IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/cityxx/v15y2011i6p647-661.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mobility innovation at the urban margins

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Brand
  • Julio D. Dávila

Abstract

With the consolidation of democratic governments in the 1980s and 1990s, wholesale evictions of entire neighbourhoods ceased to be a solution to urban problems in Latin America. This paper discusses an example of a new generation of municipal programmes aimed at physically upgrading informal settlements while integrating them both physically and socially into the fabric of the city. In Medellín, a city with a recent history of violence and social inequality, the audacious use of well-established ski-slope aerial cable-car technology in dense and hilly low-income informal settlements was followed by major neighbourhood upgrading comprising new social housing, schools and other social infrastructure, as well as support to micro-enterprises. Although lack of mobility contributes to social inequality and poverty, the paper argues that the introduction of quick-fix highly visible transport technology on its own is unlikely to help reduce poverty. Although urban upgrading programmes and the symbolic value of cable-car systems have instilled among the local population a feeling of inclusion and integration into the 'modern’ city, they can also be understood as mechanisms for the 'normalisation’ of informal sectors of the city.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Brand & Julio D. Dávila, 2011. "Mobility innovation at the urban margins," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(6), pages 647-661, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:cityxx:v:15:y:2011:i:6:p:647-661
    DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2011.609007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13604813.2011.609007
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13604813.2011.609007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. María Eugenia González Alcocer & Michael Cohen & Cléia Beatriz H. de Oliveira & Bárbara Araújo dos Santos & Nathalie Alvarado & Patricia Palenque & Eduardo Rojas & Adriana de Araujo Larangeira & Verón, 2010. "Building Cities: Neighbourhood Upgrading and Urban Quality of Life," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 79300 edited by Eduardo Rojas, February.
    2. González Alcocer, María Eugenia & Cohen, Michael & Oliveira, Cléia Beatriz H. de & Santos, Bárbara Araújo dos & Alvarado, Nathalie & Palenque, Patricia & Rojas, Eduardo & De Araujo Larangeira, Adriana, 2010. "Building Cities: Neighbourhood Upgrading and Urban Quality of Life," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 409.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Diego Zapata Cordoba & John Stanley & Janet Robin Stanley, 2014. "Reducing Social Exclusion in Highly Disadvantaged Districts in Medellín, Colombia, through the Provision of a Cable-Car," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 2(4), pages 1-13.
    2. Morten Flesser & Bernhard Friedrich, 2022. "Are We Taking Off? A Critical Review of Urban Aerial Cable Cars as an Integrated Part of Sustainable Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-22, October.
    3. Mejía-Dugand, Santiago & Hjelm, Olof & Baas, Leo, 2017. "Public utility companies in liberalized markets – The impact of management models on local and regional sustainability," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 137-144.
    4. Oliver Kunze & Fabian Frommer, 2021. "The Matrix vs. The Fifth Element—Assessing Future Scenarios of Urban Transport from a Sustainability Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, March.
    5. Alke Jenss, 2021. "Disrupting the Rhythms of Violence: Anti‐port Protests in the City of Buenaventura," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S2), pages 67-77, April.
    6. Jenny Pearce & Alexandra Abello Colak, 2021. "Humanizing Security through Action‐oriented Research in Latin America," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(6), pages 1370-1395, November.
    7. Scarinci, Riccardo & Rast, Frédéric & Bierlaire, Michel, 2017. "Needed reduction in mobility energy consumption to meet the goal of a 2000-watt society," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 133-148.
    8. María José Álvarez Rivadulla & Diana Bocarejo, 2014. "Beautifying the Slum: Cable Car Fetishism in Cazucá, Colombia," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 2025-2041, November.
    9. Martinez, Sebastian & Sanchez, Raul & Yañez, Patricia, 2018. "Getting a Lift: The Impact of Aerial Cable Cars in La Paz, Bolivia," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 36, Inter-American Development Bank.
    10. Hesam Kamalipour, 2023. "Shaping Public Space in Informal Settlements: A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.
    11. David P. Ashmore & Roselle Thoreau & Corina Kwami & Nicola Christie & Nicholas A. Tyler, 2020. "Using thematic analysis to explore symbolism in transport choice across national cultures," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 607-640, April.
    12. Oviedo Hernandez, Daniel & Titheridge, Helena, 2016. "Mobilities of the periphery: Informality, access and social exclusion in the urban fringe in Colombia," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 152-164.
    13. Maryam AlSuwaidi & Djamel Boussaa & Raffaello Furlan & Reem Awwaad, 2024. "The Paradox of Kowloon Walled City: Architectural Anomaly and Social Microcosm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-29, July.
    14. Juan J. Rivero & Luisa Sotomayor & Juliana M. Zanotto & Andrew Zitcer, 2022. "Democratic Public or Populist Rabble: Repositioning the City amidst Social Fracture," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 101-114, January.
    15. Yanez-Pagans, Patricia & Martinez, Daniel & Mitnik, Oscar A. & Scholl, Lynn & Vazquez, Antonia, 2018. "Urban Transport Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean: Challenges and Lessons Learned," IZA Discussion Papers 11812, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Luis A. Guzman & Victor A. Cantillo-Garcia & Julian Arellana & Olga L. Sarmiento, 2023. "User expectations and perceptions towards new public transport infrastructure: evaluating a cable car in Bogotá," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 751-771, June.
    17. Patricia Yañez-Pagans & Daniel Martinez & Oscar A. Mitnik & Lynn Scholl & Antonia Vazquez, 2019. "Urban transport systems in Latin America and the Caribbean: lessons and challenges," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 28(1), pages 1-25, December.
    18. Matthew Aaron Richmond & Jeff Garmany, 2016. "‘Post-Third-World City' or Neoliberal ‘City of Exception'? Rio de Janeiro in the Olympic Era," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 621-639, May.
    19. Alan Gilbert, 2015. "Urban governance in the South: How did Bogotá lose its shine?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(4), pages 665-684, March.
    20. Santiago Mejía-Dugand & Marcela Pizano-Castillo, 2020. "Touching Down in Cities: Territorial Planning Instruments as Vehicles for the Implementation of SDG Strategies in Cities of the Global South," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, August.
    21. Claudia N. Berg & Uwe Deichmann & Yishen Liu & Harris Selod, 2017. "Transport Policies and Development," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 465-480, April.
    22. Laura Cesafsky, 2017. "How to Mend a Fragmented City: a Critique of ‘Infrastructural Solidarity'," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 145-161, January.
    23. Bocarejo, Juan Pablo & Portilla, Ingrid Joanna & Velásquez, Juan Miguel & Cruz, Mónica Natalia & Peña, Andrés & Oviedo, Daniel Ricardo, 2014. "An innovative transit system and its impact on low income users: the case of the Metrocable in Medellín," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 49-61.
    24. Ferrarese, Moreno & Loner, Enzo & Pulina, Manuela, 2021. "Demand, business profitability and competitiveness in the cableway system: A multidimensional framework," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    25. Garsous, Grégoire & Suárez-Alemán, Ancor & Serebrisky, Tomás, 2019. "Cable cars in urban transport: Travel time savings from La Paz-El Alto (Bolivia)," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 171-182.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jason Corburn, 2017. "Urban Place and Health Equity: Critical Issues and Practices," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-10, January.
    2. Jason Corburn & Alice Sverdlik, 2017. "Slum Upgrading and Health Equity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-12, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:cityxx:v:15:y:2011:i:6:p:647-661. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CCIT20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.