tod and the caring city.lms

8/18/2019 Tod and the Caring City.lms

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Laura Mendoza Sandoval 08/2013

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TOD AND THE CARING CITY

“Decelerating will be a struggle until we rewrite the rules that govern almost every sphere of

life - the economy, the workplace, urban design, education, medicine.” (HONORÉ, 2004)

ContentTOD AND THE CARING CITY....................................................................................................... 1

Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1

Theory of the ethics of care: a summary ................................................................................ 2

The possibility here opened ................................................................................................... 4

Fighting legitimacy: the power and appropriateness of a dialogue. ................................... 5

The seductive TOD ................................................................................................................... 8

TOD and the Theory of the ethics of care ............................................................................ 10

Reflexiveness ......................................................................................................................... 12

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 15

IntroductionA well planned city, thought in a human scale and responsible with the future generations,

is a caring city. The theory of the ethics of care, purposed by feminist theorists of XX and XXI

century results surprisingly useful to analyse the new urbanism perspective which stands

for thinking the cities from a new perspective (different from the traditional which is

anchored to an economistic logic). This new urbanisms support the idea of sustainability of

cities, and one of its mayor contribution has been the Transit Oriented Development

paradigm.

In the present text I am trying to offer a coherent and solid argumentation in which the

theory of the ethics of care (PUIG DE LA BELLACASA, 2012) (PUIG DE LA BELLACASA,

Matters of care in thecnoscience: assembling neglected things, 2010) (SINGELTON, 2011)

might be used to understand the phenomena of the contemporary urbanism, specially, the

TOD paradigm. And if the reader is not entirely convinced, I will be glad at least if the codes


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that are subjacent for the TOD and the theory of the ethics of care can be identified as

compatible.

The named contemporary urbanism, is a new perspective that now a days has been taken

by an increasingly number of experts during their consultancies. With this, may I place mythesis, that will be the central core of the following dissertation: The Transit Oriented

Development is the technical proposal and urbanistic core of a well-planned and caring city ;

understanding by this, the adequacy of an space (infrastructure and services of the city) in

a way that the necessary elements for living in society are guaranteed, and in the same way,

these ones allows relationships which maintain them.

Theory of the ethics of care: a summary

The history of the theory of the ethics of care, can be tracked in a lineal way. In its invention

the idea was to purpose a change on perspective about the differential experiences of a

feminine gender individual, differentiated from the hegemonic falocentric point of view

which held the sciences and privileged the masculine vision. This primary convulsion of

orders, which happened in the psychology field, was evidently influenced by a gender

perspective of the feminist theory. The disciple of Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilliganpropose for the very first time to see in a differentiated way the “justice moral evolu t ion”

that her professor presented in his career. In that way, the fixation of models from the

masculine figure started to be altered giving space to the feminine figure to be a point of

reference, when talking about her issues, or moral conditions. Gilligan argues that the

women tend to worry more about the relationships itself, than getting committed to

abstract notions such as justice (GILLIGAN, 1982). Nevertheless in her critic (very well

intentioned and completely revolutionary in the decade of 80) results reproducing images

of evolutionism and linearity that will support the dominance of ones by others. In thisdomination, the best moral position that supposedly one have, will stands above the other

moral positions, classifying the last one as the weak one (recalling the weak sex from De

Beauvoir “The Second Sex” from 1949). Also, the academic field criticised her for not

assuming a social class analysis.

Is into this emptiness where start to emerge critics from feminists in behalf of the

positioning of the care in the role of women in the society. The academy and in quotidianity

is common to overshadow the power relations within the practices of care (caring others,


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caring of, caring for, caring with, etc.) and the women which gets involved with those

practices, alluding to the submission of women in particular cases, and the consequent

attribution of those activities to them by a naturalized logic of femininity.

