A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY by Bianca Mers a Thesis Submi

Home , Caminito, La Boca, La Bombonera, Matanza River

THE SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF

SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY

Bianca Mers

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Honors Bachelor of Arts in International Relations with Distinction

Spring 2020

THE SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF

SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

IN BUENOS AIRES:

A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY

Bianca Mers

Approved: ______Benjamin Bagozzi, Ph.D. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee

Approved: ______Matthew Weinert, Ph.D. Committee member from the Department of Political Science and International Relations

Approved: ______Theodore Davis, Jr., Ph.D. Committee member from the Board of Senior Thesis Readers

Approved: ______Michael Chajes, Ph.D. Deputy Faculty Director, University Honors Program

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ...... vi ABSTRACT ...... vii

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1

1.1 Sustainable Urban Development: An Introduction ...... 2 1.2 Research Questions and Objectives ...... 4 1.3 Thesis Outline ...... 4

2 CONTEXT ...... 6

2.1 Definition of Sustainable Development ...... 6 2.2 Role of Phenomenology ...... 7 2.3 International Perspective on Sustainable Development ...... 10 2.4 Local Perspectives on Sustainable Development ...... 11

3 THE KEY FACTOR ...... 13

3.1 Application for Analysis ...... 16

4 METHODS ...... 19

4.1 Comparative Case Study Approach ...... 19 4.2 Role of Field Research ...... 20 4.3 Case Study Context: Buenos Aires, Argentina ...... 21

5 ANALYSIS ...... 24

5.1 La Boca ...... 24

5.1.1 Description ...... 25 5.1.2 Context ...... 26 5.1.3 Connection to the SDGs and Comprehensive Plan ...... 27 5.1.4 Efforts at Revitalization ...... 27 5.1.5 Consequences of Revitalization ...... 28

5.1.5.1 Gentrification ...... 28 5.1.5.2 Local Identity ...... 30

5.1.6 Field Observations ...... 31

5.2 El Riachuelo ...... 33

5.2.1 Description ...... 33

iv 5.2.2 Context ...... 34 5.2.3 Connection to the SDGs and Comprehensive Plans ...... 36 5.2.4 Efforts at Improvement ...... 36 5.2.5 Consequences of Improvement ...... 38 5.2.6 Field Research ...... 39

6 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION ...... 43

6.1 Findings ...... 43 6.2 Conclusion and Discussion ...... 44

REFERENCES ...... 48

v LIST OF FIGURES

Location of La Boca relative to the City of Buenos Aires ...... 25

Figure The Famous Street and Tourist Attraction, El Caminito ...... 32

Figure A Modern Staging of the Inside of a Tenement House ...... 33

Figure Map of the Riachuelo Watershed with Population per Region ...... 34

Figure Decorated Bottles Protecting the New Life in the Riachuelo ...... 41

Figure New Sewage and Flooding Infrastructure along the Banks of the Riachuelo ... 42

vi ABSTRACT

Often conceptualized mostly simply as the relationship between people, the environment, and economics, sustainable development has become a popular buzzword. Without regard for consistency or social implications, sustainable development has continued to advance, branching out into operational policies as well. In particular, cities have often been identified as laying the groundwork for sustainable development both in theory and practice, representing a uniquely impactful testing ground for many of these policies. However, sustainable development in an urban context provides not only opportunities but also brings to light understudied obstacles. One challenge, which is often neglected at nearly all applications of sustainable development is social sustainability. In this paper, I propose that socio-spatial awareness is an essential factor in the equation for successful sustainable development outcomes. I test this assertion through a comparative case study of two sub-city sites in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ultimately, I find that by better understanding the relationships people form with their spaces, a positive sustainable development outcome is both more achievable and more likely.

vii Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

How do we translate international definitions of, and international policies for, sustainable development to the city and sub-city level? International institutions, policy makers, and research have broadly emphasized the importance of sustainable development, but evidence suggests a number of shortcomings in the implementation of these goals at the local level. This undergraduate thesis uses case-based evidence and field research to address the disconnect between sustainable development theory and practice. I specifically do so in the context of Buenos Aires, Argentina, whilst asking the key research questions “Is there a factor that influences the degree and success of city- level sustainability efforts? If so, what is that factor?” Summarized briefly, my findings suggest that the socio-spatial awareness of people and their physical environments is an integral part to the success of sustainable development. These findings have important implications for international sustainable development efforts. The first is increasing consistency and efficiency of sustainable development practices across applications at the international and level level. They are also relevant for city level initiatives such as neighborhood integration and local identity. Below I expand on these points, and begin by outlining the concept of sustainable development for the reader in further detail.

1 1.1 Sustainable Urban Development: An Introduction In the 1987 UN report entitled “Our Common Future,” the phrase “sustainable development” was famously defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland, 1987). Since this report, sustainable development has taken many forms, simultaneously constructing an entire paradigm for reality while dissolving into a catch-all buzzword that calls into question not only the validity of the concept but its existence at all. Regardless of the existential questions surrounding sustainable development, the term “sustainable development” is simultaneously used, and in some cases abused, as a motivation, justification, and guide for change. The result is often haphazard and piecemeal strategies from a variety of actors at varying levels of governance that lack the precision and focus required to identify and address the biggest threats to creating a better future. It would seem then that the most pressing questions surrounding sustainable development are not “What is it?” and “What does it mean?” but rather “What does it look like?” and “What does it mean for people’s lives?” The answers to these questions are further complicated within the context of urban systems. There is a growing awareness that the implications of sustainable development take on an entirely unique set of challenges in an urban context. Some argue that, when considering certain interpretations of sustainability such as self-sufficiency, cities are inherently unsustainable because they necessarily consume resources beyond their boundaries (Rees, 1994, p. 223). However, Martino (2009) points out that narrowly defining sustainability as self-sufficiency neglects the reality of different geographic ecological carrying capacities (p.238). Indeed, concentrated population and energy consumption does not necessarily make such an area more unsustainable

2 (Martino, 2009, p. 238). Thus, a city does not need to be self-sufficient to be sustainable (NSF, 2000 in Martino, 2009, p. 238). In fact, by recognizing the social and environmental impacts of urban systems, we can meaningfully target a critical subset of human activity and increase the potential for sustainable development to improve the circumstances of cities and their inhabitants. This has been emphasized by world leaders for decades, including the Secretary General of the UNCED after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, who pointed out that “if sustainable development does not start in the cities, it simply will not go---cities have got to lead the way" (Brugmann, 1996, p. 363). Furthermore, major international institutions project the world’s urban populations to grow markedly in future years (UN Department, 2018). Thus, the implications of sustainable development in an urban context will become, if anything, more salient. Admittedly, attempts have been made, particularly at the international level, to address the concerns surrounding sustainable urban development. However, such high-level understandings still present a fundamental disconnect. An international approach to sustainable development certainly allows for the broadest presentation of the effects of human activity on shared social and environmental systems. However, operability and assessment are often compromised in order to accommodate such an overarching perspective.1 This is further complicated by a lack of accountability at that national, state, and local administration level (Kumar, 2016). Speaking specifically to qualitative analyses of sustainable development, in a study of 18 national strategies for

1 In some cases, particularly that of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, having too many targets and goals has been seen as an obstacle for implementation and assessment. According to some experts, “having 169 targets is like having no targets at all” (The Economist, 2015 in Kumar, 2016). Such a mindset implies that such comprehensive intentions often compromise efficiency and effectiveness, particularly with implementation.

