The Socio-politics of the urbanization - transportation nexus: infrastructural projects in the department of Antioquia in Colombia through the lens of technological politics and institutional dynamics

ABSTRACT Development of transportation infrastructure has long been seen as a fundamental tool in shaping cities, and vice versa. However, moving beyond the discussion on the causalities of transportation infrastructure and urbanization, various authors have criticized infrastructural projects for promoting injustice and reinforcing social and spatial polarization by supporting profit-oriented developments. Contributing to this line of thought, this study examines the wider Socio-politics of the transportation – urbanization nexus in infrastructural projects associated with urban development in the department of Antioquia in Colombia. It focuses on the relationships between these projects and urban development approaches and policies, addressing the socio-political benefits and profit-oriented interests of hegemonic groups, and how infrastructures embody specific forms of power and authority of these groups. The analysis mobilizes a combination of the theory of technological politics and a strategic-relational institutionalist approach, which draws attention to the momentum of large-scale sociotechnical systems, and to the response of modern societies to specific technological imperatives.