With those critics it started to appeared new “waves” of the conceptualization of the theoryof ethics of care which, in one point get detached from the evolutionary logic, and by the

other, proposed to talk about the practises or tasks itself that the women developed in

regards of care. This second approach afford to get into a confusion on conceptualization.

The concept of care starts to be confused with the examples of caring practices, so the

metaphor starts to be mixed up with the idea itself, and produced a notion of maintenance

that supported even more a stereotype of what was supposed to do and how to behave a

woman in regards to others, and relations. Again, the assignation of fixed roles by a

patriarchal logic was enhanced.

Responding to that new wave of theory of ethics of care, some eurpoean theorists were

capable of transferring the concept from the domestic sphere (maintenance of the children

and elderly, of the health from the family members, the relationships between families, etc)

to a political and institutionalized sphere: the bureaucracy of governments and the

generation of public politics (SEVENJAHUSSEN, 2003). These authors follow the romantic

and violent idea of the good woman, and how she should act in response of her morality,

and the used the definition by Tronto of care: “care as a species activity that includes

everything we do to maintain, continue and repair our “world” so that we can live in it as

well as possible” (SELVENHUISSEN, 2003). But the defiition that I myself embrace, would

be a more sophisticated one, released by Puig de la Bellacasa and is: “standing by the vital

necessity of care means standing for sustainable and flourishing relations, not merely

survivalist or instrumental ones” (2012, page 198)

To sum up, what they propose is to think of care as a social practice – not any more a moral

attribute – which must be considered in a political and institutional level, highlighting theinherent human condition that every human shares: the vulnerability and interdependence,

which provokes an inevitable relative autonomy (I need from others!). In the argumentation

they take conscience of an asymmetric relation which is established between care-givers

and care-receivers, which supports and reproduces a neoliberal logic where the individual

hierarchy are established and fixed.

Is from the critics that were done to this last conceptual position that surges the Bacchi and

Beasley proposal. These two authors radically stand for getting rid from the concepts till


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now construct that supported the theory of the ethics of care, which are namely justice,

equity, trust, generosity and care. In retribution they bring to the table the new concept of

“social flesh” (BACCHI, 2007). With this concept it is notable that the ideas of Butler are

here reflex, ideas such as performance, embodiment of social habits and moulded bodies.

The authors wanted to dispose the terms used in the theory of ethics of care, and replaced

those with the only one they proposed which intends to get directly into the corporal

sensation, interdependency and vulnerability. Nevertheless this approach results to be

extremely radical for they are erasing everything so far build.

The previous synthesized resume was possible because of the more than a year task that

we have been developing in the study group of the theory of the ethics of care, where we

are intending to explore different lectures, tensions, questions and problematic that have

appeared in the theory we are exploring. Specifically in regards to the communicative

practices that can be seen in the social scientist, in behalf of the racialized and ethnicized

scientists women in the colombian context. .However, this theory cannot be restricted to

the communication field, nor the other ones named previously which correspond to a

political sphere or a domestic one (a classical view of the ethics of care). With this, may I

propose that the theory of care might be proved to work in other scenarios unexplored,

which will be here my one task. I think that the theory of the ethics of care might be wider,

getting to be a perspective.

The possibility here openedThe appliance of this new perspective, aligned with the feminist theory, can be reflected in

what I have called the conceptualization of the contemporary cities. This new

conceptualization is fed by different concerning issues that get through thoughts such as

sustainability, human scale development, environmental issues and justice.