3 assessment, the findings suggest that “although there are attempts to provide a qualitative analysis of the strategies in numerical forms, these analyses seem to be rather unnatural” (Gáthy, 2008). This suggests that even at the national, much less international level, there are already concerns about capturing social and relational phenomena surrounding sustainable development. This thesis will address this disconnect between perspective and practice by exploring how to leverage the global concept of sustainable development to ensure its effectiveness at all levels of implementation, specifically focusing on the more local, city level.

1.2 Research Questions and Objectives This work seeks to answer two main questions: Is there a factor that influences the degree and success of city-level sustainability efforts? If so, what is that factor? Through a mixed-methods approach, this work is designed to be exploratory, rather than explanatory, ultimately developing a deeper understanding of the context within which sustainable development practices develop and flourish. For the purposes of this thesis, the aim is to trace the existence of international values at a smaller, more human scale as opposed to relying on the broader targets and indicators as they have been traditionally presented. I will focus specifically on Buenos Aires, Argentina and utilize field research to reinforce pre-existing literature on the subject.

1.3 Thesis Outline

The remainder of the thesis is as follows. Chapter 2 establishes the context of the work by defining sustainable development and its current implications at the international and local levels. Then, Chapter 3 proposes a concept termed “socio- spatial awareness” as a potential factor that influences the outcomes of sustainable

4 development practices. Next, Chapter 4 describes my methodology, which is based in phenomenology, field research, and qualitative case comparisons. Chapter 5 is my comparative analysis of sub-city sites in Buenos Aires. Finally, Chapter 6 presents my findings and concluding thoughts and encourages a discussion of the implications for future sustainable development.

5 Chapter 2

CONTEXT

2.1 Definition of Sustainable Development Given the disparate and widespread use of the terms “sustainability” and “sustainable development,” an entirely new body of literature on the meaning of these terms has emerged. As Salas-Zapata and Ortiz‐Muñoz (2019) point out, such a wide array of definitions, many of which may be non-operative or even contradictory, presents a challenge to the application and study of these concepts (p. 153). In the context of this thesis, though establishing a narrow definition of sustainability and sustainable development may limit the applications of this work to broader discussions, it will firmly situate this work within this body of literature. Furthermore, a more rigid definition reinforces my methods of inquiry and more rigorously focuses my assessments and findings. For the purposes of this thesis, sustainability can be considered “as a goal of humankind,” where the use of sustainability pertains to the “environmental, social and economic purposes, goals, values or objectives that certain human actions intend to reach” (Salas-Zapata, 2019, p. 155). More specifically, this work will focus on the social implications of sustainability, which are often best captured in the term social sustainability. Defined most broadly, “social sustainability is a wide‐ranging multi‐ dimensional concept, with the underlying question ‘what are the social goals of sustainable development?’, which is open to a multitude of answers, with no consensus on how these goals are defined” (Hopwood et al., 2005; Littig and Griessler, 2005 in Dempsey, 2011). This ambiguity contributes to a whole host of complications, particularly in identifying the factors that contribute and influence

6 social sustainability, which operate at multiple scales from the national, city, and even local level (Dempsey, 2011). These complications notwithstanding, social sustainability still overlaps with a variety of other important themes such as social and environmental justice, equity, and local identity, serving as a useful framework for encompassing many of the complex themes associated with the social dimensions of sustainability. Therefore, if sustainability, and more specifically social sustainability, is the goal, then sustainable development should be considered the policies and practices put in place to achieve this goal. In this way, sustainable development is a mechanism to both (1) convey normative social values such as equity and (2) create an operative framework for implementation.

Despite the complexity of social sustainability, sustainable development is often reduced to assess simple operational outcomes. While this certainly downplays the importance of social sustainability, it also creates challenges for measuring social interactions, which are highly subjective and difficult to aggregate and quantify. To address these potential pitfalls, this thesis will leverage an analytic lens known as phenomenology, which will better describe the social element of sustainable development and help reconcile tensions between different scales of operability therein.

2.2 Role of Phenomenology In its most basic form, phenomenology is the “study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view” (Stanford, 2013). Leveraging this understanding to the activity of everyday life, we are able to connect the lived perceptions and experiences of people, whether they be their own or those of others, with how their lives are oriented. In this way, physical environments can be

7 conceived as social or relational ones (Weinert, 2018, p. 31). This understanding of human interaction can be applied to the concept of sustainable development as both a guiding principle and a criteria for evaluation. From a phenomenological perspective, the value and impact of sustainable development can, and arguably should, be evaluated in relation to individuals and relative experiences as opposed to isolated activities and their resulting impact — or lack thereof. This is because the social aspects of sustainable development are often understudied, despite the undeniable social consequences of certain activities.Within phenomenology, there is an understanding that the import and value of change lies not in the aggregate impact on a place but on the specific relationships that define and guide the present and future meaning (Weinert, 2018, p. 31). Applying this to sustainable development, there is a disconnect between the scope and scale of sustainable development and the metrics and methods used to assess and monitor its progress (NSF, 2000, p. 6).Whether leveraged at the global, national, regional, or city level, sustainable developed policies and practices are often oriented towards large- scale net positives, focusing on more tangible and easier to observe economic or environmental outcomes. Consequently, analyses of sustainable development outcomes all too often miss the important social and human aspects of this process.

Using phenomenology as the framework for analysis allows us to use the metric of the lived human experience, a phenomena that is simultaneously ubiquitous and binds us all to shared human experience but is also highly unique and operates at the smallest unit of all, individuals. The experience of sustainable development as understood through the sustained activity of everyday life can serve as an ideal metric for the real or imagined

8 impact of sustainable development goals and policies. Put into the context of sustainable urban development, “the language of urbanization, as networked, relational geographies, emphasizes processes. But urbanization also enacts and reproduces a simultaneous rootedness: the banal materiality of daily life” (Martin, 2011, p. 485). Thus, phenomenology affords us the flexibility of modifying the context in which sustainable development can be understood, creating a fluid platform for evaluation that can ebb and flow to match the level of operation. To serve as the counterweight to what is seemingly a moving target, phenomenology provides stability in the rigid continuity that is the routine nature of everyday life. Because cities can be understood to “represent amalgamations of stabilized relationships, … spaces assume [social] meaning and signiﬁcation not merely by their tangibility, but because of the actions and relationships that occur within them and the meanings ascribed to them” (Weinert, 2018, p. 31). Thus, by changing the relationships people have with their spaces, one can functionally alter the space itself, without ever having to physically modify it. The current subsection has sought to elucidate the importance of phenomenology for the effective implementation and assessment of sustainable development. Phenomenology highlights the need to study the lived experience as an integral part in assessing the net value of sustainable development policies. Going further, phenomenology also provides a framework to assess and control for the social and relational aspect of sustainable development. To better understand phenomenology's potential in these regards, it is important to further review the international and local dimensions of sustainable development in order to better describe the complexity of social sustainability.

