Urban Planning As Cultural Process : a Study of Armenia, Colombia
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URBAN PLANNING AS CULTURAL PROCESS: A STUDY OF ARMENIA, COLOMBIA BY CURTIS R. CLICK A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1980 Copyright 1980 by Curtis R. Click ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The preparation of this dissertation has reminded me once again that big projects seldom are accomplished alone. I have numerous people to thank for their help. The members of my doctoral committee have been both patient and supportive during this period of research and writing. Special thanks are due Paul Doughty, who coaxed this study along in weekly installments during the first five months of 1980. Tony Oliver Smith, Paul Magnarella, Felicity Trueblood, and Carl Feiss all encouraged me in the research and read and critiqued drafts of this study. Elizabeth Eddy was important to the early development of the research design. I received gratifying support from several people and institutions while conducting research in Colombia. Luz Rueda, of the Ministry of Education, and Efrain Otero and Lee de Gauffray, of COLCIENCIAS, were instrumental in orient- ing my research to western Colombia. Lee de Gauffray aided in revising my research design "in the field." The Departamento de Planif icacion y Desarrollo Ambiental of the Division de Arquitectura , of the University of Valle, in Cali, graciously granted me an institutional affiliation. Jairo Mazorra especially shared many insights into the 111 Colombian urban system and encouraged my research. Gilma Mosquera Torres, Jacques Aprille-Gniset , and Harold Martinez also widened my understanding of urban development in their country. In Armenia I enjoyed the enthusiastic support of many persons who shall remain anonymous in this text. Persons from all social and political sectors gave countless hours of their time and friendship, immeasurable information, and an abiding enthusiasm for their city. I found many of them to be stimulating and valuable colleagues, vitally inter- ested in their city and its fortunes. I cannot thank them enough for their help. Obviously, however, responsibility for any errors lies with the author. Thanks are due my wife Libia for making the maps which appear in the text. My mother, Mrs. Jane Glick, proofread parts of the manuscript. And Mrs. Sue Wise Kirkpatrick deserves a special vote of thanks for a fine typing job under duress. Finally, I must thank my family. My wife Libia has given me years of patient support so that this dissertation might become a reality. Andre has added joyful counterpoint to a long research and writing period. And baby Marcia sleeps best to typewriter "music." This dissertation is for my family and for the people of Armenia. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix ABSTRACT X CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 Basic Definitions 6 Theoretical Approach 8 Methodology 10 Organization of the Dissertation 15 Notes 18 II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: ANTHROPOLOGY, URBAN RESEARCH, AND COLOMBIA 20 Currents in Anthropology 20 Urban Study of Colombia 29 Notes 36 III. "THE MIRACLE CITY" 39 The City's Ethos 3 9 Geographical Situation 43 Urban Functions 47 Notes 53 IV. CULTURALLY PATTERNED SPACE: A PHSYICAL DESCRIPTION OF ARMENIA 56 Spatial Distribution: An Overview 57 Private Space 61 Public Space 75 Notes 88 V Page CHAPTER V. THE HISTORY OF ARMENIA 92 Founding 92 Demographic History 96 Political History 98 Economic Integration 101 Notes 106 VI. THE PEOPLE OF ARMENIA 110 Demographics Ill The Antioquenos of Armenia 116 Social Divisions 128 Social Class in Armenia 129 Class and Coffee: Four Perspectives .... 137 Notes 143 VII. CITY POLITICS AND PLANNING: THE ROLE OF PERSONALISM 14 9 National Centralism 151 The Senate as a Power Stance 154 A Cacique ' s Support in the Community .... 156 Summary 159 Notes 153 VIII. PLANNERS AND DEVELOPMENT INTERESTS 165 Agents of Planning and Development 166 A Profile of Planners 195 Career Patterns in Planning 205 Notes 209 IX. THE PLANNING FORMAT: PRESCRIBED AND REAL . 214 Codes: Prescribed Practice 215 Observed Practice 219 Nexus: Points of Interaction 232 Notes 245 X. CASE STUDIES 249 Case One: Transition of the Center City . 