Is with this that it becomes pertinent the approach from the scientist Donna Haraway with

her cyborg society revolutionary idea. In that one, Haraway define that there is a difficultyin establishing the barriers and limits of the individuality of the social subject, with this, also

are problematized the supposedly fixed and static ontologies.in this perspective the fixation

of the gender roles are seriously attacked and is clear the offer an opening of the possibilities

to think in a different way the inter personal dynamics and the relations of individuals and

their surroundings (HARAWAY, 1994). Is by this new way of thinking life (a system of

relations between organisms which generates a mutual relative dependency, that is

permitted the existence of the involved) that is possible the opening to an infinite list of

questions, such as, what makes a city a sensitive one, receptive, just, friendly, inclusive and


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caring?, how can be measured the effect of a city (space and infrastructure) in their

inhabitants and vice versa? How connected are the elements that compose a city (dwellers,

buildings, infrastructure, services, activities, etc.)? And the question of the million (here

developed) which relations can be established between the kinds of citizenships that exists

in a city and the physical conditions of its elements which are related in a web-type

relationship? To get to answer the previous questions, it will be needed lots of

investigations, field work, multiple resources and political willing from the governors and

administrations of the cities where were held such investigations. With this in mind I have

to say that my intention is not to solve the previous interrogations, but to have a short

dissertation about how the conceptualization of the cities from the perspective of the new

urbanism (in respond to certain needs and requirements like the international

commitments, classification of world class cities, the millennium objectives, etc.) can be

analysed from the theory of the ethics of care.

Fighting legitimacy: the power and appropriateness of a dialogue.

Before I start with this, it should be made explicit the relation of different actors that get to

conceptualize and construct the city and the urban society. There are plenty of actors and

here I identify four of them. The academic field , which study in a very timid way the industry

of cities, the relations within it and the impacts of this spatial and social formations in the

construct of culture and society. By the other hand, there are entities in charge of building

the city (builder companies, urban curatorships, legislators, landscape builders, etc) which

in the same way contract the techincal expert s (consultants) for they express their

knowledge which is necessary to promote and evaluate the management of an urban

project. Last but not least, the citizenship which actually build representations of their

territory, the city, and in this way approve, re construct or reprove the actions of the

previous actors.

The second agents (technical field and builder companies) are, in distress of some, the actual

actors which build the cities itself. They possess the economic, administrative and political

power to develop urban projects (material things). The third actors also construct the city

in a symbolic and political (participative and civil) way. Finally, and unfortunately, the first

agent continues to be relatively isolated in their own discussions, sometimes distant from

the reality and from a pragmatic dimension of the matter, because is very often that the

academy itself remain in meta-discussions without any viable and concrete proposal.


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I do not know if it has been an eternal fight and division between the academy and technical

field (in Colombia I am talking). This tension is manifest in its most glorified way when its

represents start to point out that the first one is an impractical, utopicall and

decontextualized knowledge, while the other assures that the other has been “sol d” to the

system... I don’t know, but each version has to have its doses of veracity, but what is entirely

true is that those two are fields in dispute, and the dispute is supported by an egocentric

idea of: what I say is the correct, and what the other say is wrong. This conflict must respond

to a fight in regards of the legitimacy of their approaches and knowledge to the social

phenomena they study. One of the fields builds its knowledge more in the practice, involving

more the economical, juridical and political context than the other; while the other stands

for a more reflexive and critical point of view, let’s say a more philosophical knowledge.

Having this into account, and in the same way proposing a stop to the fire within the two

fields, I will point out the benefits that bring to an urban study the techinical view.

The technical field in daily basis take decisions of the same nature, without permitting a

satisfactory dialogue with the other key agents that build the city. This happens for many

reasons that are not the objective of the present text. Is by this attribution that the technical

field may fall to take desinformated decisions, that possibly will provoke negative non

planned effects, that or not being previously studied and anticipated; this happens to be

very expensive for all the involved agents and for the cities itself. .