9 2.3 International Perspective on Sustainable Development Given the finite but interdependent environmental system of Earth, sustainable development is often presented as serving an ultimately international, or at least transglobal, purpose. This characterization is useful to understand the role of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a plan that provides “a globally shared normative framework that fosters collaboration across countries, mobilizes all stakeholders, and inspires action” (Sustainable Development Solution, 2015, p. 9). The SDGs present an opportunity to fundamentally alter the course of humanity, both as a collective unit for a shared future and as direct improvements in the lives of individuals. Despite this potential for impact, the SDGs have been met with varying degrees of support due, in part, to inconsistent efforts for assessment. Even with the complications in operability, the SDGs have more to offer than what the quantitative metrics assess. If the SDGs are considered as not just a method for achieving a goal but rather a goal in and or themselves, then their value lies in both as an operative and normative framework, shaping both how and why changes are made. Thus, their impact can be assessed and should be understood through not only the lens of their direct activity but also for the lasting conceptual and theoretical footprint that they have created. The aim is that by showing the values of the SDGs as a normative set of values, we can better evaluate sustainable development as an end in and of itself. To do this, there must be a more nuanced understanding of the contexts within which the SDGs operate, which is best achieved through the more localized, sub-city sites of activity.

10 2.4 Local Perspectives on Sustainable Development Building off the work of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)2, the SDGs3 were designed to construct a holistic vision for the future of both developed and developing (UN News Centre, 2015). Though the SDGs were built for the sustainable development of entire countries, not exclusively urban area, the inclusion of Goal 11, “Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable,” indicates an awareness that cities and other densely populated areas require another degree of planning and coordination to deal with the extra challenges facing such hubs of human activity (UN General Assembly, 2015, p. 14). However, navigating these relationships and differences in values between the SDGs creates complications within the SDGs and how they are implemented in the city. Typically, the SDGs and sustainable development more generally have been considered at a broader scale than the city, and “political and scientific discourse on adaptation and the analysis of these processes on a local scale are a relatively recent phenomenon” (Garnaud, 2010; Hodson and Marvin, 2010 in Merlinsky, 2016, p, 45). This disconnect between theory and practice is particularly noticeable considering the spatial parameters surrounding SDG 11. By failing to assess SDG 11 in the context within which it was intended to be operationalized, i.e. cities, there is an underappreciation of the impact of SDG 11 as well as a failure to recognize the integral role of cities for local and international sustainable development efforts. Acknowledging the need for city-specific measures, many cities around the world have chosen to develop comprehensive plans to inform their future development. Comprehensive plans outline not only a vision for the city but

2 in place from September 2000 through 2015 3 active from 2016 through 2030

11 specifically target certain sectors, sites, and even practices that present opportunities for improvement. Though they vary widely, comprehensive plans typically describe the current population, highlight challenges facing the area, and outline policies that will protect investments and private interests in light of these constraints for an anticipated 10-20 year period (Community, 2019). Thus, in a similar fashion to the SDGs, sustainable development-oriented comprehensive plans present a vision of a more sustainable future and are providing an increasingly internationally-integrated path to achieve it. However, in the context of this thesis, comprehensive plans capture a deliberate action to imbue international influence in a document that is intended to be operationalized at the local level, serving as a checkpoint for establishing that the

SDGs are not entirely abstract and are codified and highlighted in local operations. Though the presence of international values at the local level should be considered a success, the existence of these values alone still fails to fully account for the discrepancies in the success or failure of sustainable development. Even among the class of “internationally sustainable cities,” there is still a huge variety in which cities are considered sustainable and why4. Is there another dimension to sustainable development that could better explain what makes a city truly sustainable?

4 Many cities have adopted a variety of names and monikers, each communicating certain values such as technological advancement or equity but all are supposedly encompassed within the category of “sustainable cities.” However, many of these terms are used seemingly interchangeably, without much regard for these glaring discrepancies in values and policies (de Jong, 2015). This would imply that classifications of “sustainable cities” are not only variable but wildly inconsistent.

12 Chapter 3

THE KEY FACTOR

Somewhat paradoxically, perhaps the biggest sustainable development- oriented changes for the physical environment need not be tangible but are normative and relational. In this way, “sustainable development” could be read as the development of new perspectives and channels of interaction that generate synergies where there are none, which encourages a sustainable system of mutually beneficial returns for humans and their environments without changing the physical environment at all. Creating this awareness of the social and relational value of spaces may present an important dimension to discussions of sustainable development. Using phenomenology as the foundation, there exists both a physical and social evaluation of space. This dichotomy has been conceptualized as an external vs internal treatment. To the external empiricist, “spatial knowledge is derived more or less from what it can contain rather than from what people are able to bring to and transform within it” (Hargreaves, 2000, p. 4). In this way, changes to the physical environment are seen as the primary way to change the value and understanding of a space. This is contrasted with a more internalized understanding of space, which “allows greater significance to be given to the psychology of a place; its history, culture, heritage, memory” (Hargreaves, 2000, p. 4). From this perspective, there is a case to be made that changing individual and collective associations with a space will invariably change the values and uses of the physical environment. When traditionally measuring and accounting for sustainable development, one side of this bidirectional relationship has been heavily prioritized over the other. Understandings of sustainable development are primarily conceptualized as physical

13 changes, often formulaic and replicable, to the places or practices that determine how people function. Such characterizations are reminiscent of an architecture and planning concept known as physical determinism, which “is based on the premise that acts of physical intervention can play an important role in shaping the social behavior of individuals and modern societies” (Jabareen, 2017). The argument is essentially that if you make a space or activity more “sustainable,” then surely the relevant players (i.e. community members, businesses, politicians, etc) will be more “sustainable” as well. The perpetuation of this claim is evidenced by the reliance on performance-based metrics with only retroactive assessments of human opinions and outcomes, implying that the final product need only reflect well according to the metrics to be a success. As noted in Hargreaves (2000), “an index or wish list of specifications becomes an efficient tool for developers and planners to ensure uniformity and the necessity to conform to regulation and may therefore prevent an intuitive or consensual evaluation of local concerns and distinctive heritage” (p. 4). That is to say fixed lists of targets and indicators prioritize rigid outcomes over the nuanced and localized needs of communities. Consequently, this interpretation has led to lofty long- term goals, a slew of mismatched metrics, and an absence of consensus on what is or is not sustainable. The lack of consideration and attention paid to the cyclical nature of human-environment relationships could arguably explain the seemingly sporadic successes or failures of particular sustainable development practices. While the social side of the human-environment equation may not be able to account for all the variations in the success or failures of sustainable development, it is still an instrumental part of the process and presents an opportunity to improve efforts

