Urban governance and leisure: state, private companies and media at the Guaíba waterfront skate park in Porto Alegre

This article investigates recent transformations in the management of public leisure spaces, focusing on urban governance strategies that promote the involvement of private actors in their administration. Using the skatepark of Porto Alegre as a case study, the research aims to understand how public policies have been shaped by the logic of commodification of urban space, articulating public and private interests in the production and maintenance of sports facilities. The main objective is to analyze how urban governance has acted to attract private initiative to manage public leisure spaces, and to identify the effects of such arrangements on the institutionalization and use of these places. Document analysis was used as the primary methodology, including the collection and systematization of municipal regulations, adoption contracts, institutional social media posts, and journalistic reports. This approach enabled the mapping of key stakeholders, legal frameworks, and public discourses surrounding the skatepark. The results show that the implementation and consolidation of the park were made possible through a set of normative instruments that established public-private partnerships, reflecting a hybrid governance model. The analysis also highlights the role of the media in legitimizing the facility, emphasizing its grandeur and innovative character, while issues such as maintenance, accessibility, and social control were less addressed. In the discussion, the research engages with the literature on urban governance and neoliberal policies, showing how these arrangements generate new forms of appropriation of public space, challenging ideals of democratization and equity in access to leisure. Theoretically, the study contributes to the understanding of the effects of neoliberal rationality in the governance of urban leisure; methodologically, it reinforces the relevance of document analysis as a critical tool to examine the institutionalization of public facilities. The article concludes that delegating the management of leisure spaces to private actors, although framed as innovation and efficiency, poses significant challenges to equitable access, social participation, and the preservation of the public character of urban spaces. These findings invite critical reflection on the direction of urban policy and the meanings attributed to leisure in contemporary cities.