Urban governance flows: ethical bases of political becomings

Raúl Acosta - University of Munich

Mobility governance in Mexico City reflects changes in countrywide political configurations. During most of the twentieth century road infrastructures and public transport routes were decided as part of corporatist and clientelist network exchanges. Such was the modus operandi of the single party regime that held power since the culmination of the Mexican Revolution in the 1920s. Since the 1990s, as the single party started to lose its grip on power structures and institutions, numerous fields of public life became arenas of contestation. In this context, a small group of activists who promoted cycling in the megalopolis sought to alter the shared ideals of mobility in the city. Through their performative demands and their experiential call for arms among urban dwellers, these activists caught the attention of mainstream media and helped shape the social media public sphere of the city. Their active participation in public discussions has placed them among the numerous institutional actors, national and international, who partake in Mexico City’s mobility governance. By enacting their envisioned desires for the future of the city, they have also contributed to an emerging ethics of mobility. This in turn has opened up the possibility for many individuals to participate in city-wide political processes as they had never done so before. Recent flows of mobility governance in Mexico City have thus not only pluralized participation in public debates and decision-making, but also crucially shaped an emergent form of civic awareness and engagement, which I name as a process of political becomings.