14 in this area. Arguably, those actors and philosophies that seek to alter the human- physical relationship, as opposed to merely the physical environment, will yield more effective and longer-lasting improvements. Such an understanding has been long understood by many top international institutions such as the World Bank, which highly value “the building of long-term partnerships for sustainable development, which involve both shared investment and behavior change” (Brugmann, 1996, p. 366). This is reflected in “the participation of communities and project beneficiaries in the full project cycle of assessment, planning, implementation, and maintenance” (Serageldin, 1995; Watson and Jagannathan, 1995 in Brugmann, 1996, p. 366). Despite these initial efforts in the past, there is still quite a large break across these levels of sustainable development activity. Socio-spatial awareness operates simultaneously at distinct, though not necessarily dissonant, levels of influence. Most clearly articulated in extremes, at one end, socio-spatial awareness can be conceptualized as the relationship an individual forms with a given space as it relates to their unique, lived experience. At the other end of the spectrum, socio-spatial awareness describes the shared experience of a common humanity that faces similar challenges while also communicating that the actions of one person invariably affect other people around the world. Through this new concept that I have articulated, the aim is to capture and synthesize a range of social theories and interactions from a variety of fields into an unified concept. Much of this understanding can also be applied to the assessment of the scale of operations for sustainable development as well. Though often oriented toward much broader international levels of influence, sustainable development can be applied at the local, even individualized level. In fact,

15 “to pose place as local and against a global environment, however, misconstrues place. For a truly spatial justice, we need to account for place identity such that ‘local’ claims are immediately and insistently situated as always globally related and produced” ((Massey, 1991; Pierce et al., 2011) in Martin, 2011, p. 486). Indeed, the sustainable development of one place cannot and should not be divorced from the other interrelated systems within which it operates. The human-environment cycle in any one particular place, though it operates independently, will certainly be influenced by the cyclical relationships in other places, both horizontally at the same level of influence and vertically at varying levels of governance. Accepting this fluidity further reinforces the justification for using phenomenology to account for and adapt to these variables structures of influence. It is the complexity of this relationship between scales of operation and interaction that also helps inform the rationale for the structure and focus of this thesis.

3.1 Application for Analysis As articulated above, a disconnect exists between the scale of socio-spatial awareness at which sustainable development is conceptualized versus actualized. In order to bridge this gap, linkages will be drawn throughout this thesis both within and across spheres of socio-spatial awareness. This establishes a precedent of continuity across levels of interaction as well as a new lens for analysis. At the broadest level are the United Nations SDGs, which were introduced in the section above. The SDGs stand as arguably the most universally accepted and internationally actionable set of ideas and policies that is the epitome of a common vision and plan for a global humanity. By tracing the influence of the SDGs through levels of activity, we can see the continuity of this global socio-spatial awareness

16 through other spheres of influence, particularly at the city-level. Using the city as a unit of analysis, a comprehensive plan is an ideal guide of assessment. Comprehensive plans delimits both a physical as well as relational boundary of political jurisdiction, activity and identity. In this way, the city serves as an ideal socio-spatial awareness “checkpoint,” allowing for a complete assessment in its own right as well as in relation to other actors at broader and narrower levels of influence. Completing the degrees of socio-spatial awareness are the sub-city sites, which represent a highly-localized, intimate relationship of people with their built environment. Despite the seemingly individualized nature of socio-spatial awareness at the sub-city sites, this phenomena exists across other sub-city cities, both within the context of the same city as well as across different cities. Thus, this will allow me to examine the variation of socio- spatial awareness as it relates to specifically these sub-city sites and as it relates to sustainable development efforts in other sites and cities. Understanding the lateral as well as vertical nature of socio-spatial awareness, a comparative case study analysis provides a useful framework. Using a typical or representative case study presents the opportunity to “better explore the causal mechanisms at work in a general, cross-case relationship” (Seawright and Gerring, 2008, p. 299). In the context of this thesis, this mainly involves establishing the validity of socio-spatial awareness as a causal factor that affects the outcomes of sustainable development. Additionally, a case-based comparison helps illustrate that such a causal factor is relevant across different social, cultural, and political boundaries. Thus, by defining, exploring, and comparing the causal factor of socio- spatial awareness, we can develop a consistent narrative for patterned behavior, in this

17 case (in)effective sustainable development, in an attempt to influence and better explain the outcomes.

18 Chapter 4

METHODS

4.1 Comparative Case Study Approach By focusing on specific contexts of sustainable development, a case study approach provides a substantial degree of analytic leverage. More specifically, it allows for a more targeted, nuanced, and in-depth understanding of a given space, in this case, cities. Doing so will help disentangle the proposed socio-spatial factors discussed above, as well as the multiple interrelated outcomes and features of the social component of sustainable development. With my primary interest in understanding sustainable development in city-contexts, it seems fitting to focus on sub-city sustainable development sites as the unit of analysis. This allows me to evaluate variation in socio-spatial factors while holding constant a wide variety of potential city-level confounds. Put differently, this breakdown of a city into physical sites of study creates the opportunity to assess a tangible manifestation of specific sustainable development practices, which when combined with other sub-city sites of interest, create a more solid foundation of analysis. Given the above points, and because sustainable urban development takes on an infinite combination of forms based on geography and social context, the ensuing analysis is limited to discussions within the context of a specific city in Latin America, namely Buenos Aires. However, there are limitations to this case based approach. Namely, the insights obtained from my pair of Buenos Aires case comparisons may not necessarily generalize to other cities in Latin America or elsewhere. I address these concerns further below. These points notwithstanding, the current analysis approach does have a number of additional strengths. The nuances of urban life and of

19 the relationships people have with their spaces are often hard to glean from traditional “objective” indicators. Furthermore, experiencing these sites for myself and collecting first-hand data via field research was a valuable exercise in ensuring the detail and reliability of the case-study observations. I now turn to elaborate upon these and related points with a more detailed overview of the field research methodology that I employ in my case study assessments.

4.2 Role of Field Research By having the opportunity to conduct field research surrounding my case study, Buenos Aires, I was able to observe first-hand the social relations that people have created with and within the city. As described by Low (2015), people’s experiences are often informed quite simply by their senses and thus develop a type of sensory ethnography for how they understand and interact with their environments. In this way, it is easier to understand how physical changes create emotional associations, which would lead one to wonder if these emotional associations may inform the types of physical changes that are endured. The need to directly observe social and emotional relationships builds off of the understanding that “among the processes of economic, ecological, and community development, the process of community development is perhaps the least easy to gauge by outside observers” (Brugmann, 1996, p. 366). Relating this relationship with space back to phenomenological methods, it was important to collect data at the scale at which these actions were being conducted. Through this direct engagement with these communities, it helped preserve my understanding of community development, which “cannot be reduced to a clear set of variables” and “ is a process that only can be defined and safeguarded by participant actors” (Brugmann, 1996, p. 366). Thus, my

20 field research allowed me to more directly assess and even somewhat mimic the lived experience. Furthermore, through non-participant observation methods, I was able to develop a quasi-control for my own observations, which were clearly looking for evidence of certain activities. By observing average people engaging in their surroundings, I was able to better appreciate what they did or did not notice and could therefore better establish a baseline for the lived experience.