Is the case of the impacts that brought the urban Project of Transmilenio System. In a case

study held by the anthropologist Andriana Hurtado Tarazona, in which was studied the

gentrification phenomena, it was proven that the neighbourhoods nearby the terminals

from two lines studied at the research suffered an evident increase of the land value, which

had important implications in the dwellers there living. The BRT building in the city was

necessary, especially for those periphery sectors which did not have equal opportunities of

moving inside the city. However, the technicians and consultants who were part of thematerialization of the Project, did not had in mind the medium and long term effects that

would provoke the infrastructure in those specific spaces. The author concluded that the

effect generated by the implementation of the urban Project as a generalised movement of

the original population living in those sectors, getting them to farer places to live. That,

because the rent of the land increased in a way that the dwellers could not stand the raise,

so they moved away. In that way, the urban Project did not satisfy entirely its proposes,

because one of them was to ensure to the dwellers from those places (periphery) a qualified

access to the centres of the city, by having a good transport system nearby. Obviously that


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propose failed in the sense that the dwellers had to move to places less accessible and with

more risk (in terms of environment, social services, etc). In fact, the effect was worse than

what we can point out, cause the quantity of housing nearby the stations was reduced by

the positioning of commercial areas which actually could and an pay for the high rent of

land in those strategic places. So the urban project come to benefit the commerce above the

people.

In the previous example, it can be seen that disinformation or lack of expertise from the

technicians which had an important role in the execution and management of the urban

Project, provoke a huge negative non planned effect, in a Project that theoretically should

have in considerations as many points of view, that may predict its impact. Nevertheless, I

think that the dynamic of the voice and position of these technicians and consultants is

having a shift; a good shift off course, in the way that they are being way more receptive and

accountable by leading debates of themes such as sustainability, human scale development

and the inclusion of the people into the politics and planned projects. I think that the sector

is being more and more responsible by trying to avoid the negative non planned effects of

their own projects.

Recently with the emergence of international standards and politics which qualify the world

class cities around the world (which means a direct increase of the capital flux and the

constant competition of being the richer or sexier city of the world), it has being looking forstrategies for the competence between cities try not to be as savage as it might be. It means,

not to jeopardy in excess the dwellers quality of life. What is wanted is a friendly city, where

people live happy and where the territory is actually build for them. The city is not a sum of

buildings, no! The city is the citizenship that inhabits it and the possibility of getting into the

multiple and diverse activities that the city offers by its same nature.

Thinking of a friendly city with the pedestrians (thought in a human scale), which density is

appropriate to its proximity, and with a carefully planned integration of transportation canbe for many an unreachable utopia, or worst, a reserved scenario for the named cities from

the first or developed world. For a city which counts with a friendly pedestrian atmosphere,

must assured an adequate sidewalk for walking, an appropriate location of their buildings,

a careful design of the parking lots and have smaller blocks for shortening distances and

generating proximity within the city. (HOLMES, 2007)

The material conditions of a city, everything that may be quantified and migt be included

into a offer-demand logic (like the inrastructure) is a key element to approaching the study


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of the city. The type (quality, quantity and form) of the infrastructure of a city, is a clear

evidence of the conditions in which the dwellers live in, and the way in which they represent

and signify their urban territory. Is from this premise that now I start the development of

my central thesis in the present text, how the TOD is a way of thinking and proposing caring

cities, in the sense that it responds to a human vital necessity: locomotion, and more

important, quality of life.

The seductive TODOne of the more prominent and promissory paradigms in the industry of cities is the Transit

Oriented Development. What is proposed in the idea of TOD is a design and execution of an

entire city having the transportation as the main character or spinal column of it. The spine

is composed by some points or knots (vertebrates) where are supposed to be concentrated

as many as activities, houses and work places as possible. This will be the sexier spots of thecity, where happen the mayor flux of capitals and people during the day. By getting farer

and farer form these points, the densification in the space decreases, generating in that way

circles of density whose gravity spots are the stations founded along the transport system.

1

The basic principles of the TOD are placed by a last and main interest of having more

efficient and liveable places were the quality of life of their inhabitants is guaranteed. The

three main principles identified by me are: planning, adequate finance system and

understanding the city. The last one is the most interesting overall, because it argues the

need of acknowledging the elements which happen to give a form, design and life to a city,

1 Infography by Claudio Olivares Medina. For Bogotá 21. Towards a World Class City oriented to TOD.

Despacio.org, ITS Consultancy, Universidad de los Andes, Consultoría de Colombia.


