Sur-Urbano

• Logistics and Racial Ecologies on the Magdalena River with Austin Zeiderman

  The Magdalena River has been the central artery of Colombia's history: it was the path of colonization as well as of commercial circulation linking the coast to the interior. But it was also the site and product of racialized violence from slavery to the Colombian armed conflict in the 20th century, when parts of the Magdalena became almost synonymous with paramilitary violence and the river itself was declared a victim of the armed conflict. The paramilitaries demobilized in 2005 and then peace was signed with the FARC guerrillas in 2016; shortly after,a state-backed megaproject was announced that would transform the waterway into a logistics corridor, linking the logics of security and circulation with those of pacification. Our guest today, Austin Zeiderman, is the author of Artery: Racial Ecologies on Colombia’s Magdalena River. While Zeiderman may have originally set out to study a logistics corridor, what he found was an even richer study about the historical and contemporary co-production of race, capital and space along the country’s central fluvial artery. An anthropologist and geographer, Zeiderman applies an ethnographer’s approach to the situated practices both ofpower and resistance. He takes us close to the companies managing the logistics sector, their actuarial logics of security and risk, and imperatives of circulation. At the same time, Austin details the life inside a tow-boat, the way gender, race and labor have historically interacted from the old bogas boats to the present day, and the way tacit knowledge resists the fungibility of racialized labor even today. We are a podcast about cities, and precisely for this reason, I wanted to highlight the invisible labor that circulates goods and fuels in and out of our urban hubs, which more often than not, have turned their backs on their nearest ports.  Books like Austin’s – which center the long lives of logistics and their embeddedness in what Austin calls “geo-racial regimes” – are indispensable for understanding the broader forces which shape Latin American cities. Austin Zeiderman is Professor of Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics. He is an interdisciplinary scholar who specializes in the social and political dimensions of urbanization and the environment in Latin America, and holds a PhD in Anthropology from Stanford University.My cohost is Robinson Markus. Robbie is a PhD student in urban planning at UCLA, has a masters in Sociology from LSE, and studies the intersections between housing and climate change in Latin America. Keep in mind that Robbie's audio had some difficulties, so we don't hear as much from him as we should have!

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• Habitando Ciudad Verde: La vida en un Macroproyecto de Vivienda de Interés Social con Adriana Hurtado

  En América Latina heredamos el impulso de hacer ciudades “desde cero”: desde la damera colonial a Brasilia, cada época y lugar, interpreta este impulso de borrón y cuenta nueva a su propia manera. En el siglo XXI, en la capital de Colombia, ese sueño tomó forma en Ciudad Verde, una ciudadela de 49.500 viviendas construida en Soacha, al sur de Bogotá. Concebida como parte de la política de vivienda llamada "macroproyectos de vivienda de interés social" a nivel nacional, el proyecto reunió distintos tipos de vivienda —100 % subsidiada, VIP, VIS y algunas de rangos más altos— para hogares entre uno y más de cuatro salarios mínimos.Fue desarrollada por una constructora privada en suelo barato de periferia, y sus apartamentos fueron vendidos rápidamente gracias a subsidios de vivienda. Su visión de la unión entre el estado y las inmobiliarias prometía, como toda buena nueva ciudad, un nuevo imaginario: el de una nueva clase media.Pero que pasa después cuando se materializa esa nueva vivienda periférica con reglas de propiedad horizontal y largos viajes al trabajo y colegio? Y cómo podemos, a partir de entender cotidianidad, evaluar el impacto de esta política de vivienda? De eso trata el artículo "Habitando Ciudad Verde: Experiencias de los residentes de un macroproyecto de vivienda de interés social (Soacha, Colombia)" de Adriana Hurtado Tarazona y nuestro episodio de Sur-Urbano. A partir de su investigación etnográfica, Adrian explora las cotidianidades de Ciudad Verde: las relaciones entre vecinos, la misma decoración de los apartamentos, la vivienda para el uso y la inversión, y la navegación de la vida colectiva e individual.Adriana Hurtado Tarazona, profesora asociada y ✨ directora 💫 del Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios sobre Desarrollo (Cider) - Uniandes. Adriana, con una maestría en planeación y un doctorado en antropología, combina ambas miradas para estudiar vivienda social, renovación urbana, infraestructuras cotidianas y del cuidado, entre muchos otros temas.Me acompañó com cohost Ana María Pérez. Ana María es politóloga, profesional en lenguajes y estudios socioculturales, magíster en City Planning del MIT, ha trabajado con Amarilo recomendando acciones para el futuro de Ciudad Verde —precisamente— y actualmente trabaja con la Secretaría del Hábitat de Bogotá.

