In this article we argue that relational work between the state and civil society is crucial for social change, focusing on the relational work between activist bureaucrats and citizen representatives in the development of Bogot & aacute;'s gender and care policies. While existing literature shows that social movement embeddedness within the state helps explain why some governments achieve more egalitarian outcomes, this structural concept lacks micro-level foundations. Highlighting the role of relational work fills this gap. Drawing on three years of ethnographic research-including 54 semi-structured interviews and over 300 hours of observation-we show that the intense relational practices of citizen representatives and activist bureaucrats (materialized in open and effective participation, joint and coordinated advocacy, and translation of bureaucratic jargon to common language) was crucial to advance feminist agendas. This study contributes to an understanding of how everyday relational practices between state actors and citizens can generate policy change.

Over recent decades, Latin American countries have made progress in implementing care-oriented public policies. A celebrated example is the District Care System (SIDICU) introduced in Bogot & aacute;, Colombia, in 2020. The policy aims at alleviating women's unremunerated care burden through social services, education and recreational activities offered at Care Blocks (Manzanas del Cuidado) in underprivileged urban areas. Here we examined the policy's effects on the care burden of low-income women through ethnographic observation, interviews and focus groups. Our research confirms that the program has improved the recognition of care work's value. It also provides marginalized women with access to public institutions, often for the first time. In addition, an unexpected benefit emerged through social networks of support formed by caregivers in the Care Blocks. We argue that although the policy does not resolve the complex social challenges of unremunerated caregiving, the SIDICU is an important step toward creating more equal and caring cities.

Este artículo explora el papel del Estado en la corresponsabilidad y desfamiliarización del trabajo de cuidado no remunerado (TDCNR), basado en experiencias de usuarias de las Manzanas del Cuidado en Bogotá, un programa novedoso a nivel local. Se examinan los efectos del Sistema Distrital de Cuidado (Sidicu) en reconocer, reducir y redistribuir el tdcnr, objetivos medulares de la política pública, y los alcances de su servicio de empleabilidad. Los hallazgos provienen de dos estudios cualitativos con 118 entrevistas, 7 grupos focales y 120 horas de trabajo de campo. Los resultados muestran que las manzanas han ayudado a reconocer el tdcnr y que servicios como guarderías y lavanderías han contribuido a reducirlo y redistribuirlo. Sin embargo, el cuidado sigue altamente feminizado en los hogares, y usar los servicios del Sidicu genera una nueva responsabilidad que empobrece el tiempo de las cuidadoras en cantidad, si bien lo enriquece en calidad. Además, se necesita reforzar y ajustar los esfuerzos en empleabilidad para lograr autonomía económica y superación de pobreza.

Background:Health-focused research funders increasingly support multi-country research partnerships that study health, urban development and equity in global settings. To develop new knowledge that benefits society, these grants require researchers to integrate diverse knowledges and data, and to manage research-related aspects of coloniality, such as power imbalances and epistemic injustices. We conducted research to develop a transdisciplinary study proposal with partners in multiple middle and high income countries, aiming to embed equity into the methodology and funding model. Methods:Parallel to literature review, we used participatory and social research methods to identify case study cities for our primary study and to inform our study design. We conducted semi-structured interviews with informed and consented sustainable urban development experts in the USA (n=23). We co-developed our research approach with our global advisory group (n=14) and conducted a participatory workshop (n=30) to identify case study sites, also informed by conversations with international academic experts in sustainable development (n=27). Results:Through literature review we found that there is a need to study the contextual pre-conditions of urban transformation, the influence of coloniality on understandings of how cities can change and the failure of standard development practices to meet the needs of all residents and the planet. Through expert input and literature we found that decolonial and storytelling methods may help us show the complexities behind stories of urban transformation, particularly the role of marginalized populations in creating long-term change. Conclusions:There are multiple benefits of conducting research to develop an equitably designed multi-country research collaboration. We built new partnerships and co-developed our research approach, creating new understanding of diverse collaborators' disciplinary perspectives and institutional requirements. By investigating the informational needs of U.S. sustainable development actors and designing our study to meet these needs, we have increased the likelihood that our research will create impact.

