City profile: The Bogotá Metropolitan Area that never was

Bogotá's urban and regional planning has focused on pressing demographic, economic, and urban development needs that can no longer be administered without a comprehensive understanding of its surrounding region. Population growth in municipalities in the vicinity of Bogotá is twice that of the city, which in some cases has led to a functional integration and conurbation as part of the same territory, despite having different governments and uncoordinated urban development plans. This paper revisits the evolution of the governance and regulatory framework of Bogotá and its surrounding region, as contrasted with the spatial and socioeconomic aspects at the larger metropolitan scale, and analyses its effects on the current configuration of the city-region that we identify as the Bogotá Metropolitan Area. The paper draws conclusions from primary and secondary information, providing insights into the recent and future development of the city and its metropolitan area that is yet to be officially constituted

La Bicicleta: Vehículo hacia la equidad: Recomendaciones para la equidad, acceso e inclusión social en la promoción del uso de la bicicleta en América Latina y el Caribe

Las ciudades de América Latina han demostrado un notable interés por la promoción del uso de la bicicleta a través de acciones como el desarrollo de sistemas de bicicletas públicas, inversión en infraestructura exclusiva, implementación de ciclovías recreativas y campañas de promoción, entre otras. Para el aprovechamiento del rol potencial de la movilidad urbana como factor de inclusión e integración, las acciones de promoción de la bicicleta requieren de consideraciones de equidad, entendida como la ausencia de desigualdades sistemáticas en materia de movilidad; accesibilidad, definida como las condiciones para acceder y aprovechar oportunidades esenciales para una vida plena; e inclusión social, entendida como la participación de todos los miembros de la sociedad en la vida económica, social y cultural de las ciudades. Esta publicación se desarrolla con este propósito, e incorpora definiciones claras y precisas de los conceptos de acceso, inclusión y equidad, un diagnóstico de los principales retos y oportunidades en el contexto latinoamericano para la ciclo-equidad y la inclusión social en el uso de la bicicleta, y la identificación de acciones prioritarias en el corto, mediano y largo plazo a partir de experiencias internacionales, así como indicadores específicos para su seguimiento en el tiempo

Children endorse deterrence motivations for third-party punishment but derive higher enjoyment from compensating victims.

Children’s punishment behavior may be driven by both retribution and deterrence, but the potential primacy of either motive is unknown. Moreover, children’s punishment enjoyment and compensation enjoyment have never been directly contrasted. Here, British, Colombian, and Italian 7- to 11-year-old children (N = 123) operated a Justice System in which they viewed different moral transgressions in Minecraft, a globally popular video game, either face-to-face with an experimenter or over the internet. Children could respond to transgressions by punishing transgressors and compensating victims. The purpose of the system was framed in terms of retribution, deterrence, or compensation between participants. Children’s performance, endorsement, and enjoyment of punishment and compensation were measured, along with their endorsement of retribution versus deterrence as punishment justifications, during and/or after justice administration. Children overwhelmingly endorsed deterrence over retribution as their punishment justification irrespective of age. When asked to reproduce the presented frame in their own words, children more reliably reproduced the deterrence frame rather than the retribution frame. Punishment enjoyment decreased while compensation enjoyment increased over time. Despite enjoying compensation more, children preferentially endorsed punishment over compensation, especially with increasing age and transgression severity. Reported deterrent justifications, superior reproduction of deterrence framing, lower enjoyment of punishment than of compensation, and higher endorsement of punishment over compensation together suggest that children felt that they ought to mete out punishment as a means to deter future transgressions. Face-to-face and internet-mediated responses were not distinguishable, supporting a route to social psychology research with primary school-aged children unable to physically visit labs