4.3 Case Study Context: Buenos Aires, Argentina In recent decades, Buenos Aires has decided to brand itself as a center for urban sustainability. Lederman (2015) recounts how Buenos Aires, once hailed as the “Paris of South America,” has tried to make a name for itself as a sustainable development model. Beginning in 2002, currency devaluation made Buenos Aires relatively cheap hotspot for tourists, casting the city as “urban shabby chic.” Seeing an opportunity, the City of Buenos Aires made a conscious decision to use the city’s cultural assets like a robust publishing industry, cinema, and world-renowned opera house as economic leverage for international festivals, redeveloped museums, and an overall more active promotion of tourism. In addition to its domestic work improving the city, Buenos Aires also made strides within the international community. In 2005, Buenos Aires became part of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network and was the first City of Design (UNESCO, 2016). Since that time, Buenos Aires has become a regular figure in international discussions, organizations, and actions surrounding sustainability. However, with such publicity came rising scrutiny and concerns. Despite the seemingly well-intentioned efforts of the City of Buenos Aires, there is continued discussion surrounding the real impact of these decisions on people’s lives. Concerns include the provision of public goods and services and the

21 capacity of the government to reasonably provide and support such services (Lederman, 2015). Other criticisms include institutional priorities that fail to address serious concerns in lieu of more visible or profitable enterprises (Lederman, 2015, pg). Additionally, now that many of these sustainable development practices have been in place for several years, there is also a growing awareness of the unintended consequences of these activities, such as worsening the disconnect between the wealthy northern and poorer southern parts of the city. Much of this understanding is further complicated by incomplete metrics and indicators and the rapid rate of urbanization and development. It is due to these countervailing factors — pushing both for and against successful urban sustainable development efforts — that Buenos

Aires represents both a typical case of contemporary urban sustainable development and an ideal context for assessing which factors lead to successes and failures therein. Studying Buenos Aires presents two major points of interest to understanding urban sustainable development in a more global context. The first is that because of the city’s active engagement in sustainable development practices, there is a large body of existing literature and a relatively developed frame of reference for understanding the impact of sustainable development practices. Secondly, the city’s relevance and prominence on the international stage allow for integration and awareness of a larger sphere of influence than what is contained within the city, allowing a great degree of potential influence. Ultimately, the study of sustainable development in Buenos Aires is not so much about the specific initiatives themselves but rather seeking to understand how all these practices in a specific area work together to create a comprehensive impact on a given space and how these spaces relate and influence the city and its inhabitants.

22 In the case of Buenos Aires, the comprehensive plan, entitled Resilient Buenos Aires, is a product of the 100 Resilient Cities Project from the Rockefeller Foundation (100 Resilient Cities, 2019). The 100 Resilient Cities Project was explicitly designed to be compatible with the UN’s SDGs, creating synergy through spheres of influence (i.e. international through to sub-city points of interest) as well as across cities of interest that have agreed to be a part of this 100 Resilient Cities Project. In this way, there is simultaneously a level of differentiation by allowing for the cities to develop plans based on their own needs as well as a degree of consistency in connecting each component back to the SDGs, which are as close to universal as possible and represent a reasonably comprehensive international plan. Both of the sub-city sites within

Buenos Aires were chosen for their connection to the SDGs, through the comprehensive plans, and ultimately to sites that are a relevant part of the average citizen’s life.

23 Chapter 5

ANALYSIS

The two main sub-city sites of study are the neighborhood of La Boca and the river system of the Riachuelo. Because of their close proximity to each other, the activity in one site naturally impacts the other. However, for the purposes of this thesis, these two sites are to be considered as distinct cases, each presenting unique aspects of sustainable development that speak to larger trends across the City of Buenos Aires.

5.1 La Boca La Boca presents an interesting site to study the relationship between sustainable development efforts and local identity. By promoting non-polluting sectors such as the arts and tourism, the City had hoped to find a way to revitalize the La Boca neighborhood in a way that was environmentally and socially responsible. The results however seem to only further divide this already isolated community to the detriment of the social dimension of urban sustainable development.

Figure 1 Location of La Boca relative to the City of Buenos Aires

5.1.1 Description Located at the mouth of the Riachuelo, La Boca is one of most recognizable neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. It occupies an area of 1.274 sq. miles and is part of “Comune 4,” which is the administrative distinction for the four southernmost neighborhoods in the city. From 2010 census data, this area has a population of

218,245 and an average income per capita of $258 compared to the City’s average of $407 (INDEC, 2010). Notable sites within La Boca include El Caminito, a brightly painted street decorated with local art and lined with shops and restaurants that are very popular with tourists, and La Bombonera, the home stadium for the Boca Juniors soccer team of Buenos Aires.

25 5.1.2 Context Settled by the Spanish as early as 1536, La Boca has been a central part of Buenos Aires’ cultural identity (Wander Argentina, 2020). As one of the first major ports, it became the center of an expanding and increasingly diverse immigrant community composed of mainly Italians, Spanish, French, English, Irish and Eastern European, and later African slaves (Wander Argentina, 2020). The vibrant mix of cultures gave rise to iconic Argentinian elements such as tango, new forms of slang, and the famously colored buildings that still persist to this day (Wander Argentina, 2020). Building off this tradition, La Boca became the home for the artist community, most notably Benito Quinquela Martin who is regarded as one of the most famous painters in Argentina, during the early to mid-1900s (Buenos Aires Cuidad). Despite this cultural wealth, La Boca was, and still is, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. La Boca has struggled economically and socially to integrate into the rest of the City in Buenos Aires. Historically, many of the residents of La Boca were employed in blue collar jobs in the shipping and leather processing industries that lined the adjacent Riachuelo. However, “between 1947 and 1991, La Boca lost 40% of its population and suffered severe degradation, which intensified in the 1970s when the port was dismantled and many factories in the neighbourhood were closed” (Herzer et al, 2015, p. 208). La Boca faces other serious obstacles such as a reputation of crime and informal housing settlements. In an attempt to address several of these concerns, the City of Buenos Aires decided to make efforts to improve the quality of life in this neighborhood based on the rich cultural history.

26 5.1.3 Connection to the SDGs and Comprehensive Plan The conceptual underpinnings of planning for La Boca begin with SDG target 11.4: Cultural preservation and heritage5. These goals are closely tied to those outlined in SDG target 12.b: Sustainable tourism, which highlights the opportunity to celebrate and profit from the unique local identities of communities6. The City of Buenos Aires, seeing the chance to capitalize on the rich history of the area, has created the Barrios Creativos (Creative Neighborhoods) program to encourage competition among the City’s neighborhoods to develop cultural agendas. This is part of the City’s broader Resilient Buenos Aires Plan, Pillar 1, target 1.2.67.

5.1.4 Efforts at Revitalization

Leveraging the historical and cultural merit of La Boca seems to be the natural strategy to address the challenges facing La Boca. It presents an opportunity to improve upon past efforts that began in the 1980s but were discontinuous and generally ineffective (Herzer et al., 2015, p. 208). In a more modern context of sustainable development,“by subsidizing non polluting industries such as the arts, design, and technology,” the City of Buenos Aires is, on paper, trying to find a environmentally conscious way to address inequalities across the city and create a more “integrated, sustainable, and socially equitable city” (Lederman, 2015, p. 47).

This has been primarily carried out by developing the Barrios Creativos (Creative

5 SDG 11.4 aims to “strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage” (UN General Assembly, 2015, p. 22) 6 SDG 12.b is designed “develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that create jobs and promotes local culture and products” ((UN General Assembly, 2015, p. 23) 7 Target 1.2.6 states that “Access to culture is an essential element to overcome the social barriers that exist among neighborhoods. Promoting access of residents to public and private cultural offers is a key factor to build true social cohesion” (City of Buenos Aires, 2018, p. 55).

