Leveraging Bogotá: Sustainable Development, Global Philanthropy and The Rise of Urban Solutionism

(This event is co-sponsored by the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto)
Speaker:
Sergio Montero, Assistant Professor, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is marked by the consolidation of sustainability as a key guiding principle and an emphasis on cities as a potential solution to global development problems. However, in the absence of an agreement on how to implement sustainable development in cities, a set of urban policy solutions and “best practices” became the vehicle through which the sustainable development agenda is spreading worldwide. This talk is based on a soon-to-be-published article that shows that the rapid circulation of Bogotá as a model of sustainable transport since the 2000s reflects an increasing focus of the international development apparatus on urban policy solutions as an arena to achieve global development impacts, what I call the “leveraging cities” logic. This logic emerges at a particular historical conjuncture characterized by: 1) the rising power of global philanthropy to set development agendas; 2) the generalization of solutionism as a strategy of action among development and philanthropic organizations; and 3) the increasing attention on cities as solutions for global development problems, particularly around sustainability and climate change. By connecting urban policy mobilities debates with development studies Prof. Montero considers the emergence, and the limits, of “leveraging cities” as a proliferating global development practice. These urban policy solutions, however, are far from being a clear framework of action. Rather, their circulation becomes a “quick fix” to frame the problem of sustainable development given the unwillingness of development and philanthropic organizations to intervene in the structural factors and multiple scales that produce environmental degradation and climate change.
About the 2018-2019 FES Speaker Series: (Re) Making Urban Space
This research-focused speaker series takes a multi-format and interdisciplinary perspective, to interrogate 11 relevant topics involving planning, urban infrastructures and civic capacity. Through a mix of panel discussions, guest lectures and roundtables, the goal is to generate critical debate on topics that intersect planning practice, governance, infrastructures and place-making in contemporary cities.
The topics have been curated by consulting FES faculty and students on emerging areas of interest in urban studies, and by balancing out historical and theoretical discussions with contemporary planning debates.
While most of the events are connected to the Toronto context, speakers will also present research from diverse cities such as Halifax, Kitchener-Waterloo, Vancouver, Detroit, French municipalities and Bogotá, Colombia.