Paper short abstract:

Medellin has transformed from the world's most violent city to a reference point for innovative inclusive development:'social urbanism'. This paper explores the politics - in particular the gendered politics - behind that transformation.

Paper long abstract:

Medellin, Colombia, is fast shedding its reputation as the most violent city on earth and becoming a reference point for socially informed, inclusive economic development. The dramatic fall in violence and insecurity in the city over the last two decades - 'the Medellin Miracle' - has been attributed to extensive social investment and the creation of public spaces that 'changed the skin' of the city - policies which are known collectively as 'social urbanism'. In the last ten years there have been conspicuous investments in the poorest areas and excluded comunas. This paper explores the elite coalitions, alliances and processes that have enabled these policies, with a focus on how emerging ideas of leadership are gendered. Although the story often told is that the commitment from elite actors in the city is due to a recognition of the historical 'social debt' owed to marginalised areas of the city, the policies promoted can also be understood as continuing the paternalistic culture of elites and co-opting the participation of the populace with the aim of extending and legitimating elite power. Through a close analysis of the processes leading up to the development of social urbanism, this paper argues that critical spaces that represent feminine and/or feminist values have opened up within the institutional structures of Medellin and are challenging the masculinist constructions of the elite power there. This research is based on interviews with business, political and civil society leaders in Medellin in 2012, and was funded by the Development Leadership Program.