27 Neighborhoods) Program, which is designed to encourage competition among the neighborhoods to develop a cultural agenda. The winning neighborhood will receive funding to launch these ideas into projects (City of Buenos Aires, 2018, p. 55). Despite the good intentions, there are concerns in La Boca about not only sustainable development but specifically sustainable development based on cultural activities.

5.1.5 Consequences of Revitalization On paper, the development of La Boca is not only desirable but has also been largely successful. The Creative Neighborhoods Program is “designed to create and reinforce local cultural networks by promoting strong relationships between cultural stakeholders in different districts,” which will increase each neighborhood's own identity as well as circulate people across neighborhoods (World, 2020). In order to support these creative projects, the City has also invested in a new infrastructure system. For instance, thanks to the new coastal defence system which has helped control the recurrent floods in Caminito-Vuelta de Rocha, the price per square meter of the warehouse located in the area has doubled or even tripled. Rents in this part of the neighborhood are nearly eight times that of other sectors of Buenos Aires (Herzer, 2015). These rising property values indicate not only growing interest in the area but signal to potential investors that an investment in La Boca will yield positive returns. While the effects of revitalization are certainly helping some, the social implications undermine the entire premise of the work.

5.1.5.1 Gentrification

There have been rather severe repercussions in the La Boca neighborhood as a result of the City’s sustainable development efforts. One of the most obvious and

28 alarming effects has been the increasing rate of gentrification in the neighborhood. In fact, as described by Lederman (2015), there are already movements of local discontented workers (los pibes) protesting rising land prices and increasingly unaffordable living expenses. As referenced numerous times within Herzer et al. (2015), though gentrification may seem like a primarily economic consideration, there is an inherently social component to gentrification that is often tied to the economics of culture. Gentrification changes not only the physical but the social component of who inhabits a space. It forces original inhabitants who can no longer afford to live there out and invites in an entirely new socioeconomic class of people who have an entirely different relationship with the space. Consequently, the history and tradition of the La Boca neighborhood which gave it value is watered down to “a simple anecdote with which an external image, strongly related to the media, is built” (Herzer et al., 2015, p. 212). This simplified perception is then mass produced, and thus mass consumed, for an external “other,” who takes the form of not only new residents but also tourists (Herzer et al., 2015, p. 212). Such an exercise in the globalization of the local, which has occurred in La Boca, shifts the meaning of the reality of these places. Though the revitalization of La Boca is intended to unify the residents of this neighborhood to the City of Buenos Aires, it may ultimately have the opposite effect. Highlighting the cultural significance of La Boca has had two main effects. The first is that it has, perhaps unintentionally though it would appear to be a welcome consequence, increased tourism to the neighborhood. Consequently, the presentation of life in La Boca as somehow a preservation or restoration of life in the past neglects and undervalues the current experiences of the people who live there.

29 5.1.5.2 Local Identity The best example of reassigning meaning to places is the brightly colored tenement houses, which are intended to showcase a romanticized version of what are essentially informal settlements constructed by marginalized immigrants. Pictured below, these restored, if not revamped, tenement houses present a historical narrative that was never this exciting or entertaining, even at its peak. (MOVE PICTURES) Many people currently live in comparable, though less colorful, tenement housing and still live with this precariousness, though their experiences are by no means the celebrated expression presented by La Boca (Herzer et al., 2015, p. 214). Indeed, changing people’s experiences and associations with these spaces also changes who is allowed to use the space and for what purpose, which might be different for how other people experience it (Herzer et al., 2015, p. 212). This inadvertently decides whose experience is to be viewed as the “authentic” culture they want to promote, which includes “implicitly choosing which race- and class-specific qualities they want to acknowledge” (Guano, 2003, p. 359). Thus, the commodification of culture and identity both divides and disperses those who call La Boca home. Much of this failure to appropriately and responsibly develop La Boca can be explained by a lack of socio- spatial awareness between the inhabitants of the neighborhood and the built environment. When attempting to sustainably develop La Boca, the City of Buenos Aires failed to address the social and relational significance of the space. Instead, the City sought to only change the physical environment and neglected the pre-existing social associations that existed within the tenement houses. The result is an environment that is failing to provide for the people who live there by making the space economically unaffordable and perpetuating exclusionary social identities. Because of this, despite

30 the City’s best attempts, they have ultimately failed to socially integrate La Boca. This assessment is further reinforced by my own field research observations.

5.1.6 Field Observations Walking around La Boca, it was hard to appreciate life there. El Caminito is highly commercialized and clearly designed to attract tourists. Kiosks with vendors selling tours, countless reproductions of the work of Benito Quinela Martin, and flashy souvenirs line the streets. Although designed to reflect the “ideal” La Boca, there is the implicit understanding that what you see here isn’t an authentic expression of anyone’s present reality. Beyond the main drag of shops and heading deeper into the neighborhood, there is almost an immediate shift in scenery. Leaving behind the brightly colored tourist tenement houses, there are instead people’s homes and everything that entails — slightly run down buildings, laundry hanging out of windows, children and dogs playing in the streets. There is nothing for tourists here, meaning there is also none of the “identifying culture” of La Boca. Indeed, the front facing La Boca, intended to present an idealized depiction of life in this neighborhood, was clearly designed without much socio-spatial awareness for the reality of life for the vast majority of the residents. Later stumbling upon the stadium of the Boca Juniors, which feels decidedly out of place, I had trouble imagining a packed stadium full of people pouring out onto the streets and into a seemingly quiet and put together neighborhood. On top of this, a new developer has come in and promised a new set of luxury highrises. Given the surrounding real estate and the embedded social stigma portraying La Boca as a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood, it feels as though such development is not only a bad short-term investment but also an obstacle to the development of much needed

31 affordable housing for the thousands of residents still living in informal settlements. Thus, we can interpret this disconnect between the planned development and the existing needs of the community as the result of a low degree of socio-spatial awareness of the social obstacles that may undermine the value of new development. There is a stark contrast between the La Boca that is presented and the one that is lived. It is clear that the investments in culture and local identity that the City has made have been concentrated in a relatively small and isolated area, ostensibly with a focus on bettering the experiences of tourists visiting the area as opposed to those who live in La Boca itself. Not only does this deepen the divide between the residents and tourists of La Boca but does little to aid in the overall revitalization of the neighborhood and the people who call it home.

Figure 2 The Famous Street and Tourist Attraction, El Caminito

Figure 3 A Modern Staging of the Inside of a Tenement House

5.2 El Riachuelo The work being done for the Riachuelo is an excellent example of the positive opportunities for change embedded in the relationships between sustainable development, the environment, and people. Sustainable development efforts surrounding the Riachuelo have changed for the better both the physical environment as well as how the inhabitants of Buenos Aires relate to their natural resource.

