamento Participativo In Porto Alegre And Participatory Budgeting In The Toronto Community Housing Corporation.” The objective was to analyze what happens when a program such as the “Orçamento Participativo” program established in the south of Brazil, becomes adopted and adapted by other countries, within different contexts. The focus was specifically on the understandings of some key words, which were important in Portuguese, and how the translated words were interpreted and understood in the Toronto context. Her field work included conducting interviews with participants in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and within the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. One of the main findings was that this type of program appears to work better when it is implemented from the bottom-up, as opposed to vice versa.Loretta currently resides in Toronto where she works as a translator and interpreter.