Why do several Brazilian participatory institutions gather people who usually do not participate? This thesis attempts to analyse an "improbable" participation through the case of women's municipal conferences in Recife and Londrina. Although several studies highlight the role of participatory institutions designs to explain why people participate, I argue that it is the intricacy between social and participatory games which explains this mobilization. My main hypothesis is that poor women's participation depends on issues specific to popular districts and more precisely on the competition for representation in those territories. This doctoral research combines two levels of analysis: a microlevel approach, first, based on the study of women's trajectory and their practices of participation; a mesolevel approach, then, which aims at analyzing the emergence of participatory democracy in Brazil. These two levels of analysis show that poor women participation is the result of a singular history, during which the category participation has been linked to a territory, the popular districts, as well as individuals and collective dynamics of construction of legitimate spokespersons within them.
