| 1. |
- Zapata, Patrik, 1967, et al.
(författare)
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When visions for better urban futures development are turned into practice. The case of the Acahualinca Development Programme in Managua, Nicaragua
- 2013
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Ingår i: 14th N-AERUS Conference 2013, Enschede, The Netherlands September 12-14 URBAN FUTURES. Multiple visions, paths and constructions?.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ‘knowing-doing’ gaps between policy goals and their outcome when implemented is of increasing concern both in practice and in research. This paper explores how the visions of a sustainable development and the corresponding planning are translated into practice; what aspects of visions and plans are translated, what is lost in and what is added in the translation. The paper is based on the case-study of La Chureca, the rubbish dump and slum of Managua, Nicaragua, and its regeneration program that ran from 2009 to 2013 and included the construction of a new landfill, a recycling station where part of the waste-pickers now are formally employed, and new housing for the informal settlement’s residents. The analysis is based on interviews, observations, workshop participations and document analysis; gathered from 2009 until 2012. It combines action net theory with the sociology of translation as theoretical framework. Despite the initial compliance to the program (funded and initially led by international aid organizations), local actors enacted a myriad of small acts of defiance and resistance that, without abruptly contesting the project, shaped it to better fit local needs; a) first by municipal politicians and officers, and b) later by beneficiaries that felt that they were not fairly benefited by the program (women, eldery). We conclude that the implementation of visions cannot be seen as scripted translations of plans into reality, but as uncontrollable and uncertain processes in which myriads of translations twist policies and plans from below. The question is therefore not whether plans work (or succeed) but how they work.
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| 2. |
- Zapata, Patrik, 1967, et al.
(författare)
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Urban policy mobilities and local translations of compliance and contestation within development-aid regeneration programs. The case of the Acahualinca Integrated Development Programme in Managua, Nicaragua.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Paper presented at the International RC21 Conference 2013 Session: Making up cities: urban policy mobilities, assemblages and urban politics in a global age. 29-31 August 2013..
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The study is based on the case of La Chureca, the rubbish dump and slum of Managua, Nicaragua, and its regeneration programme, the Barrio Acahualinca Integrated Development Programme, funded by a development aid agency and implemented by the Managua municipality. The programme includes since 2009 until 2013, the construction of new housing for the slum dwellers, the construction of a new sanitary landfill and a recycling station where most of the waste pickers will work formally employed by the municipality. In previous papers we have examined the formulation and implementation of the Programme in terms of the construction of an action net in which, by a chain of translations, the programme was transformed from an aid programme managed by international aid organisations into the urban policies carried out by the City of Managua. Despite the initial compliance with the programme; little by little, local actors (mostly community leaders, residents, trade unions and waste collectors) enacted a myriad of small acts of defiance and resistance, changes and transformations (translations) of the programme implementation. In the paper we unfold how waste collectors trade union, slum community leaders, community grass-root associations and local residents under the pressure of securing both jobs and houses (either in symbiosis with local mass media, by using physical force, political negotiations, circumvention) attempted to twist the programme to fit local needs of those groups that felt that were not fairly benefit by the Program, such as older workers, women or non-residents in La Chureca. The paper finally discusses its theoretical contribution to the notion of urban policy mobilities from the city management literature.
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| 3. |
- Jonsson, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Ecological engineering to improve the sustainability of soil remediation inremote locations and developing countries
- 2013
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Toxic compounds from industrial activities accumulate in the ecosystems at an unsustainable rate. Ecological engineering has been proposed as a tool to design ecosystems that integrate human society with its natural environment for the benefit of the both. Bioremediation is generally considered an ecological engineering practice but even if it addresses one of the core goals of ecological engineering, i.e. restoration of damaged ecosystems, bioremediation can be energy-intensive and have low reliance on self-design, particularly if excavation and ex situ methods are employed.From a thermodynamic point of view, most organic pollutants are composed of molecules with high embodied energies and free energy potential that are appealing features for the use of ecological engineering, especially in locations where economic incentives are small for any kind of remediation to be performed,Based on positive experiences from an ongoing research project in Nicaragua, in which by-products and waste material are used as primary feedstock, it is concluded that the principles of ecological engineering can be useful to make in situ bioremediation a more sustainable practice in remote locations and developing countries.
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