250 Case Two. The Quindio Overlook 258 Case Three: The Centenary Stadium 269 VI Page CHAPTER Case Four: Barrio Siete de Agosto 281 Notes 294 XI. CONCLUSIONS AND ANALYSIS 299 Analysis 305 Significance of the Findings 309 REFERENCES 313 APPENDIX I. GLOSSARY 328 APPENDIX II. AGENCY ACRONYMS 332 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 334 vii LIST OF TABLES TABLE Page 1. QUINDIO COFFEE PRODUCTION, 1927-1965 102 2. COMPARATIVE POPULATIONS OF ARMENIA AND OTHER COLOMBIAN CITIES IN CENSUS YEARS AND 1979 113 3. THE TWELVE LARGEST CITIES IN COLOMBIA IN 1964 AND 1973 114 4. SOCIAL STRATA BY INCOME IN ARMENIA, 1977 131 5. PARLIAMENTARY GRANTS-IN-AID FOR QUINDIO in 1979 160 6. PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES 170 7. MUNICIPAL PLANNING COMPLIANCE WITH MANDATED FUNCTIONS 222 8. PARTICIPATION ON BOARDS OF DIRECTORS 242 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Psge 1. Map of the Republic of Colombia 44 2. Map of the Department of Quindio 45 3. Locations of Principal Colombian Cities and Smaller Cities Mentioned in the Test 48 4. Map of Old Caldas 49 5. Map of City of Armenia 59 6. Residential Zones of Armenia 62 7. New Commercial-Residential Nuclei 63 8. Barrios Built or Financed by ICT 66 9. Map of Downtown Armenia 78 10. Scheme of the Plaza de Bolivar Showing Building Facades 81 11. Scheme of Armenia's Social Structure 136 12. Scheme of Dr. Cesar's Power Base 153 13. Sites of Case Studies, Chapter X 259 IX . — Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy URBAN PLANNING AS CULTURAL PROCESS: A STUDY OF ARMENIA, COLOMBIA By Curtis R. Click December, 1980 Chairman: Dr. Paul L. Doughty Major Department: Anthropology An ethnographic study was made of the processes of urban planning and urban development in Armenia, Colombia a city of intermediate size. It is posited that planning is a cultural process, one whereby people shape their living environments according to cultural patterns. Development is a broader, more organic process but also culturally patterned. The study consists of a sociocultural matrix sketch of the city, within which more strictly institutional elements are considered; four case studies illustrate development pro- cess. Social groups are considered peripherally, as the process of planning impinges upon them. The frame of refer- ence is the viewpoint of upper-class planning professionals. Special focus is placed upon elite groups, the politics of planning, and the physical city as culturally patterned space X Despite claims by some observers that there is no effec- tive urban planning in Colombian medium-sized cities, there was found to be a planning process in Armenia. A large number of agencies was found to perform planning functions, both formally and de facto. But the wider concept of urban development was found to be more powerful since most of substantive planning is done informally— and since the planning office does not have an adequate field of real powers to plan. The sociocultural matrix was found to contain tradi- tional Antioqueno values of entrepreneurial vigor, regional- ism, familism, and economic conservatism in those sectors tied to coffee agriculture. Because of the coffee economy with little diversification, money traditionally is invested in land and real estate, which makes urban land-use policy a matter of concern to the influential elites of Armenia, who use the political and planning structure to defend and promote their interests. A cacique , or political boss, was found to control the critical junctures of society and government in this centralist system, and a small power group dominates many of the city's socioeconomic institu- tions . While a planning agency does indeed exist in Armenia, it does not have the power or the continuity to effectively channel the growth of the city. Given the present social and political conditions of the city— a wealthy and XI entrenched upper class and an equally entrenched political boss — it does not seem likely that the prospects for "rational" planning will improve markedly. The informal process of urban development is not random or disorderly, but follows established cultural patterns useful to providing orderly growth. Since planning is not possible outside the cultural matrix which houses and informs it, planners in Armenia and other cities might well look to their cultural patterns for ideas and limitations on planning, and try to formalize such patterns as they affect urban development. Xll CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The soit±>er figure of Sim6n Bolivar no longer stands in the Plaza de Bolivar in Armenia, Colombia. Now, stranded in a tiny scrap of park called the Park of the Aborigines,^ the statue of Colombia's national hero goes almost unnoticed by truckers and motorists entering the city. Bolivar has been displaced from the downtown Plaza, the traditional prestige spot in any Latin American city, by the bold new "Monument to Effort."^ The new monument is a stylized male clad only in coffee branches, hoisting a winged female figure high above his head. Both defiantly face the central chain of the Andes which provides a green backdrop before which Armenia is grow- ing rapidly as a coffee emporium and center of commerce, population, and administration. To those familiar with Colombia and its general conservative adherence to colonial values and reverence for revolutionary heroes, such a change in civic symbols would appear remarkable. But then to those who know the department (a state-like political unit) of Antioquia and the three new departments — Caldas, Quindio, and Risaralda—which were formed from the Antioqueho-populated 3 Old Caldas, the change might not be so surprising.