Colombia has taken a leading role in Latin America in recognizing domestic workers' rights, including rights to a salary, social security, and other benefits. Nevertheless, domestic workers remain largely informal, are neither organized nor aware of their labor rights; mistreatment, and racism remain common. Drawing on discussions about domestic work and the struggles for labor organization, in this article I explore this discrepancy. Women's experiences are marked by structural, symbolic, and everyday violence. The private nature of paid domestic work, socioeconomic differences, and the local labor market create a steep power imbalance between workers and employers. Instead of demanding their rights women thus appeal to employers' conscience to treat them well. In effect, the Colombian case highlights that progressive legislation is not enough to change domestic workers' plight. I argue that we need more immediate interventions, such as a universal basic income, welfare programs, or national employment guarantees, which would strengthen women's negotiating power in the labor market. The article contributes to discussions about class, labor rights, and inequality in the Global South and beyond.

This article examines the crucial role of political willingness and brokerage in the implementation of Bogot & aacute;'s new feminist care policy, the 'System of Care', which aims to address gender and class inequalities and alleviate care burdens on women. Through a combination of ethnographic data and stakeholder interviews, we analyze the intricate political and social processes that underpin the policy's effectiveness. Drawing on academic literature about care work, policy implementation in weak states, and brokerage, we provide a comprehensive understanding of the policy's development and operation, from the inception of the System of Care to its day-to-day functionality within the local Care Blocks. Our findings underscore the significance of political willingness and brokerage at the macro level, along with the importance of debureaucratization and trust-building at the micro level, as key factors contributing to the policy's success. Yet, the policy innovation also faces several challenges, primarily political uncertainties and the risk of burnout among local Care Block coordinators.

In this article, we examine the efficacy of tutela, a legal injunction intended to give people easier access to the justice system in Colombia since 1991. Based on long-term ethnographic research with Bogota street vendors, we show how structural barriers continue to present formidable obstacles to disadvantaged populations. This allows local leaders, who intervene on street vendors' behalf in patron-client relationships, to gain political capital. Yet, once street vendors learnt about the (symbolic) power of the law, they skilfully appropriated the injunction to defend what they considered their rights. Focussing on people's everyday practices, their ideas of law and the tutela injunction, the article contributes to debates about the ways in which structural and social factors condition access to legal tools and rights. At the same time, based on discussions about the effectiveness of litigation and insights from socio-legal research, we highlight the material and symbolic power of the law, underprivileged people's agency in appropriating it, and its often-unintended effects. The research thus points beyond the formal-informal dichotomy of rules and norms, showing that the law's efficacy goes beyond specific rulings and has to be understood in the wider cultural, economic and political context it occurs.

Drawing on data from two distinct ethnographic research projects, in this article I examine the equation of home, house, and security, as implied in the stay-at-home COVID-19 pandemic mandate. My investigation involving domestic workers in Bogotá revealed that the house is not necessarily a safe space and can sometimes even become a trap. Women's everyday lives are constrained by local labour dynamics, gender paradigms, socio-economic diff erentiation, and urban segregation, while their ontological security hinges on the proximity of close social relations. Meanwhile, research in social housing compounds demonstrates that the built environment can contribute positively to low-income residents' wellbeing. These socio-spatial contexts apparently fostered latent communal bonds that were activated during the pandemic crisis. Supported by feminist critique, which underscores the inseparable connection between the domestic and labour sphere, anthropological research that examines the diverse meanings of house and home urban research, elucidating the role of the built environment in our experience of ontological security, I argue that the home is not an independent cell, containing people within brick-and-mortar con fines. Instead, it emerges as a fluid, interlinked, and expansive realm, de fined by processes beyond the physical edi fice. To build more humane cities that off er ontological security and contribute to the wellbeing of all residents, a paradigm shift is imperative: one that situates this expanded concept of 'home' at the centre of conceiving living environments that not only accommodate, but also nurture interpersonal bonds.

Social housing built in the last decade in Colombia shows an upsurge in peripheral urbanizations that began in the 90s: series of large high-rise communities in areas of urban expansion, disconnected from city centers, with insufficient access to goods and services, and with strict regulations set by the horizontal property regime. Based on a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of social housing projects in four regions of Colombia, in this article we discuss social and economic disruptions the pandemic caused in the lives of residents. We show that the pandemic not only affected the daily life of households and their economic situation, but also altered rules of coexistence: strict bans on economic activities in homes were relaxed, while biosafety protocols reinforced boundaries between inside and outside of the complexes. Analyzing this crisis in peripheral horizontal property highlights the importance of rethinking the organization of collective life in these dwellings.

