A Bus Ride With Foucault - contested mobilities
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We invite Foucault on a bus ride to help us contest our thinking about the role of BRT in Quito. Planning is understood as something ‘good’. The outcomes of planning are not always what we would like it to be. The outcomes are a consequence of powerful forces. Understanding the role of power can give use some clues to start unpacking the existing forces. Foucault understanding of power breaks away from common understandings of power as they do not capture all the complexities of modern uses of power.
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A Bus Ride With Foucault - contested mobilities
- 1. Institute for Transport Studies FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT A Bus Ride With Foucault ITS Research Seminar 22 March 2016 www.its.leeds.ac.uk/about/events/seminar-series
- 2. Bus Ride With Foucault - Outline • Why with Foucault? • Why a bus ride? • What kind of Bus Ride? • Methodology • Discussion • Conclusion 2
- 3. Why Foucault? • We invite Foucault on a bus ride to help us contest our thinking about the role of BRT in Quito. • Planning is understood as something ‘good’. • The outcomes of planning are not always what we would like it to be. • The outcomes are a consequence of powerful forces. • Understanding the role of power can give use some clues to start unpacking the existing forces. • Foucault understanding of power breaks away from common understandings of power as they do not capture all the complexities of modern uses of power. Why Foucault 3
- 4. Power • Foucault interest in how certain knowledges are elevated into a hierarchical level. • Power a complex set of relations. • Power not exclusively localized in any particular person or group, it spreads throughout the most micro levels of the social body. • Power is not simply repressive but it is productive. • Power operates dynamically at the most micro levels of social relations. • The exercise of power is strategic and war- like. Why Foucault?Power 4
- 5. Why a Bus ride? 5
- 6. • ‘a high-quality bus- based transit system that delivers fast, comfortable, and cost-effective urban mobility through the provision of segregated right-of-way infrastructure, rapid and frequent operations, and excellence in marketing and customer service’ (Wright and Hook, 2007). • “A section of road or contiguous roads served by a bus route or multiple bus routes with a minimum length of 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) that has dedicated bus lanes.” ITDP & GIZ, p.14, 2013 Bus Rapid TransitBus Rapid Transit 6
- 11. Source: BRTdata.org If your city doesn’t have one yet… 12
- 12. • Quito is the Capital of Ecuador. • World Heritage city(1978) • 2.3 million habitants. • First BRT outside of Brazil, 1995. • Currently has 5 corridors. • 72 km of segregated busways • 830.000 passengers daily. 13 BRT in Quito Source: brtdata.org
- 13. Social inequalities Quito Deprived and no BRT Not deprived and served by BRT http://jokinzuru.blogspot.co .uk/2013/07/la-roldos.html
- 14. How to study Power • Phronetic approach articulated by Flyvbjerg (2001) MSSM. • Phronesis is the Aristotelian virtue of practical wisdom and practical knowledge. • Phronesis is thinking about where our world view comes from, thinking about the inherent knowledge power, and about the other forms of power that might be trying to influence the choice of solution. • Phronesis is a critical filter on world views and technical capability. Why Foucault?How to study Power 15
- 15. Methodology (1) Where are we going? (2) Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? (3) Is this development desirable? (4) What, if anything, should we do about it? Why Foucault? Methodology 16
- 16. Approach to the analysisWhy Foucault?Approach to the analysis 17
- 17. 18
- 18. Mechanisms of powerWhy Foucault?Mechanisms of power 19
- 19. Linking actors with power Authority Coercion Why Foucault?Linking Actors with Power 20
- 21. Where are we going? • Public Transport was regulated by National Government. • Public polls showed high popular dissatisfaction public transport. • Mayor of the time re-invigorated an existing project so seek congressional approval for The metropolitan district of Quito. • Transport Study Unit is stablished. • TSU develops a Master Transport Plan of Quito. • Transport is driven by a positivist and instrumental view of transport. • TSU brings, creates and disseminates knowledge. • TSU as a starting point for the analysis of power. Why Foucault?Where are we going? 22
- 22. Who wins and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? - Winners • A close network of friends of the Mayor • The politicians wins as the systems creates huge political impact driving to the re-election of the mayor and later the presidency. • The planners at the TSU, create national and international respect. Advising the implementation and the managing of different systems. • The BRT brought peace to a contested street space. • The city and its citizens win in the area where the system is implemented, more largely it changes the perception that things can be done differently. Why Foucault?Who wins? 23
- 23. Who wins and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? • Transport providers • Segments of the population do not receive the promise of a “better transport system”. Why Foucault?Who loses? 24
- 24. Who wins and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? Why Foucault?Mechanisms of Power 25
- 29. Is this development desirable? • The participants agree that BRT changed the public transport of the city dramatically. • The population realize that things can be different. • But… • Big areas of the city lack of good transport, the poorest segment of the population are still left out of the system. Causing new dissatisfaction. • A static state of a dominant ideas is introduced with little space for innovation, new ideas do not develop. Is this development desirable 30
- 30. What should be done? Do something else Build more BRT to the deprived areas Go there and Look Build services in deprived areas
- 31. Conclusions • The introduction of ideas developed by Foucault, are useful to understand some of the reason behind the adoption of BRT. • A successful group of planners is generated that help disseminate the BRT concept, throughout the country and into other countries. • Leaving important knowledge out of the planning process is capable to generate problems of exclusion. • The role of friendship has not been captured within the Foucauldian approaches to understand power, there is space to use other existing theories to understand it further. Who wins and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? Why Foucault?Conclusions 32
- 32. Thank you Alvaro Guzman PhD student ts09ang@leeds.ac.uk @aguzmanj Ian Philips i.Philips@leeds.ac.uk @ianphilipsits Institute for Transport Studies www.its.leeds.ac.uk @ITSLeeds Thank you.
