Social Urbanism – Integrated and participatory urban upgrading in Medellin (original) (raw)
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The Northeastern Urban Integration Project [PUI] MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA - Urban Development Agency [EDU]
After colonial times Latin America has been characterized by informal urbanization processes and spontaneous appropriation of the territory without any regulation or structure (Alcaldía de Medellín, 2006). Nowadays, in the specific case of Colombia, the migration processes continue and the main cities are still receiving thousands of people motivated for the economic opportunities or forced by the internal armed conflict. In Colombia, more than 75% of the population is living in cities and from that percentage, between 20 and 30% of the urban population is living in informal and precarious settlements. Colombia and Brazil are the countries with the highest rates of inequality and the lowest rates of urban security in Latin America (Echeverri, 2011). Medellín is the capital of the department of Antioquia, the second largest city in Colombia and is located in the Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley, the second largest urban agglomeration in the country with more than 3.731.447 inhabitants. Almost 50% of the population of the city lives in informal settlements and occupy geographically dangerous areas (DANE, 2010). After decades of violence, insecurity, inequality and social segregation, in the last decade the city has experienced an urban renewal process so called Social Urbanism. The bases of the Social Urbanism processes were the Urban Integration Projects (PUI), as a strategy of physical intervention in informal areas of the city. This paper is focused on the project development and management of the Northeastern Urban Integration Project (PUI), located in an area characterized for high levels of marginalization, segregation, poverty, violence and one of the lowest quality of life rates in the city. Keywords: Informal settlements, public space, social housing, public facilities, environment, public transport, urban integration project, social urbanism, project management, urban development.
2017
The proliferation of informality in the past four decades has affected the formulation of urban policy and poverty reduction strategies in Latin America. Informality expanded throughout Latin America in the 1980’s, providing shelter to the urban poor in the shadow of economic crises and market liberalisation (Zanetta 2001; Abbott 2002; Moser 1995). The reaction of Latin American governments to the growth of informality was to implement poverty reduction strategies focused on eviction, then evolving to sites and services and the shelter approach. The results of these anti-poverty policies evidenced the inefficiency of relocation strategies. The objectives of relocation strategies of addressing only the problem of shelter while neglecting the real causes of urban poverty and informality resulted in the strengthening of informal actors in cities. Informality covered the basic needs of the urban poor for shelter, public services and employment, but at the same time it increased their vu...
Social urbanism in Medellín social dynamics between public policies and community activism
Citizen-Led Urbanism in Latin America: Superbook of civic actions for transforming cities, 2022
In the 1990s, at same time that the United States was bombing Baghdad, Medellín was the most dangerous city in the world. However, Since 2003, the city has undergone an internationally renowned urban transformation, carried out by several consecutive administrations of mayors (2004-2014). As a result, the city, with its tenfold reduction in homicide rates, is now seen as an example of how to successfully engage with armed conflict and violence by adopting spatial and urban policies. The urban interventions conducted have become a model for cities with a high concentration of informal settlements and the challenge of scarce resources. Planners, politicians and the media have referred to this process of transformation of Medellín as “social urbanism”.
Dealing with Dangerous Spaces: The Construction of Urban Policy in Medellín
Latin American Perspectives, 2017
In Latin America, cities with security challenges are increasingly invoking urban planning policy to rebuild governance in neighborhoods perceived as unruly. While the state’s “arrival” in marginalized areas is long overdue, it is also embedded in complex histories of violence and socio-spatial marginalization. Medellín’s Comuna 13 has historically been materially and discursively constructed as a space of relegation. Interview and focus group data show how policy cycles for Comuna 13 evolved from discretionary programs (1978–2002) to securitization and (para)militarization (2000–2003) and then social urbanism, a program of participatory urban upgrading (2004–2011). The latter, a reformist approach, aims to provide better services, foster participation, and reduce socio-spatial segregation. Underlying these positive aims, however, two contradictions remain concealed: deep-seated inequality resulting from decades of normalized exclusion and the perpetuation of a regime of hypersecuritization and (para)policing that recreates itself under new governance and spatial arrangements.
The Colombian city of Medellín: discussing the impact of social
Europa XXI, 2020
While the Colombian city of Medellín used to be infamous as the world’s most violent (1991), a more recent image is as the most innovative (2013). The case of Medellín is thus taken to epitomise possibilities for positive change, with the city being looked up to by others. The particular renown here is as one of the cradles of the so-called ‘social urbanism’, an approach to city-making that aims to resolve social issues by means of interventions in urban space, via infrastructure, public places, etc. However, while the successes of this approach have been acknowledged and vaunted internationally, certain less-successful effects have often tended to be silenced. This paper therefore focuses on the more-shadowy side to social urbanism, and on ways of proceeding that remain in place despite the transformations announced. The aim is thus to contribute to a fact-based discussion on the actual effectiveness of social urbanism in addressing social challenges.
