Public transportation towards spatial justice? The study case of Medellín’s Metrocable.

Abstract

The notion of “justice” is more and more referred to when it comes to think the city as well as to plan it. On one hand, in the United States, in Latin America and in France, it has become a major conceptual framework so as to analyse territorial inequalities and highlight the fundamental role played by the state in the reduction of such inequalities. On the other hand, it has also served the promotion of numerous urban polities and to justify political actions. Thanks to our study case of the Metrocable, a public transportation system towards poor neighborhoods of Medellín, Colombia, it is possible to rethink the difference between the use of “justice” as a conceptual critical framework and its use as a tool to build politics. We focus both on discourses and facts to assess the difference between “justice” and “integration” when it comes to think and to build the city.