5.2.1 Description

Formally known as the Rio Matanza8, the Riachuelo is one of the most important sources of water for Buenos Aires. Beginning in the province of Buenos Aires, it flows for approximately 64 kilometers and serves as the southern border between the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the province of Buenos Aires. It has long been used, and abused, to support the city’s industrial and population boom,

8 The name of the river, Matanza-Riachuelo, translates literally to “slaughter-brook.” The river was named this because of the practices of the tanneries that historically lined the river, which dumped “the skin and the blood from animal carcasses into the water” and contributed to the dark color of the water (Hoshaw, 2008).

33 the speed of which has made organization and regulation of the river and other resources haphazard at best.

The picture can't be displayed.

Figure 4 Map of the Riachuelo Watershed with Population per Region

5.2.2 Context

As a large and centrally located river, the Riachuelo has been an integral part of porteño9 society. Economically, the Riachuelo had served as an important hub of industry and employment throughout Argentina’s history. Beginning in the eighteenth

9 Porteño is a colloquial term in Argentinian Spanish that refers to someone who lives in or is from Buenos Aires.

34 century and continuing well into the twentieth century, one of the largest and most profitable sectors was tanning and leather manufacturing, producing goods that were both profitable and culturally significant because they were tied to Argentina’s famous cattle industry (Minster, 2019). To support the direct relationship between the economic and population booms of Buenos Aires, the Riachuelo also became an important channel for the City’s byproducts. This included processing sewage, handingly industrial waste, and landfill and waste management. After centuries of these destructive practices, it should not have been a surprise when in 2013, a multilateral international report ranked the Riachuelo-Matanza River the 8th most polluted river in the world (Blacksmith, 2013).

Once a symbol of the country’s growth, the Riachuelo has come to represent a major environmental and public health risk. More than 15,000 industries dump their industrial waste into the river, and while there are new regulations in place, many of these are small- to medium-size businesses that are harder to monitor and enforce (Ojea, 2014). The results of these actions on the river’s ecosystem have been disastrous. There have also been negative health impacts for the people who live along the river. Some of the most pressing concerns surround improper sanitation services and infrastructure. As of 2009, “around 30 percent of homes in the basin lack a potable water connection, and 57 percent lack sewer hookups” (ACUMAR, 2010; AySA, 2009 in Merlinsky, 2016). The spetic vulnerability “greatly increases susceptibility to diarrhea, hepatitis, cholera, and other illnesses” (ACUMAR, 2010; AySA, 2009 in Merlinksky, 2016). In a more recent estimate from 2016, “twenty-five per cent of children living in the villas have lead in their bloodstreams, and an even higher portion suffers from respiratory and gastrointestinal illness” (Blitzer, 2016). In sum, the

35 Riachuelo, once a source of opportunity, has become a hindrance to the well-being of this community.

5.2.3 Connection to the SDGs and Comprehensive Plans The conceptual origins for the Riachuelo’s sustainable development can best be understood beginning with the United Nations SDG target 11.6: Environmental impacts and waste management10. Additionally, the Riachuelo has long been used to support the inhabitants and economy of Buenos Aires, meaning the efforts regarding the Riachuelo are closely tied to SDG target 6.b11. These SDGs are directly reflected in strategic objective 3.3.3: Environment and Sustainability of the Resilient Buenos Aires Plan.12

5.2.4 Efforts at Improvement

Cleaning the Riachuelo has been a complicated process. Though the condition of the river has been deteriorating for decades, it wasn’t until 2006 when a landmark lawsuit motivated real change. Citizens of the surrounding communities sued the national government of Argentina, the provincial government of Buenos Aires, the autonomous city of Buenos Aires, and several companies for failing to stop the unsafe polluting practices and demanded that the river be cleaned (Merlinsky, 2016). The grounds for such a lawsuit were based on the 1984 amendment to the Argentine

10 SDG 11.6 is targeted to “reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management” (UN General, 2015, p. 22) 11 SDG 6.b aims to “support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management” (UN General, 2015, p. 19) 12 Target 3.3.3 focuses on “technology and innovation in waste management.” (City of Buenos Aires, 2018, p. 95)

36 constitution, recognizing that environmental rights were unalienable rights (Christel, 2017). From this amendment, an entirely new framework for discourse surrounding the environment was developed in Argentina. It created a legal system that not only recognized the relationship between people and the environment but also contextualized environmental rights and protection within the framework of sustainable development (Christel, 2017). Thus, direct, though implicit, lines of association were drawn between people, the environment, and sustainable development. Such connections indicate the City of Buenos Aires’ heighted socio- spatial awareness of the impacts of the Riachuelo and sustainable development policies on people and communities. Despite having legal support and layers of accountability across political jurisdictions, improvements have been slow. To address the concerns surrounding the Riachuelo, relevant stakeholders have had to make administrative and normative changes. One of the first actions was the creation of the Autoridad de la Cuenca Matanza-Riachuelo (ACUMAR), designed to coordinate between the three levels of government authority and monitor the progress on the status of clean-up efforts, illegal dumps, drinking water and sewage infrastructure, and monitoring overall air and water quality (Crimer, 2015, p. 275). This sparked a series of funding and public works plans and projects, including an

$840 million total commitment from 2009 to 2022 from the World Bank, designed to develop the infrastructure necessary to clean the river and support the people who rely on it (World Bank, 2020). There have also been efforts to encourage recycling and responsible waste management for average citizens as not only part of the environmental responsibility but as also an economic opportunity (City of Buenos Aires, 2018, p. 92). Given the current condition of the Riachuelo, it would seem as

37 though these actions should be adopted with relative urgency. However, the slow rate of implementation has undermined the potential impact of these policies.

5.2.5 Consequences of Improvement Regarding the Riachuelo, the concern is not so much the efforts themselves but rather the speed with which they have, or have not, been implemented. Certainly the development that has been done, such as providing 1.5 million people with drinking water, relocating 2,000 people to accommodate the construction, and removing 200,000 tons of garbage has undoubtedly improved the river and the quality of life of these people (Bartlett, 2016). However, bureaucratic in-fighting and inefficiency still plague the project, resulting in much frustration as reflected in the 2016 resignation of ACUMAR head, Amílcar López, with the parting notice claiming that “[t]here is no plan. We have had just one meeting of the decision-makers and no progress has been made” (Bartlett, 2016). As of 2018, over 10 years since the landmark case, only 25% of the main tunnel for wastewater had been completed (Muldowney, 2018). Such skepticism of the progress of the river is simply building off of decades of missed deadlines and empty promises. Despite these challenges in the physical processes of improvement, there have been important normative changes. Thanks to international pressure and the persistence of residents, people remain optimistic about the future of the Riachuelo and are qualifying “progress” as something inextricably tied to environmental responsibility (Herrberg, 2011). International environmental watch groups such as Greenpeace have maintained active reporting efforts on the progress of the Riachuelo, both as an environmental catastrophe and for the human health effects (Greenpeace, 2020). Such persistence and accountability undoubtedly raises awareness of the

38 permanence of the Riachuelo as an integral part of life in Buenos Aires. If the efforts to restore the river to a less contaminated state represent the repercussions of the past, perhaps changing perceptions of the river will serve to protect the future. In fact, much of this success can be attributed to an already heightened sense of socio-spatial awareness. From the beginning of the Riachuelo’s transformation, there has been a strong understanding of the relationship between the people who live alongside the river and the river itself. The change began by understanding the negative human health concerns of the relationships between the natural environment, i.e. the Riachuelo, and people. This normative change from the citizen perspective motivated a citizen-led class action lawsuit, which changed and is still in the process of changing the physical environment. This normative shift created not just a new place, but a new socio-spatial relationship with the river. This long-term success and commitment to developing the Riachuelo and the role of changing citizen perceptions were readily apparent in my field observations.

