Master Thesis not completed, Urbanism: Landscape and city (M.Sc.) TUM
2020-WS
Buenaventura: The city, the Harbor
Several human rights organizations , social leaders and communities have emphazised an apparent relationship between the development of macro-projects - e.g. harbor and logistic developments - and the intensification of violence that is mainly concentrated in “informal” neighborhoods in the city of Buenaventura in Colombia. This resulting in the reproduction of a new urban dynamic described by some actors as the “emptying of the Cascajal island - the historic center of Buenaventura - and the consolidation of the continental area of the city” on previously undevelopable land.
The objective of the project was to map historically the intra-urban forced displacement in Buenaventura and contrast it with the historical development of large and important urban infrastructure. Also to understand, that the strugle between a “formal” and “informal” city mediated by violence seek to redefined specific ways of life related to the ecology of the place and to make room for its legal and illegal economic exploitation. Based on this results the idea was to make an approach to an urban project / strategy aimed to define another way of "develoment" seeking better living conditions for the inhabitants and their rights over the territory.
“Informal” urban areas in the city are mostly of big interest for both legal and illegal actors because of their strategical location in relation to estuaries and connection axes. Also because of their ecological value, which seems to be contradictorily used as an excuse for the creation of revictimizing discourses by some statal organizations.
Unfortunately, and for various reasons, among others related to the current pandemic, I was not able to finish this project. The greatest difficulty I experienced consisted in the access to databases on victimization cases because of the scale I worked with and because of the lack of willingness and interest to collaborate by some of the statal agencies that were contacted. However, I was able to carry out different analyses, research and take testimonies from different actors involved, which are of great personal value and that I hope to be able to use in the future to complete this work.
Plans
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