Citizen participation, collective action and digital media: Seeking spatial justice in Manizales, Colombia

Abstract

This thesis explores the possibilities and limitations of citizen participation and collective action for spatial justice across the online and offline spaces of the everyday. It uses the case study of Manizales, Colombia; a city that proclaims itself as innovative, socially inclusive and participatory. Two hypotheses informed the research design. One, that despite city’s efforts on digital innovation, local government in Manizales had yet to use the collaborative potential of digital media, in order to improve participatory and collaborative processes of city-making. And two, that there are significant differences in the perceptions from local government and social collectives, about the transforming potential of collective action and digital media uses for inclusion and participation. Consequently, the research questions explore the relationships between governmental initiatives and the everyday life of socio-territorial movements seeking spatial justice, as well as the ways in which citizens mobilise, the local roles of digital media in collective action, and the implications of the findings to transform debates about spatial justice in Manizales and beyond. Drawing on five months of place-based participant observation in Manizales, a year and a half of netnographic exercises (online participant observation), complemented by interviews and perception exercises, the thesis provides an empirical analysis that is grounded in the everyday processes of city-making, from the formal protocols to the informal and alternative. Three socio-territorial movements in the city served as the sub-cases of study, which included several individuals and collectives that became crucial participants in this research. Overall, this thesis highlights the importance of understanding local socio-political contexts in relation to processes and efforts around digital innovation for participation and collective action. Additionally, it argues that the expansion of urban planning, as a practice that embraces and makes the most of the chaos of participation – both online and offline, requires recognition and integration of city-making practices outside of hegemonic structures of power. Moreover, the findings reveal a case of urban contestation as an exercise of transgressive, rather than insurgent citizenship,

which can enrich current debates about the Right to the City and practical approaches towards data and spatial justice in the city.