5.2.6 Field Research From my time in Buenos Aires, it was clear that progress had been made cleaning the river. First and foremost, there was almost no smell. The water itself, though an unpleasant brown and with some oil slicks, was not particularly noteworthy, indicating that the pungent pollutants, such as tanning chemicals and sewage, are less offensive to the senses. Though there was still trash in the river, there were floating barriers along the newly built retention walls until the sanitation workers could come with their vessels and collect the waste material. The absence of these pollutants

39 represents an important step in the public works of cleaning the river, but perhaps the presence of new developments should be regarded as more significant. The Riachuelo is not only on its way to being restored to its original condition but is on the path to improvement. Readily apparent is the new infrastructure, designed to both treat the water as well as control the chronic flooding that has plagued this neighborhood since the beginning. In addition to the fabricated adjustments, there is new life in the river itself, namely plants and even the occasional fish. Most notably, these plants have been corralled and surrounded by decorated floating plastic bottles, as if they were being put on display like art. While the plants themselves represent a restoration of what should have always been, perhaps the celebration of these plants could be interpreted as a new appreciation for the river and the life it provides and sustains.

40 The picture can't be displayed.

Figure 5 Decorated Bottles Protecting the New Life in the Riachuelo

41 The picture can't be displayed.

Figure 6 New Sewage and Flooding Infrastructure along the Banks of the Riachuelo

42 Chapter 6

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

6.1 Findings When overlaid upon a specific city, in this case Buenos Aires, the implications of socio-spatial awareness become far more apparent. La Boca and the Riachuelo operate within the same internationally guided principles of the City of Buenos Aires’ comprehensive plan. In this way, there is an explicit connection between the international SDGs and the local comprehensive plan. This creates not only continuity throughout the plan but also asserts a certain normative vision for sustainable development from which we can draw conclusions about the goal of the City’s specific efforts. Detailed specifically in each target, this vision most broadly translates into making cities more resilient, safe, and, of primary interest in this thesis, socially inclusive. However, looking more closely at the site themselves, it becomes clear that a connection between the SDGs and a local comprehensive plans is not itself sufficient for ensuring positive sustainable development outcome, and that significant deviation occurs when comparing the socio-spatial awareness and the impact of community relationships with the sub-city sites. Comparing La Boca and the Riachuelo river system, there is a stark contrast between high and low socio-spatial awareness, respectively, and the resulting consequences. Beginning with La Boca, the City’s well-intentioned attempts at “preserving” local identity failed to account for the social associations and relationships that residents have established with La Boca and therefore exemplifies a low socio-spatial awareness. Thus, the City’s efforts to change the physical appearance of the neighborhood did little to elevate those people they intended to

43 celebrate. Instead, the City has made the neighborhood less economically affordable and less socially inclusive, pushing out the current “locals” in favor of those who have little more than a mailing address as proof of their association with the neighborhood. The efforts of the Riachuelo stand as a stark contrast. Set in motion by those who had a high socio-spatial awareness of the connection between the river and their quality of life, local residents have continued to demand physical changes of the river. Thus, as the conditions of the river have improved, so have people’s perceptions of the river. Once a hazardous area to be avoided, the Riachuelo and the life it sustains is now celebrated. Thus, the sustainable development of the Riachuelo, which emphasized the relationship of the people and the river, was far more successful in terms of creating lasting changes. These findings, though specific to B.A., are likely to be generalization to different city contexts across Latin America and elsewhere. Indeed, B.A.'s shared rankings across the Rockefeller Foundation's cities initiative [use proper name] suggests that B.A.'s sustainable development experiences are comparable across a number of dimensions with other major global cities such as x, y, and z. This observation is reinforced by B.A.'s broader shared cultural and historical traits with a number of cities in Latin America, Europe, and even North America such as a, b, c....

6.2 Conclusion and Discussion Put quite simply, “community values are an essential, not an incidental factor in [sustainable] development decision-making” (Brugmann, 1996, p. 366). Through a framework based on the concept of social sustainability, we can appreciate that there are certain social and relational aspects of sustainable development that are integral components to developing in a way that is truly and holistically sustainable. Applying

44 this to cities and more localized urban systems, phenomenology provides a useful foundation for establishing the direct connection between people and their built environments as codified through the continuity of everyday life. Recognition of this connection or relationship that people form with their built environments could best be described as a form of socio-spatial awareness, where the physical becomes emotional and vice versa. Despite the fact that these social associations with place are often personal and site-specific, people all over the world at any number and type of sites share building personal relationships with their spaces. Thus, there are different levels and spheres of socio- spatial awareness, which can and should be connected at all levels of interaction, ranging from the international to highly local. However, such degrees of interaction, specifically social interaction, are often not only difficult to capture but are difficult to develop policies to address. Despite acknowledging the social implications of sustainability, there has been an underappreciation of the role that socio-spatial awareness plays in the processes and thus outcomes of sustainable development. In fact, by acknowledging and engaging with people’s socio-spatial awareness of space, we can develop more consistently effective sustainable development policies and practices.

Regarding international sustainable development efforts, this thesis provides several points of reflection. The first is the value in establishing broad and encompassing normative goals, which positions sustainable development as an international priority, establishes worldwide goals that all communities of any scale can work towards, and develops mechanisms for continuity and accountability. The second is a caution against overly prescriptive or rigid visions for the

45 operationalization of sustainable development. Not only do such targets create a myriad of complications when it comes to assessment, but they also often neglect or fail to negotiate the terms of the localized and social impacts of many of these policies on individual communities. Reflecting on the role of cities, cities are uniquely positioned to make real strides in the sustainable development of their metropolitan areas. Usually representing the focal point of their respective regions’ resources (i.e. economic, political, social and cultural), cities often have the means and in most cases the autonomy to independently act in a way that can drastically and directly impact the lives of the inhabitants. This includes being able to target and assess the highly contextualized social relationships that exist between people and their places. Furthermore, the scale of these resources are often also significant at the international level, meaning that the impact of a city’s efforts are often impactful at the international level. Thus, the city presents a special nexus of the international and local, operating in spheres that are simultaneously and yet inadvertently connected. With this in mind, cities can and should take advantage of their unique position. This includes, on one extreme, prioritizing highly localized interests and advocating for the community-based needs and demands of their inhabitants. Much of this community input can be facilitated through more inclusive and participatory processes for generating sustainable development policies. This will increase the socio-spatial awareness of these policies by embedding community values from the inception. At the other extreme, cities must recognize their ability to influence global outcomes, especially in their potential role as global leaders in designing and innovating impactful sustainable development policies. In this way, cities need to be

46 receptive to broader global phenomena and must accept the gravity of their activity, for better or worse. However, this should not necessarily come at the expense of local identity or values, which cities may be the only entity qualified to serve as a bastion for their interests.

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