Study tours and inter-city policy learning: Mobilizing Bogotá’s transportation policies in Guadalajara

Abstract

While modern urban planning has traditionally been shaped by policies and instruments from European and North American cities, in recent decades there has been an increase in South-South policy learning and a number of cities of the global South have emerged as alternative urban planning models. Yet, less is known about the practices through which urban policy actors in cities of the South learn from other Southern cities’ policies. This paper examines the case of Guadalajara, Mexico, where different local public and private actors introduced a new policy issue—sustainable transportation—in the local and state government agenda making extensive references to Bogotá, Colombia. Study tours are identified as key practices that facilitated the adoption of Bogotá’s transportation policies in Guadalajara. Using qualitative and ethnographic methods, I show that study tours were powerful instruments to promote policy change thanks to their capacity to: (1) educate the attention of influential local policy actors through hands-on “experiential learning”; (2) expand local coalitions through the building of trust and consensus around a policy model; and (3) mobilize public opinion through references to already existing policies. In doing so, I suggest that study tours should be conceptualized as both learning and governance instruments that a variety of actors can use to translate their shifting beliefs of how the city should be organized into public policy. The analysis of the actors that organized these tours also reveals the friction between local and transnational agendas shaping the apparent South-South circulations of Bogotá's transportation policies.

San Francisco Through Bogotá’s Eyes: Leveraging Urban Policy Change through the Circulation of Media Objects

“…Crowfoot's statement on how his understanding of the program changed after he 'actually saw it' in the video is similar to that of participants in Bogotá study tours, who often refer to these tours as 'eye-opening' experiences (Montero, 2017a). This suggests that part of the agency of digital videos to promote policy change relies not only on transmitting the Bogotá story but also on its capacity to make odd ideas seem common sense.…”

“…However, digital materials do not simply float around on the internet. Similar to the organization of other infrastructures of policy learning and circulation, such as conferences or study tours (González, ; Cook and Ward, ; Montero, ), it is important to situate the production and circulation of digital materials within a political economy that is both local and transnational.…”

“…However, digital materials do not simply float around on the internet. Similar to the organization of other infrastructures of policy learning and circulation, such as conferences or study tours (González, 2011;Cook and Ward, 2012;Montero, 2017a), it is important to situate the production and circulation of digital materials within a political economy that is both local and transnational. This article is divided as follows: First, I briefly review a set of debates that can help conceptualize the relationship between media objects, urban politics and the transnational circulation of urban policies.…”

Conferences, award ceremonies and the showcasing of ‘best practice’: A case study of the annual European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels

“…Furthermore, mobile best practices as well as informational infrastructure events can lead to material changes -big and small, positive and negative, for many people inside and outside of policymaking circles. To give an example, Wood (2014) and Montero (2017) have shown that study tours can enhance the learning of those attending, strengthen social bonds between participants, and inform policy recommendations. One often-overlooked material impact should not be forgotten and it will be closely examined in this paper: that of informational infrastructure events on the institutions that host the events.…”

“He came back a changed man”: The popularity and influence of policy tourism

“…In definitional terms, policy tourism can be defined as "policy actors travell [ing] elsewhere to see, first-hand, the implementation and consequences of particular policies and to learn directly from those involved in their development and implementation" (Temenos & McCann, 2013, p. 34). While policy actors have more opportunity than ever before to learn at a distance, a growing array of studies document the persistent appeal of being physically proximate to the ideas and programmes that policy actors wish to understand and, potentially, emulate (Clifford & Morphet, 2014;Cook et al, 2015;Evans, 2009;Montero, 2017). While policy actors have more opportunity than ever before to learn at a distance, a growing array of studies document the persistent appeal of being physically proximate to the ideas and programmes that policy actors wish to understand and, potentially, emulate (Clifford & Morphet, 2014;Cook et al, 2015;Evans, 2009;Montero, 2017).…”