San Francisco Through Bogotá’s Eyes: Leveraging Urban Policy Change through the Circulation of Media Objects

Abstract

This article connects two emerging debates in urban studies—the need to pay more attention to the role of nonhuman actors in urban planning and the ways in which media objects affect urban politics and planning—by examining how a video on Bogotá’s car‐free Ciclovía program facilitated the adoption and implementation of a similar program in San Francisco. The analysis shows that media objects have the capacity to act as fulcrums in processes of leveraging urban policy change owing to their potential to alter urban governance structures. The article analyzes the digital storytelling and ‘eye‐opening’ practices through which the video enabled policy changes to be implemented in San Francisco, while also tracing the local and transnational actors, networks and agendas that were involved in the production and circulation of the video through digital archival research and multi‐sited fieldwork. In doing so, it shows the active role that media objects play in shaping urban policymaking processes and provides an example of a relational methodology for studying the digital materialities through which urban policy ideas increasingly circulate.

Medellín in the headlines: The role of the media in the dissemination of urban models

“…In following, it seems necessary to experiment with new research methodologies focused on policy mobility. Some examples are argumentative analysis (Kennedy, 2015) or multiethnography that includes analysis of written press and social media platforms like Twitter (Gulson et al, 2017) or online video platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo (Montero, 2018). In our case, the inclusion of the media, particularly written press, in the production and dissemination of the Medellín's case, implies a systematic exercise of tracking headlines and news.…”

“…Leonie Sandercock also points to the persuasive aspect of storytelling and points its role as a change catalyst: "stories and storytelling can be powerful agents or aids in the service of change, as shapers of a new imagination of alternatives" (2003, p.18). Similarly, police mobility literature references the relevance of narratives around territorial development and in trans-local urban policy circulation (Lieto, 2013;Montero, 2017aMontero, , 2018Honeck, 2018).…”

A Suburban Dreamscape Outshining Urbanism: The Case of Housing Advertisements

“…As argued by Røe (2014), places are (in part) "constructed through the circulation of representations" (p. 502), which we have also shown with reference to the social semiotic analysis of the Block Watne campaign. Inspired by Montero (2018), who argued for "the active role that media objects, such as [images], play in shaping urban policymaking" (p. 752), we have illustrated how media objects can challenge urban policy aims, whether they are intended to do so or not. In linguistics, there is a well-established tradition of analyzing the imperatives, adjectives, and personal pronouns to discern the ideological content of advertisements; however, without analyzing the images on which the text is placed, important knowledge could be lost (Abousnnouga & Machin, 2013).…”

FROM HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE: English‐language Media Outlets and Urban Planning Best Practices in the Global South

“…Earlier research has explored how best practices are no longer flowing unidirectionally from North to South (Roy, 2010; Robinson, 2011; Montero, 2018), how professional knowledge networks influence what best practices are pushed for local uptake (Peck and Theodore, 2015; Whitney et al ., 2020), and the ways in which best practices travel between places (Wood, 2014; Peck and Theodore, 2015; Montero, 2017a). A smaller body of literature has also explored how planners use media tools such as videos during the policy‐making process (Montero, 2018). Less, however, has been said about the specific effect of citing English‐speaking media outlets about urban planning best practices within the global South.…”

“…I employ data collection methods inspired by policy mobility scholars that encourage researchers to take into account the larger political context in which decision makers are embedded (Roy, 2011; Peck and Theodore, 2015; Montero, 2018). Therefore, I formulate my arguments by positioning myself within the Mexico City government department of the LabCDMX.…”