Editor's Notes
- Intro -
- This is a working paper which is intended for a special issue for the Journal of Transport Geography about contested mobilities. Which came as result of a seminar series part of the contested cities network were we found out that there is not enough material about contested mobilites. It is also parte of a larger study to understand the role of power in current transport planning practices.
- We invite Foucault on a bus ride with us to help us contest (i.e. challenge and critically reflect) our thinking (we are academics and practitioners in Global North and in Latin America who have an interest in planning, cities and transport) about the role of BRT in Quito. we have search in planning literature and we have found that mostly planning is understood as something good. , however the outcomes of planning are not always what we would like to see. Some authors have argued that this outcomes are consequences of powerful forces. The market, the developing agencies, world bank and others. By understanding the role of power can give use some clues to start unpacking the existing forces. Modern use of power is really complex and this is the reason we invite MF. As his understanding of power breacks away from common understanding of power such as sovereign.
- He is interested in understanding how certain knowledges are created and disseminated and others are left out. Power see power as form of elevating certain knowledges to a hierarchical level leaving others. We want to take this notions of power to understand the development of a particular type of mass transport option in Quito, Ecuador.
- Segregated busways or bus-only roadways over the majority of the length of the system’s trunk / city centre corridors; Location of the busways in the median of the roadway rather than in the curb lane; Existence of an integrated “network” of routes and corridors; Enhanced stations that are convenient, comfortable, secure, and weather-protected; Stations provide level access between the platform and vehicle floor; Special stations and terminals to facilitate physical integration between trunk routes, feeder services, and other mass transit systems (if applicable); Pre-board fare collection and fare verification; Fare- and physical-integration between routes, corridors, and feeder services; Entry to system restricted to prescribed operators under a reformed business and administrative structure (“closed system”); Distinctive marketing identity for system
- The efficacy of the already implemented systems in LA are beginning to be questioned on their efficiency grounds by users, planners, and policy makers as the promised benefits of increased accessibility, time and costs savings, safety enhancement and pollution reduction are not always achieved. There are reasons to believe that the adoption of the systems is not necessarily a technical one but a matter of power. We are going to explore the implementation of the system in Quito.
- Where are we going? Looking at a map of the current social inequalities gives us an impression of the BRT policy. We see non deprived areas which are blue on our map linked via multiple BRT lines to the City centre. We also see the majority of deprived areas in red are not served by the BRT. How have neoliberal urban policies and recent trends of urbanization affected the mobility conditions of the different social groups? What are the social implications of transport infrastructure investments in Latin America cities?
- It is Phronesis is a value-rational, decision-making practice that sympathetically judges the rational, existential, symbolic and instrumental aspects of a problem in order to identify an equitable solution. Phronesis is the Aristotelian virtue of practical wisdom and is concerned with practical knowledge (Ross, 1999) . It is particularly suited to an ethical consideration of the most appropriate egalitarian urban design solution for the design and governance of place. This is because it is context sensitive and can relate to the particular values of place and the multiple dimensions of the utilisation and influence of power in society. Phronetic urban design and planning seeks to both understand and facilitate the best outcomes for all (Gunder, 2013). The case for phronesis as the appropriate methodology for planning research was articulated by Flyvbjerg (2004)
- The second line and third line were franchised to the transport operators the power of their annoyance persuaded the mayor to give them the franchise. BUT these operators didn’t know how to run a BRT. This power relation wasn’t productive because the franchise failed and the municipality had to take it over
- The map is exerting it’s knowledge power on us. A person influenced by the positivistic tradition of GIS analysis or transport planning looks at the map and its power might suggest drawing more lines. A land-use planner sees the map and the power of their previous knowledge may suggest they build medical facilities in poor neighbourhoods. Flyvberg suggests to those who have read phronetic planning to go and look and ask the 4 questions. Listen, listen… How difficult it is! I’m not a prophet; I’m not an organizer; I don’t want to tell people what they should do. I’m not going to tell them, “This is good for you, this is bad for you!” (Foucault 1988) Foucault doesn’t say do one particular thing. Foucault says get your ideas back on the bus and keep them moving. We think that means is contest your knowledge as a researcher, or practitioner. keep the relationship between the knowledge power dynamic.