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and by that, points out the necessity of coherence between context and materialization

(infrastructure, geographical conditions, society codes, practices of the dwellers, their

cultural characteristics, etc.)

Before I continue, it is time to wonder why it is that important the transport when thinkingabout the city. Just and simply because the movement of the urban agents indicates the

pulse of the territory, points out the type of relationships held by its inhabitants in a

determinant time (let’s say, a day). By more contacts (relations established in a day), it is

more likely to have success in the relationships held during the day, which means that the

relations tend to be more productive (better!).

When is given the task of understanding a city, it exists the possibility of thinking outside

the box, from different areas of knowledge or disciplines, which definitely nourish the

perspectives that converge into the study of the city (interdisciplinary knowledge). With

that coexistence of perspectives and speeches, the nourishing of the knowledge allows a

contextualization of an infrastructural proposal, granting coherence between the space, de

people and their costumes and habits with the urban project that is planned to be build. This

is the case of the well-known example of the teleférico from Valle de Aburra in Antioquia,

Medellín, or the case in the same region of the electric staircases in the poorest zones of the

city.

Some of the key elements to understand the city are: having conscience (description and

characterisation with a posterior analysis) about the demand – offer of the local resources

and needs. That will enable to tell which the necessities are, so the demand is finally covered

by the initiatives that may be planned from there. This elements can be known just with the

deep study that is held in the space of the city and its particularities.

The TOD rests upon the idea of sustainability, and by that the city tends to be designed for

its inhabitants enjoy the city. In that way, it tends to generate a harmony and balance within

the urban, regional and metropolitan system. To get to that ideal and main objective, the

experts have been studying the possibilities that the TOD offers in different cities around

the world. . By contrasting and analysing the experiences it is possible to get closer to the

materialization of the project itself, because by knowing a range of operational, pragmatic,

engineering and economic techniques (instruments), it is possible the realization of such a

Project.

Just to getting simple, the TOD is to propose a sustainable city, human scale, efficient and

that allows that its inhabitants reach a well quality of life. How?, proposing forms of the city


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in which the privileged or main element is the mass public transport system, so in that way,

it itself become a gravitational centre of the city. Why? It was identified that one of the main

problems in the urban context, is the problem of the spatial distribution, human

distribution. Specially the last on is key, because the human distribution is changing by the

pace of the day: the people needs to move within and outside the city to accomplish their

activities, vital and nonvital! It´s by these need, and by the evident densification of the cities

around the world, that is vital to propose solutions to the transport and mobility

phenomena in a city. The TOD is a friendly, efficient and very promising way of solving in

long terms the problematic.

The experts in this subject identify a certain needs to develop a TOD Project. Something

key, is to find the money to realize the designing, the researching, adequacy of terrain,

building and extending the existing infrastructure of transport, so it can fit the TOD

guidelines. The funding has a clear private nature, but also public (State, Districts). In a

neoliberal context the PPAs (Public Private Alliance) have proven that are a licit option for

the business do not become a monopoly, nor a business in itself (tautological). At the same

time the experts held deep studies, such as economical (optimization of the investment

portfolio), sociological and of spatial character, so they can have the sufficient tools to build

up a Project proposal that is coherent with the particular context of each region or city, and

with that, the Project is able of having a greater success possibility.

TOD and the Theory of the ethics of careBy exposing briefly the TOD, now I can continue my argumentation and explain how the

TOD may be related to the Theory of the ethics of care. The cohesion is found in the essence

or philosophy of both ideas. For example, thinking in durable relations and not to jeopardy

the satisfaction of the future generation needs, can be translate as sustainability. Also the

idea of contextualizing and studying in deepness the social dynamics within a city, and with

that be able of proposing a viable transport system, may prove that subjacent ideas of

responsiveness, attentiveness, responsibility and competence are there.