Planning Theory and Practice, 2018
This paper employs qualitative research methods to gain a better understanding of how residents of Colombian low income neighbourhoods engage in participatory planning programs to develop their neighbourhood. The paper draws on twenty-one semi-structured interviews that were conducted in 2009 in four participatory urban renewal projects in two Colombian cities – Bogotá and Medellín. Participatory planning projects were rolled out to encourage the inclusion of marginalised neighbourhoods within the physical and social fabric of the city, but the research revealed that participants’ experiences of empowerment and inclusion were limited. Participatory projects were appreciated for the physical, social and economic improvements they generated, and for the avenues for future projects they opened up. However, lack of genuine opportunities to participate led to further feelings of dependence and frustration, negatively affecting people’s sense of belonging in the city and in the neighbourhood. Pressure exerted on people to participate conflicted with their imperative to earn a living, and public servants’ expectations of grateful and complicit participants resulted in feelings of frustration. Further, participants’ perceptions of nearby neighbourhoods with better service provision, acquired without the necessity to participate, made them feel forgotten. Together, these results illustrate the complexities of citizen participation in marginalised neighbourhoods. The potential causes for conflict and misunderstanding highlighted in this paper have relevance for planning strategies and participation policies that seek to include previously marginalised citizens into the social and physical fabric of the city.
Urban design and social capital in slums. Case study: Moravia´s neighborhood, Medellin, 2004-2014
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 216 ( 2016 ) 56 – 67, 2016
Taking as reference the historical context of the expansion phenomenon of Medellin and the anthropogenic processes based on Moravia´s neighborhood, this paper purpose is to make an impact evaluation of the Integral Improvement Plan (PPMIM 2004- 2011), using the relationship between the urban design features and the social capital variables. Initially, a theoretical and conceptual framework of the various topics under review is presented. Secondly, we confront the PPMIM´s principles, its urban design strategies, its procedural methodology with the built project and evaluate its general socio spatial impact. Finally, we analyze its impact on the cognitive and structural dimensions of the social capital. The Integral Improvement Plan (PPMIM) brought the physical, ecological, cultural and social rehabilitation of the human settlement allowing recovering the historical as well as the cultural memory of the community and strengthening some aspects of the social capital and its ties, as the bridging and linking networks. Finally the paper highlights and summarizes positive and negative implications of slum upgrading programs and some necessary recommendations for urban design, the social capital that can really be translated into real resources for the self-sustainable development of low-income communities and their future generations.
Upgrading Suburbs in the Latin American context. A management and transformation review of slums
2013
In the current world situation, it is important to work in the management and transformation of cities in developing countries, such as Latin America. Reports from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Latin America is the most unequal region in the world, 31% of the population lived below the poverty line in 2011. This situation highlights the need to work efficiently in this context. Many Latin American cities are, for decades, facing the urban phenomenon of poverty growing. Over the years, cities are becoming more attractive to live because of their economic, social, cultural and educational offer. The crisis of the "welfare states" generated by this situation requires the development of new policies that are able to redirect and enhance the efforts of our societies to overcome inequalities. This research covers some Latin American experiences in different countries where, as a result of the attraction dynamics generated by cities, informal settlements have emerged in critical condition on the peripheries. Since 2007, a number of different initiatives and actions for social inclusion and improving these neighborhoods have been developed. These projects aim to correct the urban imbalances and the excessive private space occupancy, through consolidation of the structural systems of public space. The objective is to reverse the phenomenon of informality in the occupation, use and land profit through the development of urban projects. These projects have to recognize the social construction of habitat, to reformulate the neighborhood project raising the standards of habitability and safety with environmental and equity criteria. The intervention initiatives in these neighborhoods arise from the urgent need to improve living conditions, assuring, as far as possible, equal access to the services offered by the city. The urban projects and the intervention tools proposed are strategies to improve these conditions, promoting social inclusion and reducing the gap between the different sectors of the city. Public investment is essential to work in urban poor and conflicting; this paper will explain the management of these projects, analyzing how they have done and how they can serve as a basis for future interventions.
Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress on Sustainable Construction and Eco-Efficient Solutions. (2017), p 77-89, 2017
This article presents research on the participatory approach to projects and processes of urban regeneration. It looks at the concepts of Sustainability and Habitability and their relationship with the urban environment and architecture. It carries out a revision of the participatory dimension of several urban regeneration processes carried out in Andalusia region and other parts of Spain and their link to results obtained in terms of environmental, economic and social improvement. In the light of this, it defines possible methodological tools that may be effectively applied to traditional urban regeneration processes. It presents a case study and its peculiarities and it draws some conclusions on its effectiveness and suitability. It compares citizen-led processes with public management-led ones. It analyses some potential tools to be used in this kind of projects and processes and identifies the existing gaps, providing possible strategies for developing new research that could be developed in deep. ///// El presente artículo presenta el enfoque desarrollado por la investigación desde el ámbito de la participación ciudadana en acciones o proyectos de regeneración urbana. Plantea los conceptos de sostenibilidad, y habitabilidad y su relación con el ámbito urbano y la arquitectura. Realiza una revisión de la dimensión participativa de diversas acciones de regeneración urbana realizadas en Andalucía o España y su vinculación a los resultados obtenidos en términos de mejoras urbanas medioambientales, económicas y sociales. Posteriormente, define las posibles herramientas metodológicas que permitan su incorporación efectiva en procesos de regeneración urbana tradicionales. Presenta el estudio de casos realizado y sus peculiaridades, extrayendo conclusiones sobre su eficacia y pertinencia. Compara las actuaciones lideradas por la ciudadanía frente a las lideradas por la administración pública. Analiza las herramientas potenciales a utilizar en este tipo de procesos y proyectos y detecta las carencias al respecto, proponiendo posibles estrategias de desarrollo posterior de la investigación.