Movilidad urbana y pobreza: Aprendizajes de Medellín y Soacha, Colombia

Este libro es un análisis de la experiencia de Medellín, la segunda ciudad de Colombia, en intentar reducir la pobreza e integrar en el tejido urbano barrios marginalizados y estigmatizados durante muchos años por la pobreza y la violencia. En particular, examina el impacto de dos cables aéreos que conectan densos barrios en colinas empinadas con el resto de la ciudad, y un programa de mejoramiento urbano asociado a estos. También contrasta la experiencia exitosa de Medellín con la de Soacha, un municipio adyacente a Bogotá, la capital colombiana, donde se ha propuesto un cable aéreo como medio de conexión de dos barrios en colina con una vía arteria. El contraste entre un municipio bien gestionado y abundante en recursos como Medellín con un municipio denso, homogéneamente pobre e institucionalmente débil como Soacha ofrece aprendizajes muy valiosos para otras ciudades en América Latina y otras regiones del mundo. La mayor parte de los capítulos se apoyan en un proyecto de investigación de dos años coordinado por la Development Planning Unit, University College London (UCL), en asocio con la Universidad Nacional de Colombia (sede Medellín) y la Universidad de los Andes de Bogotá. Además de estudios de caso detallados de Medellín y Soacha, el libro agrupa también casos en América Latina en donde se han construido o se han propuesto cables aéreos en barrios de bajos ingresos, como Caracas y Rio de Janeiro

Urban Mobility and Poverty: Lessons from Medellin and Soacha, Colombia

This book examines the experience of Medellín, Colombia's second largest city, in seeking to reduce poverty and integrate large marginalised areas, marked by years of severe poverty and violence, into the urban fabric. It pays particular attention to the impact of two aerial cable-cars connecting high density hilly neighbourhoods with the rest of the city, and an associated urban upgrading programme. It also contrasts Medellín’s successful experience with that of Soacha, a municipality adjacent to Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city, where an aerial cable-car has been proposed as a means of linking two low-income hilly neighbourhoods with a main arterial road. The contrast between a well-resourced, well-managed municipality like Medellín with a dense and homogenously poor and institutionally weak municipality like Soacha offers valuable lessons to other cities in Latin America and elsewhere. Contributions draw from a two-year research project coordinated by the Development Planning Unit, University College London (UCL), in conjunction with Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Medellín campus) and Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. In addition to the detailed case studies of Medellín and Soacha, the book also brings together cases in Latin America where aerial cable-cars have either been built or proposed in low-income neighbourhoods, including Caracas and Rio de Janeiro

Violence and conservation: Beyond unintended consequences and unfortunate coincidences

While the relationship between violence and conservation has gained increasing attention in both academic and activist circles, official and public discourses often portray their entanglements as (unlucky) overlapping phenomena. In this article, we show how, under specific practices of state territorialization, conservation becomes both the means and reasons for violence. Based on ethnographic research in Colombia's emblematic Tayrona National Natural Park, we detail how both the war on drugs and tourism promotion shape these state practices, and how they have translated into everyday, yet powerful, means of dispossession in the name of conservation. By analyzing the effects of the production of peasants as environmental predators, illegal occupants and collateral damage, we show how official conservation strategies have justified local communities' political and material erasure, and how they have resulted in the destruction of their lived ecologies and the erosion of their livelihood strategies. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd

Violence and conservation: Beyond unintended consequences and unfortunate coincidences

While the relationship between violence and conservation has gained increasing attention in both academic and activist circles, official and public discourses often portray their entanglements as (unlucky) overlapping phenomena. In this article, we show how, under specific practices of state territorialization, conservation becomes both the means and reasons for violence. Based on ethnographic research in Colombia's emblematic Tayrona National Natural Park, we detail how both the war on drugs and tourism promotion shape these state practices, and how they have translated into everyday, yet powerful, means of dispossession in the name of conservation. By analyzing the effects of the production of peasants as environmental predators, illegal occupants and collateral damage, we show how official conservation strategies have justified local communities' political and material erasure, and how they have resulted in the destruction of their lived ecologies and the erosion of their livelihood strategies. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd