A Bus Ride With Foucault - contested mobilities

Institute for Transport StudiesFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

A Bus Ride With Foucault

ITS Research Seminar 22 March 2016www.its.leeds.ac.uk/about/events/seminar-series

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Bus Ride With Foucault- Outline• Why with Foucault?• Why a bus ride?• What kind of Bus Ride?• Methodology• Discussion • Conclusion

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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

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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

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Why a Bus ride?

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• ‘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

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Bus Rapid Transit

9Source: BRTdata.org

OperationOperation

10Source: BRTdata.org

ExpansionExpansion

11Source: BRTdata.org

PlanningPlanning

12Source: BRTdata.org

If your city doesn’t have one yet…

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• 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.

BRT in Quito

Source: brtdata.org

Social inequalities Quito

Deprived and no BRT

Not deprived and served by BRT

http://jokinzuru.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/la-roldos.html

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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

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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

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Approach to the analysisWhy Foucault?Approach to the analysis

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Mechanisms of powerWhy Foucault?Mechanisms of power

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Linking actors with power

Authority Coercion

Why Foucault?Linking Actors with Power

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Why Foucault?Power Model

Innovation1991 2012

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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?

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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?

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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?

Who wins and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power?

Why Foucault?Mechanisms of Power

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Dissatisfaction

AuthorityManipulation

PersuasionCoercion

Congress City Council

Mayor1Police

F. Advisor

1

W. Bank FAB

Planner1

Planner2

External1

External1

Municip

Trans. Provider

s

Mayor2

Internal1

Citiz

ens

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Dissatisfaction

AuthorityManipulation

PersuasionCoercion

Congress City Council

Mayor1Police

F. Advisor

1

W. Bank FAB

Planner1

Planner2

External1

External1

Municip

Trans. Provider

s

Mayor2

Internal1

Mayor3

Citiz

ens

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Dissatisfaction

AuthorityManipulation

PersuasionCoercion

Congress City Council

Mayor3Police

F. Advisor

1

W. Bank Bank

Planner1

Planner2

External1

External1

Municip

Trans. Provider

s

Internal1

Citiz

ens

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AuthorityManipulation

PersuasionCoercion

Mayor4

Bank

Planner4

Municip

Trans. Provider

s

Citiz

ens

Dissatisfaction

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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

What should be done?

Do something else

Build more BRT to the deprived areas

Go there and Look

Build services in deprived areas

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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

Thank you Alvaro Guzman PhD studentts09ang@leeds.ac.uk@aguzmanj

Ian Philipsi.Philips@leeds.ac.uk@ianphilipsits

Institute for Transport Studies www.its.leeds.ac.uk @ITSLeeds

Thank you.