ABSTRACT In 2004, the city of Bogotá designated the historic working-class neighborhood of Las Aguas an “Urban Renovation Zone.” Subsequently, in 2012 the Universidad de los Andes proposed a massive redevelopment plan called Progresa Fenicia, with city approval. Redevelopment is imminent and residents’ responses have been diverse. In an effort to contribute to the literature that seeks to enrich and nuance our understanding of urban renewal processes and gentrification, this article explores the subjective experiences of long-term residents and the role of history and memory in such processes. Our analysis is based on participant observation and 31 oral histories from long-term residents of the small urban area designated for intervention. Through them, we seek to illuminate how residents understand their personal experience of the transformation of the neighborhood, and their part in urban renewal processes that extend into the past but also the future. We emphasize the agency of long-term residents, arguing that the past and memory play a significant role in how people define place, position themselves vis-à-vis urban interventions, and shape their experiences of urban redevelopment beyond monetary issues, class displacement, physical landscape, and housing policy.

La vivienda de interés social construida en la última década en Colombia muestra el recrudecimiento de la urbanización periférica que venía desde los años 90: series de conjuntos cerrados en áreas de expansión urbana desconectados de los centros, con problemas de acceso a bienes y servicios vitales, y con estrictas regulaciones de comportamiento en reglamentos de propiedad horizontal. En este artículo, resultado de una evaluación cualitativa y cuantitativa en cuatro regiones del país, mostramos las disrupciones sociales y económicas que trajo la pandemia a la vida de los residentes de estos conjuntos. Mostramos que la pandemia no solo afectó la vida cotidiana de los hogares y su situación económica, sino que también alteró las normas de convivencia: por un lado, se flexibilizaron las estrictas prohibiciones de actividad económica en las viviendas; por el otro, los protocolos de bioseguridad endurecieron restricciones que refuerzan las fronteras entre el adentro y afuera de los conjuntos. Analizar esta crisis de la propiedad horizontal periférica señala la importancia de repensar la organización de la vida colectiva en estas viviendas.

Despite growing affluence, a large number of urban Chinese have problems making ends meet. Based on ethnographic research among several different types of communities in Guangzhou, China, Soup, Love and a Helping Hand examines different modes and ideologies of help/support, as well as the related issues of reciprocity, relatedness (kinship), and changing state-society relations in contemporary China. With an emphasis on the subjective experience, Fleischer’s research carefully explores people’s ideas about moral obligations, social expectations, and visions of urban Chinese society.

This chapter discusses their testimonies can be read as examples of the way in which neoliberalism, revanchism, and hypervigilance shape urban space. It outlines the epistemological and methodological foundations of our research, pointing to how feminist descolonial knowledge can contribute to a better understanding of the relations between war, social reproduction, (trans)national care networks, and the urban. The chapter focuses on the experience of migrant careworkers in Spain, draws on the centrality of war and multiple, relational forms of violence in the configuration of (trans)national networks of care. It also focuses on the work of madres comunitarias in Colombia, who conduct a form of underpaid care work sustained mostly by women of rural origin who have been forcedly displaced to various cities in Colombia. The case of communitarian mothers relates to (trans)national networks of care as their subject positions situate them as migration fodder.

espanolEn este articulo se analizan las conexiones, encuentros e intercambios que tienen lugar en y durante los movimientos diarios de las trabajadoras domesticas en Bogota, Colombia. En especifico, se examinan las relaciones e interacciones de las trabajadoras en sus lugares de residencia, durante el transporte, en sus lugares de trabajo y en otros contextos sociales —micropublicos— para comprender el alcance y los limites de la segregacion y la exclusion, asi como las resistencias en las practicas cotidianas de las mujeres. La investigacion etnografica muestra el relativo aislamiento social de las trabajadoras domesticas debido a las condiciones laborales y el distanciamiento social. El articulo contribuye a los debates sobre las desigualdades urbanas y el derecho a la ciudad. EnglishThis article analyzes the connections, encounters and exchanges that take place in and through the daily movements of domestic workers in Bogota, Colombia. Specifically, it examines female employees’ relations and interactions in their places of residence, during transportation, in their places of work, and in other social contexts—micro-publics— to understand the extent and limits of segregation and exclusion, as well as resistances in women’s everyday practices. The ethnographic research shows household employees’ relative social isolation that is due to labor conditions and social distancing. The article contributes to discussions about urban inequalities and the right to the city.

