Indigenous ‘rights to the city’ and planning: Lessons from a comparative urban study in Bolivia and Ecuador
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Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
Recent research emphasises the need to study cities of the global ‘South’ (Robinson 2002; Roy 2009; Watson 2012) where urban geographies and planning dynamics differ from those in European and North American cities. As shown, for example, in studies on differentiated urban planning in Brazilian and other Latin American cities (Holston 2008; Goldstein 2013), state-led urban planning interventions in cities of the global ‘South’ often represent the cause for urban poverty, ethno-racial discrimination, social exclusion, uneven urban citizenship, and the reproduction of colonial urban spaces in post-colonial societies. In such a context, marginalised urban groups have to rely on their own practices to improve their living conditions and claim their ‘right to the city’ (Harvey 2008; Lefebvre 1991).
This paper offers a theoretical and empirical contextualisation of the notion of the ‘right to the city’ – a notion which is widely used by critical planning scholars, social movement activists and practitioners but often in unclear and conflicting ways particularly in relation to addressing the interests, needs, and rights of specific groups (Attoh 2011). To offer such a contextualisation, the paper introduces findings from recently completed comparative urban research in Bolivia and Ecuador – two countries which recognise specific indigenous ‘rights to the city’ in new political constitutions. To ensure indigenous peoples ‘rights to the city’ the constitutions emphasise that policies in sectors as diverse as housing, spatial planning, or healthcare should follow intercultural principles and address the interests and demands of previously marginalised indigenous peoples. Both constitutions also grant urban indigenous peoples with specific rights – including the right to prior consultation about interventions taking place on their territories, the right to territorial autonomy and indigenous justice (CPE Bolivia 2009, art. 30; CPE Ecuador 2008, art. 57).
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Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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