Pedagogical Urbanism: Creating Citizen Space in Bogota, Colombia

Abstract

In this article I examine the rise of public space as a planning ideal in Bogota, Colombia, where public space was viewed as a totalizing solution uniquely suited to Bogota’s complex set of problems. Bogota’s public space represents a crucible of hopes and desires for transforming the city and citizenship. I call this process pedagogical urbanism, a mode of planning focused on education and reform. Pedagogical urbanism merges social and spatial planning traditions to produce new social and cultural norms leading, in Bogota’s case, to the (re)formation of civil society through an expansion of the right to the city while creating the conditions for the reproduction of citizens. Citizen monitoring and behavior modification in public space, however, constrain this expansion. This article explores the paradox of expanding the right to the city while creating programs to scrutinize and direct citizens’ actions in public space.