The Socio-politics of the urbanization - transportation nexus: infrastructural projects in the department of Antioquia in Colombia through the lens of technological politics and institutional dynamics

Abstract

Development of transportation infrastructure has long been seen as a fundamental tool in shaping cities, and vice versa. However, moving beyond the discussion on the causalities of transportation infrastructure and urbanization, various authors have criticized large scale infrastructural projects for promoting injustice and reinforcing social and spatial polarization by supporting profit-oriented developments. Contributing to this line of thought, this study examines the wider socio-politics of the transportation -urbanization nexus in large scale infrastructural projects associated with urban development in two case studies in the department of Antioquia in the North-east of Colombia. It focuses on the relationships between these projects and urban development approaches and policies, addressing the socio-political benefits and profit-oriented interests of hegemonic population groups, and how infrastructures embody specific forms of power and authority of these groups. The analysis mobilizes a combination of the theory of technological politics and a strategic-relational institutionalist approach, which draws attention to the momentum of large-scale sociotechnical systems, and to the response of modern societies to specific technological imperatives. This paper shows through its two case studies how the causalities of transportation (infrastructure) and urbanization are embedded in wider social, political, economic and cultural dynamics. As such, the paper shifts the focus to the relationships between actors and their interests, transportation (infrastructure) and socio-politics, and the ways in which transportation infrastructures and their techno-political frames possess deeply embedded socio-political qualities, include means of power and authority, and may favour specific actors and interests.

The Impacts of Transportation Sustainability on Higher Education in China

“…Connecting to our case, we select a proportion of transportation public policies to the total number of public policies (PT), and the closure rate of transportation law cases (TL). The existing literature argues that politics can help to decrease inequalities by transportation development, and the improvement of institutional quality-led by transportation development-can promote the mobility of skilled workers [62][63][64]. Thus, the study argues that high institutional quality in transportation is a reflection of sustainability and can increase higher education attainment.…”

“…Urbanization and GDP are chosen to measure county-level socioeconomic development. Urbanization is measured by the ratio of the urban population [62,65]. In our study, we followed the existing research, measuring urbanization by the ratio of the urban population.…”

Analysing (In)Justice in the Interplay of Urbanisation and Transport: The Case of Agrarian Extractivism in the Region of Urabá in Colombia

“…To address the causality of transport infrastructure and urbanisation, the paper positions this causality in broader political and technological dynamics and turns to the theory of technological politics (see also Toro López et al 2020). This theory was first developed by the political theorist Langdon Winner in 1980.…”

“…Finally, building on this literature and to enable an analysis of the socio-politics of transport (infrastructure), the paper mobilises the concept of techno-political frames as developed in the previous paper (Toro López et al 2020) and adds the dimension of transport (in)justice to it. Techno-political frames include the institutional dimensions of transport (infrastructure), such as economic mechanisms, transport investments, enhancements and financial resources, infrastructure and mobility policies, transport decision-making procedures, knowledge systems, regulation, social and political aspects of transport policy, mobility cultures, discourses on infrastructure and mobility, coordinating urban, transport and traffic planning, building and use of roads, etc., which are all selective and embody institutionalised patterns of power and authority that favour some infrastructure users, social classes and mobility patterns over others, and are continuously (re)produced but sometimes contested and changed by these very users.…”

“…However, in the region of Urabá, pedestrians and cyclists are not a priority. On the contrary, new transport infrastructures in the region are designed to prioritise freight transport in order to support the banana extractive companies 4 (Photos 2 and 3) (Toro López et al 2020). For instance, the Pan-American highway or Transversal de las Américas is a huge national project in construction which involves a concession to design, build and maintain 446.5 km of roads at national level, and expand and rehabilitate 65 km of roads in the specific region of Urabá, converting the main corridor (La vía al mar) into a four-lane highway.…”