Assembling Bus Rapid Transit in the Global South

Jacobsen, Malve

doi:10.4324/9781003019411

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Literature around transport systems and networks has been particularly interesting in highlighting African countries as new frontiers for infrastructure development and investment. This literature has examined recent spates of new intercity roads and railways (Goodfellow and Huang, 2021;Lesutis, 2022), highways, expressways and flyovers (Kimari, 2021;Mulwa, 2019), tram lines, light rail and dedicated bus lanes (Jacobsen, 2020;Wood, 2014), and related and complementary works (Enns and Bersaglio, 2020). In this literature, transport systems and networks are cast as domains that are animated by complex governance relationships and socioeconomic concerns (Cirolia and Harber, 2022;Kimari, 2021), developmentalist aspirations, corporatist fantasies, colonialist legacies (Enns and Bersaglio, 2020;Lesutis, 2022) and new territorial and geopolitical trends of urbanisation (Wiig and Silver, 2019).…”

Section: Plug-in Urbanism Through the Lens Of Infrastructurementioning

confidence: 99%

Plug-in urbanism: City building and the parodic guise of new infrastructure in Africa

2023

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Across Africa, cities have become fodder for grand-scale foreign investments and redevelopment projects signifying a distinct phenomenon synonymous with a new kind of urbanism. This paper offers a critical commentary on the proliferation of new infrastructure plans tailored as policy, technological fixes and solutions to urbanisation challenges, both real and perceived. We stir a conversation around the notion of ‘plug-in urbanism’: first, as an entry point for the study of a model of city building that is exceedingly determined by reflex prioritisation of assumedly universal and transferable corporate-driven policy agendas; secondly, as a critique of unidirectional, homogenising and determinist technological ideas and infrastructures; and thirdly, as a recourse to inclusive and holistic planning. We present the case of the Nairobi Expressway, a recently launched two- to four-lane 27 km viaduct, and the largest in Africa, as an example of a ‘plug-in’ infrastructure project: i.e. pre-packaged state-of-the-art development installation that comes complete and tailored as a magic bullet and obvious solution to identified mobility and transport challenges in Nairobi city. We demonstrate how in its parodic guise, the expressway highlights a project that is designed and financed by foreign authorities and sustained in line with foreign standard ideologies of what a world-class city should look like, yet in reality only leads to piecemeal and incomplete growth and development. Drawing from a standpoint of multiple urbanisms, we argue for more inclusive urban futures and visions that are responsive to diverse, popular and heterogeneous articulations of cities.

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Section: Plug-in Urbanism Through the Lens Of Infrastructurementioning

confidence: 99%

Plug-in urbanism: City building and the parodic guise of new infrastructure in Africa

2023

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“…Transmilenio, el sistema de transporte masivo a través de buses articulados de Bogotá, es el referente más conocido y extenso de Bus Rapid Transit (Brt) del mundo (Jacobsen, 2020). El sistema moviliza entre dos y cuatro millones de usuarios al día por doce corredores exclusivos.…”

Section: Transmilenio: Auge Y Caída De Un Sistemaunclassified

Judicialización y política urbana: Ciudadanos, políticos y jueces en la suspensión de Transmilenio por la Séptima en Bogotá.

Montero

Sotomayor

2023

EURE

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Este artículo analiza la suspensión del proyecto de transporte BRT Trans-milenio por la Carrera Séptima de Bogotá a través de demandas judiciales. Con base en 23 entrevistas y una revisión de documentos legales y judiciales, mostramos cómo la creciente judicialización de la planeación urbana en Bogotá está reconfigurando las formas de hacer política urbana, abriendo nuevas formas de incidir en decisiones de ciudad y empoderando a ciertos actores y discursos en la gobernanza urbana. En este caso, propietarios, ciudadanos educados de clase media y políticos lograron suspender el proyecto y defender sus intereses y visiones de ciudad a través de la movilización de conocimiento legal. El artículo concluye resaltando la necesidad de conceptualizar mejor las posibilidades y límites de la judicialización para democratizar la planeación y la política urbana, algo que no se ha tratado con la suficiente atención en los estudios urbanos latinoamericanos.

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Mediating Infrastructural Discipline: Established Practices and Changing Structures of Dar es Salaam’s Transport Sector

Jacobsen

2022

Urban Forum

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This article discusses the interplay of urban transport infrastructures and their need to and of discipline. Drawing on participatory observation, ride-alongs, and interviews, it elaborates the case of BRT introduction in Dar es Salaam and illustrates how various humans and nonhumans needed to be disciplined so that the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit system could become operational. Referring to the conceptualizations of mediating technologies (Latour, 1994) and disciplinary devices (Ureta, 2012), this article elaborates how the new transport system disciplines its environment, and how it is itself disciplined through different norms and materialities. However, discipline did not realize as planned. De-scriptions (Akrich, 1992) of the system’s disciplining technologies occurred, as practices turned out differently. New forms and effective combinations of established practices and changing structures have led to fluid formations of urban transport. Two perspectives enable to deeply understand this transitional process. First, a sociotechnical perspective shows how agency has been (re)distributed and mediated through technologies and artefacts that were implemented to secure smooth bus operations. Second, a historical perspective elucidates how previous and prevalent practices of Tanzania’s minibus system and other road users impacted the formation of DART. The article hence demonstrates that technological innovation and spatial reorganization do not only lead to new forms of discipline, but to ongoing mediations and negotiations of transport practices.

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Assembling Bus Rapid Transit in the Global South

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Plug-in urbanism: City building and the parodic guise of new infrastructure in Africa

Plug-in urbanism: City building and the parodic guise of new infrastructure in Africa

Judicialización y política urbana: Ciudadanos, políticos y jueces en la suspensión de Transmilenio por la Séptima en Bogotá.

Mediating Infrastructural Discipline: Established Practices and Changing Structures of Dar es Salaam’s Transport Sector

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