Each of one of the previous four adjectives respond to an attitude of caring in the following

order: care receiving, caring about, taking care and care giving. Those ways of caring with

actions, enable us to see which practices are or are not caring. This is being argued by some

feminist theorists, but at the end, it responds to a reality of being with. In this point, the

author Puig de la Bellacasa is useful to think, because she argues that thinking with care

implies necessarily to articulate the thinking-with, dissenting-with and finally thinking-for.


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Having into account these three dimensions of the thinking of care, it is way much explicit

the relation with the adjectives previously announced.

When we talk about thinking-with, it is related to the task of receptiveness, while the

dissenting-with implies a certain competence that nourish the knowledge, discussion orexperience. Finally, when we talk about the thinking-for we can say that is necessary to get

to being attentive to the different elements implied and at the same time, it is assumed a

responsibility of allying with another (whether whom needs the caring, or whom shares the

concerns, etc).

And the TOD? And the well planned city? I think that when the experts and consultants, are

concerned of developing sustainable proposals, and when they think in a human scale, they

are leaving aside the logics that just privilege the economical or political aspects on projects

(ideologist). The people of flesh and bones, are the best and more clear indicator of success

of a project; if, from the design and proposal we think-with and for the people, it is

introduced the element of receptiveness, attentiveness and responsibility . By talking about

those categories is more likely that the project has more competence because it will be useful

and appropriated more easily by the people.

But the approaches that can be found between TOD and the theory of the ethics of care, are

not just seen in the procedure that the techniques follow applying the TOD paradigm. In a

more abstract level, of ideals may be called, we also can see important approaches. The TOD

is a paradigm that has suffered changes, and has made objectivable the idea of the city for

its dwellers. By identifying one vital element of the city for its functioning and support (its

structure), it has looked for a more responsible way of proposing a form of the city that

transform it into a more liveable, enjoyable and efficient for the peoples. By last, it is explicit

the need of having an understanding and comprehension of the city and its elements, I mean,

call the attention of the needs that are found and being responsible for them, integrating

them to the TOD proposal.

If we think of the binarisms of the gendered roles and we play to the puzzle of associations

which handle the metaphors and imageries, we have as a result the following scenarios. The

industrial city where the men is fulfilled and reflexes with the work, is masculinized by the

domination of time and space by the division and parcel up of those (which produces finally

an alienation). The sustainable city, by the other hand, is a feminized one, because it

concerns less on the end and more on the means, in concordance it takes into account the


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multiplicity and diversity of relations for the appreciation and optimization of that richness.

Yes, the gender imageries are here sustained; but just for a pedagogical exercise.

But the joints between TOD, or better, the study of the city and the theory of the ethics of

care cannot end in this scope of wonderings. The intersection amongst the concept of carethat the theory of the ethics of care approaches, allows a wide range of wonderings and

possibilities. How does the administration of a certain city take care of their citizens? With

which practices and politics is that caring attitude evident? If the response is a negative one,

then we might wonder, what and how to develop ideas to enhance the caring status of a city.

In behalf of the citizenship we may ask, which practices do the dwellers of a city develop in

relation with the others? How these relations evidence or not a caring concern and a caring

relation? Which things of a society must be shifted in order to turn the relations between

people responsive, attentive, responsible and competent ones?

In relation to the technicians and builders of the city, how and in which measure does their

proposals are appropriate to the people of flesh and bones they impact, but at the same time,

are attractive for the ones who detent the power (economic and political)?, and in what

measure, do they skip the “normal procedures” in order to gamble their convictions and

bets in behalf of their ideals of city and citizenship? In sum, what is the real commitment of

those whose words worth decisions in the urban context? To they care, those their actions

and ideas reflex that care?