Strangers with different economic needs come to live together in social housing projects, posing an organizational challenge. In most current Latin American cities, this tends to be in standardized complexes with small apartments in segregated peripheries. Many residents change from living in informal neighborhoods to a different type of urban citizenship based on partially subsidized home ownership, which they experience as social mobility. Others already live in the formal city and buy their apartments without a subsidy. How neighbors relate to each other, handle conflicts, and organize becomes a practical problem that worries governments, residents, and developers. This article analyzes tensions in social housing complexes in Bogota, in relation to national regulations, architectural design, and residents' hopes and aspirations. Based on survey and ethnographic data, it claims that the rigid material and normative environment of social housing negatively affects neighborly relations, resulting in lack of trust, conflicts, and working against a sense of community. It shows that educational community programs serve as vehicles for "normalization" and atomization according to middle-class ideals of citizenship. Residents embrace the restrictions that suit their aspirations for social mobility and inclusion, yet negotiate others in the face of economic need.

Domestic workers are a vital element of Latin American urban society. Focusing on the lives and experiences of household employees in Bogota, Colombia, this article examines the interrelation between space and socioeconomic differences in the urban context. More specifically, we explore female domestic workers' "production of space" (Lefebvre, 1991), specifically analyzing how they use, experience, and intervene in the urban space. By following household employees in their trajectories, the project illuminates how space is stratified, how the women experience the space, and how spatial, social, and economic dimensions interact with each other to impact their lives and mobility possibilities. The research shows how spatial and socioeconomic mobility is put into practice and negotiated daily, not only in the city itself but also through extensions of time and space beyond the urban sphere.

Konfrontiert mit kontinuierlich wachsender Nachfrage nach preiswertem Wohnraum, begann die Regierung Kolumbiens in den 1980er Jahren mit einer neuen privatisierten Wohnungsbaupolitik, die Hauseigentümerschaft ermöglichen und fördern soll. Dazu wurden staatliche Subventionen und spezielle Hypotheken für die unteren Einkommensklassen geschaffen, sowie Preislimits und Steuerfreiabkommen für die privaten Baufirmen eingeführt. Besonders seit der Baukrise zu Beginn des Jahrtausends setzen private Konstruktionsfirmen auf den sozialen Wohnungsbau. Seitdem entstehen massenweise großflächige, standardisierte Wohnsiedlungen an den Rändern Bogotás. Bewohner_innen sind Niedrigverdiener_innen, die zuvor in informellen Siedlungen lebten. Für die staatlich subventionierten Hypotheken, mit denen sie sich einkaufen, müssen Käufer_innen ein festes Arbeitsverhältnis nachweisen, was die Hälfte der kolumbianischen Bevölkerung ausschließt. Basierend auf mit diversen Forschungsmethoden in neun verschiedenen Sozialwohnungsbaugebieten erhobenen Daten, analysieren wir in diesem Artikel die gegenwärtige Wohnungsbaupolitik Kolumbiens und ihre Folgen. Wir argumentieren, dass die neue Politik tatsächlich mehr Menschen Zugang zu Eigentumswohnungen verschafft. Gleichzeitig zeigen wir, dass ohne weiterreichende soziale Reformen die Gefahr besteht, dass sich die isoliert liegenden Wohnsiedlungen in urbane Ghettos verwandeln, die ihre Bewohner_innen weiterhin stigmatisieren. Zugang zu Bildung, Jobs, Kultur und anderen urbanen Ressourcen ist notwendig, um langfristige soziale Mobilität zu ermöglichen bzw. zu garantieren.

Enfocado en las vidas y experiencias de las empleadas domésticas de Bogotá, Colombia, este artículo examina la interrelación entre el espacio y las diferencias socioeconómicas que demarcan el contexto urbano. De manera específica, se explora las formas en que las empleadas domésticas "producen el espacio" (Lefebvre, 1991). Para ello se analiza, a través de entrevistas no-estructuradas y la documentación de las trayectorias de movilidad, la forma en que estas mujeres usan, experimentan e intervienen el espacio urbano. El artículo se propone, en suma, ofrecer elementos para comprender la manera en que las lógicas de estratificación de la ciudad enmarcan la experiencia subjetiva de las empleadas domésticas. En este sentido, el análisis se enfoca en las interacciones de las dimensiones espaciales, sociales y económicas, y en cómo estas definen las vidas y posibilidades de movilidad de las empleadas domésticas en la ciudad.