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• What Zohran can learn from Latin America's Pink Tide

  I recorded the intro to this episode on the first morning after we learned that, with about 50% of the vote and the highest turnout in recent history, Zohran Mamdani – a migrant, Muslim, and democratic socialist – is going to be New York City’s next mayor. And he was elected on a platform that centered working class people’s everyday struggles, and presented them with a vision of this city in which everyone has a right to be here, and that we need to fight for the conditions – of childcare, housing, transport – that make that possible. But we know, getting Zohran elected is only the beginning. Andwhile New York City has had progressive mayors in the past, in other ways we are facing a uniquely new context: one defined by an exceptionally openly socialist mayor, facing an exceptionally hostile and authoritarian federal government. And given the historic marginalization in the United States of the left, it turns out Latin American cities actually have a lot to teach New York City and the future Mamdani administration. At least this was the motivation behind an event recently organized at NYU titled “What New York's Next Mayor Can Learn From Latin America's Pink Tide”, which happened some days before the election. I know I am biased, btu this is genuinely one of the most genuinely informativeand thought-provoking events I’ve been to in a long time, demonstrating so clearly just how rich the experience of the contemporary left has been in Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, and how much wisdom is to be derivedfrom its successes and failures. The event featured Edwin Ackerman, professorat Syracuse University, followed by Gianpaolo Biocchi, Professor and founding director of the Urban Democracy Lab at NYU. Next was Gabriel Hetland, sociology professor at SUNY and who we hope to feature in Sur Urbano for a full episode soon, and finally, Thea RioFrancos, professor of PoliticalScience at Providence College.

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• Tránsitos Turbulentos en el Canal de Panamá con Camilo López y Danilo Rivera

  En su discurso de investidura, el presidente de los Estados Unidos Donald Trump declaró: “China está operando el Canal de Panamá. No se lo dimos a China, se lo dimos a Panamá, y lo vamos a recuperar”. Desde entonces, ha repetido que va a “recuperar” el canal, así demostrando que su mantra de Make America Great Again requiere resucitar el imaginario de la época dorada del expansionismo gringo, cuando Panama - y tantas otras partes del mundo - eran enclaves neocoloniales.En este contexto, nos pareció importante discutir la verdadera historia del canal de Panamá en el marco del modelo de desarrollo de este país, y por supuesto, sus ciudades. Y para ello, nos juntamos con Phenomenal World para discutir el artículo: "Tránsitos turbulentos: El Canal de Panamá bajo mando nacional" de Camilo Lopez y Danilo Rivera. Lo pueden consultar aquí: https://www.phenomenalworld.org/es/analisis/transitos-turbulentos/Por si no los conocen ya: Phenomenal World es una publicación enfocada en economía política que publica en español, ingles y portugués artículos rigurosos sobre la economía, ciencias políticas, historia, finanzas y política pública.Para mi fue muy importante entender cómo los hilos del imperialismo han estado tejidos desde el principio de la historia de Panamá, y a su vez, de cómo las restricciones a la soberanía panameña aumentaron su dependencia sobre el capital financiero y la especulación inmobiliaria. Hay una extraña conexión entre el hecho de que la mitad de los pagos iniciales para el canal se hicieron en inversiones de JP morgan en finca raíz en Nueva york, y ahora, es precisamente un promotor inmobiliario Neoyorquino el que busca quitarle el canal a las y los panameños.Nuestros invitados Camilo y Danilo tienen un conocimiento enciclopédico de esta historia que les permite hacer una lectura crítica del presente. Camilo López es investigador en políticas públicas e historia panameña. Danilo Rivera es investigador de políticas sociales y macroeconómicas panameñas. Como siempre, encontrarán su artículo en  nuestras notas del episodio.

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• Pollution, Slow Harms and Citizen Action with Veronica Herrera

  Toxic pollution kills 12.6 million people every year—nearlyone-quarter of all global deaths – and 92% of these deaths occur in middle or low-income countries. Yet despite its deadliness, environmental harms are oftena slow-moving and long-standing problem, which can be difficult to detect and thus “invisible” in some ways which result in inaction and complacency. So what can be done?  In her book “Slow Harms and Citizen Action: Environmental Degradation and Policy Change in Latin American Cities”,  Professor Veronica Herrera asks: When and how do people mobilize around slow harms?  By examining the cases of Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Lima, the book looks at how citizen movements can push the state to implement en­vironmental rights protections, and how ideas about pollution as a policy problem become institutionalized. This episode was hosted by Sebastián Solarte. Sebastián is a PhD Candidate at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. In his research, he uses a political ecology lens to study grassroots movements aiming to overcome energy poverty in rural Colombia. Beyond his work, he is passionate about exploring places with his bicycle and finding new food spots.Veronica Herrera, our guest, is an Associate Professor ofUrban Planning and Political Science in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles. I study the political economy of development and environmental politics and policy, with a focus on cities, civil society, and Latin America.

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