Trendy urbanists, innovation laboratories and best practices: in pursuit of ‘progressive’ urban planning in Mexico City

Abstract

This research explores the role of trendy urbanists in best practice uptake within an innovation laboratory in Latin America. Trendy urbanists are the privileged professionals who aspire to be on the cutting edge of urban planning, frequently referencing best practice policies and programmes that they see as supporting ‘livable’ and ‘sustainable’ city building. Taking the case of the Laboratory for the City in Mexico City, I illustrate that the preferred best practices of trendy urbanists are reflective of their own privilege. I conclude that, by relying on best practices and trendy urbanists, innovation laboratories are susceptible to fostering inequitable planning outcomes.

Fast-track institutionalization: The opening of urban planning best practice agencies in Mexico City

“…They are often opened to help find solutions to pressing local social challenges, attempting to alter policymaking approaches (Ferreira and Botero, 2020). It has been suggested that hundreds of these labs exist in cities around the world today (Davis, 2016) with their prominence within Latin America rapidly increasing (Whitney, 2022b). Innovation laboratories can be referred to by a number of different names including urban labs, policy labs, incubators, innovation hubs, etc.…”

“…To showcase the connections between BPAs and fast-track institutionalization, we take the case of two BPAs in Mexico City: the Laboratorio para la Ciudad [Laboratory for the City] (LabCDMX) and the Autoridad del Espacio Público [Public Space Authority] (AEP). The LabCDMX was opened in 2013 by the then mayor to experiment with innovation within the city government, inspired via similar agencies in Western Europe and the United States (Whitney, 2022b). The AEP, on the other hand, was opened in 2008 and operated during two mayoral administrations by overseeing the creation of high-quality public spaces that reflected emerging global best practices in public space design and revitalization.…”

FROM HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE: English‐language Media Outlets and Urban Planning Best Practices in the Global South

“…Many, although not all, had international professional experience in Western Europe (e.g. in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and/or Scandinavia), Canada and the United States (Whitney, 2022). The LabCDMX was an attractive workplace precisely because it celebrated the use of best practices.…”

“…In this article I use a policy mobility approach to explore the uptake of urban planning best practices focused on creating a more sustainable and livable Mexico City. I argue that while urban planning best practices are increasingly being drawn on during the local policy‐making process in cities across Latin America (Bertelli, 2021; Whitney, 2022), the media outlets that are most often used to identify best practices to begin with remain centered in the North (e.g. CityLab, The New York Times , The Guardian ).…”

Global urban development frameworks landing in Latin America: Insights from Ecuador and Bolivia

“…Furthermore, in 2018 the same author was involved in consultancy activities related to the preliminary diagnostic phase of the Bolivian National Urban Policy.On the one hand, this insider perspective facilitated access to information and the engagement of the interviewees. On the other hand, the overlap between the role and activity of the researchers and the object of research has raised a number of ethical and methodological challenges(Lapdat, 2017;Whitney, 2022), in particular in relation to the use of working materials and the possible bias deriving from the role played in the process. To overcome these challenges, the article draws only on documents and materials that were made publicly available.…”