ReflexivenessThis semester, -by far- has been my most productive period of time, understanding by

productive as the capacity for producing things. I was part of the investigation which

product was a report for the Mobility Secretariat which asked for he rickshaw phenomena

nin Bogotá. I assisted to some sessions of a signature of Mobility in the Faculty of Economy

in the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. I did my internship in Despacio, an entity which

develops investigations of urban development applying the slow philosophy. By last but not

least, I continued assisting to the study group about the Theory of the ethics of care, whichclearly inspired this document.

In all this trail I was able to reflect about a constant: the concern for the urban theme, and

well, the feminist perspective was not entirely detached from the main line. It is evident by

the dissertation here exposed! I tried to make a dialogue among the theory of the ethics of

care, and the feminist theorists such as Haraway and Puig de la Bellacasa, with the field of

research that fed the urban industry. The proposal of thinking and designing cities from the


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TOD paradigm and the ideas that lie behind that, and the possibility of translating those to

a feminist and caring code – let me say - is a sweet symphony… unless for me.

The TOD paradigm has been a very persuasive idea that has permeated key decision-making

institutions which are increasingly sensitive and preoccupied for the rhumb of the currentcities. The concerns for the transport system, in the present, is a response to the complicated

situation that the cities are dealing with. A very high 75% of the world population, in 2050

will live in the cities (Burdett, Ricky; Sudjic, 2007) . This supposes challenges on connivance

and social harmony, but before these, supposes evident problems such as the space

distribution, the right for an active and healthy citizenship, the satisfactions of needs by the

coverage of public services for a dense concentrated population on a reduced space, and so

on…

When I tried to extrapolate the theory of the ethics of care to the study of the city as an

interesting field of research - I would not deny it-, as a difficult task. I felt that I was forcing

the things, in the way of a justification, and in that way, a conceptual and epistemological

gym would suffer unpleasant cramps. Giving space and time to my thoughts, finally I could

see how the pieces of a puzzle started to assemble and were giving a figure that was briefly

here exposed.

Personally I found the city as a passionate scenario to be studied. How not see the complex

and fine webs of sociability in the interesting and rich city to be studied? Which challenge

can be mayor (and more seductive) than the one of consolidating an abstract theory that

comfortably has rest in the speech (urbanism as ideology (Lefebvre, 1973)), and the

proposal of an executable and realizable city? And by last, how not getting interested for

the betterment of my immediate context were I and my love ones live?

Finally I have to explicit the reason why I wrote these whole text. I have had an unpleasant

feeling -I am refusing to accept this reality, but fortunately I am getting through. The feeling,

or better, the impression that the academy is been a privileged space where the knowledge

is being produced and gathered, but at the same time (here is the worry) the very academy

and its representatives are provoking an emptiness and obsolete voice. The meta-

discussions that happen within its walls, are condemned to remain there imprison. In the

concrete case of the industry of cities, the technicians are the ones who have the baton, just

by the hand of politicians and administrators.

In some fortunate cases the consultants are part of the academy field (I think of them as

dissidents), but that is not the rule! I must make a call to a change of perspective: the


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academic field must not be laying by the quantity of confusing ideas that are exposed in the

academic journals that circulate within the field. Nor the quantity of hours that are

dedicated for spreading the meta-discursive knowledge that still does not cling to a reality.

The academy should be valuable by the impact that its speech has in the decision-making

by the agents that materialize the knowledge in concrete projects. I think that the Colombian

academy – social sciences in specific- have thrown to other hands all the power, and by

doing that, the academy and its representatives have being indifferent from the reality of

the phenomena. The effects of this indifference is being paid by all of us, all of the inhabitants

of the cities in the present. This annoyment that I am trying to point out here, may be

exemplified by the following question: is not a little bit intriguing why does the city of

Bogota lacks for a solid institution whose objective and main propose is to protect and fight

for the aesthetics of the city, the capacity of infrastructure to satisfy the vital needs of the

people and the usage and appropriation of the public space in a wide sense?


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