Social Urbanism in Colombia

Social urbanism is used as a way to address socio-spatial inequality that plagues many cities. It is a developmental approach based on investing in people, places and jobs, through the creation of public spaces and infrastructure.

In Colombia, social urbanism came out of bringing public services to informal settlements as a way to reduce inequality and violence. This innovative concept is founded on the idea that public space has no socioeconomic divisions.

Colombia’s diverse population, mountainous geography, and unequal capitalist development have created a highly stratified society where geographic and socioeconomic divides are ever so present. These divides have made it incredibly challenging for the country to run under a central government which is why Colombia has historically operated as a patchwork of independent cities instead of as a unified whole.

The weakness of of Colombia's central government combined with the inability to cope with mass-migration from the countryside following La Violencia exacerbated urban poverty and violence. Most people who migrated into urban centers like Medellin moved into informal settlements on the outskirts of the city because of their inability to secure housing and employment thus increasing inequality.

Late into the 1980’s, Colombia began to strengthen local democracy and institutionalize citizen participation as a way to address the violence, poverty, class conflict, and political corruption in major cities like Medellin and Bogota.

Colombia’s 1940’s civil war, known as La Violencia, ravaged countryside communities causing mass-migration into the city. By 1972, 50 percent of the population—600,000 people—lived in informal settlements. In the 1980’s economic decline and the furthering of social divisions increased with the formation of the Medellin cartel.

Frustrations toward the government’s inability to address poverty ignited revolution and violent alternatives. With narcos and state military forces controlling the city, clientelism and corruption overwhelmed the city. The presence and status of the Medellin drug cartel intensified paramilitary and guerrilla activity in low income communities making it the murder capital of the world.

The Urban Reform Law (1988), Urban Land Use Plan (1989), and the ability for cities to elect their own mayors caused a political shift and allowed Medellin to engage in political urban reforms that would reduce violence. The creation of the Presidential Council for Medellin and its Metropolitan Areas (early 1990's), which brought together local political and community leaders, stakeholders, and professors, gave the city a chance to discuss alternatives and strategies to revamp the social fabric of Medellin and control rapid urbanization. This led to the development of a full fledged strategic plan that would cause an ideological shift and make Medellin known as one of the most innovative cities. 

The city’s first policy pilot project, PRIMED, was unsuccesful because it did not improve “municipal administration, strengthen community organization or build a political clientele around pro-poor governance”.

Farjado called for a governance framework that invested in urban infrastructure projects in the city’s most poverty and violence ridden areas. He recognized that infrastructure, housing, transportation, and economic development all contributed to the social fabric of the city and created an interconnected system that would address functional needs but also provide spaces for community engagement and citizenship. He believed in transformation through public space creation.

As a part of the social uburanism initiative, the Fundación Empresas Públicas de Medellín (AKA the EPM foundation) established the network of public libraries; a series of public libraries providing many different communities equal access to education, information, and technology. Libraries are free and their free programs reach out to marginalized communities.

Part of the reason social urbanism in Medellin has been successful is because many of the public space projects were designed through participatory processes. Alejandro Echeverri, Architect and Medellin’s Former Director of Urban Projects, avoided the top-down approach many urban planners take and worked to develop a holistic collaboration between architects, social workers, lawyers, community leaders, etc. In the case of Biblioteca de Espana, imagination workshops were held every month where children were able to think about how to make a park. The abilty to have input in these infrastructure projects creates a sense of empowerment among the community. 

“We wanted to do a holistic intervention around each station, combining physical transformation and programs of education, innovation, entrepreneurship and so on. So we used each [cable car] station as a magnet to develop a public space. We focused as well on the itineraries of the common people, how the people use the barrios, from the houses to the schools to the stations and how to improve that condition and give them more public services and public spaces and new cultural facilities. So, working with the community, and thinking that big infrastructures are important but the same importance is given to the small details, small interventions. And the intervention has to be with the people as well.” - Alejandro Echeverri

The Greenbelt will hugely expand the city’s overall amount of parkland, recreation opportunities, and even places to grow food. It is a massive circular park that will be located along Medellin’s mountain ridges and is expected to span 74km.

The low-income neighborhoods higher up on the mountain are highly vulnerable to landslides and flash-floods. The greenbelt can act as a buffer for these neighborhoods and slow down erosion.

Just like Medellin, Bogota is another Colombia city that has fallen victim to poor city planning, poverty, class conflict, and rapid population growth. With a history of violence and city planning around the automobile, the city's pedestrian friendly spaces like sidewalks and parks diminished. Corruption of government, privatization of public spaces contributed to inequality. Remaking of public space in Bogota started in the early 90s after the 1991 constitution required the state to protect the integrity of public space and prioritize social development not based on clientelism.

Like Medellin's major Sergio Fajardo, Enrique Penalosa also believed sustainable urban design is the foundation for social justice. Bogota has always been victim to poor urban planning making much of the city dominated by road infrastructure. When Penalosa was elected into office, he decided to invest in public transit instead of investing in elevated highways.

“An advanced city is not a place where the poor move about in cars, rather it’s where even the rich use public transportation” Enrique Penalosa, Former Bogota Mayor

Soledad Garcia Ferrari et al. 2018. City profile: Medellin. Cities 74, (1):354-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.12.01

Veyom, B. 2011. MURDER CAPITAL to MODERN MIRACLE? THE PROGRESSION of GOVERNANCE IN MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA. PhD. diss., University College London. 

Cosima Malandrino. 2017. On the ‘Medellin Miracle’ and the ‘Social Urbanism’ Model.  https://labgov.city/theurbanmedialab/on-the-medellin-miracle-and-the-social-urbanism-model/  (accessed May 2020).

Eleanor Gordon. 2017. Poverty, Crime & Conflict: Socio-Economic Inequalities & Prospects for Peace in Colombia. https://secgovcentre.org/2016/10/poverty-crime-and-conflict-socio-economic-inequalities-and-the-prospects-for-peace-in-colombia/ (accessed may 2020)

Guzman, L., D. Oviedo, and J. Bocarejo, 2017. City profile: The Bogotá Metropolitan Area that never was. Cities 60, (1):202-215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.09.004.

Cifuentes Quin, Camilo Andrés; Tixier, Nicolas. An inside look at Bogotá’s urban renewal from broad urban stories to everyday tales. A: Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism. "6th Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU): TOURBANISM, Barcelona, 25-27 gener". Barcelona: IFoU, 2012, p. 1-11.