This study aims to examine how open government data from São Paulo’s Participe + participatory platform, in Brazil, can be analyzed through the lens of urban facilities management (UFM) to identify socio-spatial patterns of citizen participation and demonstrate how UFM provides a technical framework for converting collective demands into actionable and evidence-based public policies. By focusing on more than 3,000 citizen proposals submitted in 2025, the research investigates how civic participation reflects social priorities and how open data ecosystems can support managerial and technical decision-making in complex urban environments.
The research adopted a quantitative, exploratory observational design, using open administrative data from the Participe + platform. Data were processed in R using descriptive statistics, text mining and sentiment analysis to identify territorial, thematic and discursive patterns. The integration of these methods enabled a socio-spatial assessment of urban demands and their relationships with UFM’s operational domains.
Results revealed that citizen participation is concentrated in categories such as urban maintenance, health and human rights, with positive sentiment predominating across proposals. However, authorship was highly concentrated in a few individuals, exposing asymmetries in engagement. The analysis highlights the importance of an exogenous perspective for facilities management (FM) professionals managing corporate assets in cities with open government data, suggesting that UFM can serve as a bridge between civic participation and evidence-based management.
The study is limited to a single temporal cycle (August 2025) and to a single urban context. Future research should use longitudinal and comparative analyses across different cities, integrating big data analytics to assess the long-term impacts of citizen participation and its implications for UFM-based governance.
The results provide actionable insights for municipal managers and FM professionals by indicating that citizen demands are strongly linked to everyday urban maintenance and visible infrastructure services. Digital participatory platforms can thus enhance transparency, inform decision-making and align operational management with social priorities.
The study highlights the role of digital participation platforms in enhancing transparency and enabling citizen engagement in urban governance. However, the concentration of authorship and unequal distribution of support reveal persistent asymmetries in participation. By framing citizen proposals as operational signals, UFM contributes to more inclusive and responsive public policies. The findings emphasize the need to expand participation diversity and address structural inequalities that influence civic engagement. Ultimately, the integration of open data and participatory mechanisms can strengthen democratic legitimacy and improve the quality of life by aligning public services with localized social demands.
This study advances the theoretical and practical understanding of UFM by connecting participatory governance, data analytics and FM. It introduces the notion that FM professionals require an exogenous, city-oriented perspective when operating in environments with accessible open data, thus contributing to more transparent, data-driven and socially legitimate urban governance.
