Paper short abstract:

Through creative performances, activists have brought about a debate in Guadalajara’s public sphere over urban infrastructure. This paper suggests that their methods engage chains of affect by encouraging people to demand a built environment that is conducive to higher levels of equality.

Paper long abstract:

In 2007, the state government planned to impose a freeway through Guadalajara that would disrupt public transport and pedestrians' routes across an important section of the city. From initial protests against this freeway, a group of previously inexperienced activists came together. They challenged the government by questioning its priorities and its decision-taking methods. Their name, Ciudad para Todos (City for All), condensed the demand for inclusiveness in policymaking and projects for the city.

Through an ethnographic account of its activism and the 'civil ecosystem' that formed around CpT, this paper suggests that its popularity and attention can be explained through the concept of affect. The relational character of life in any city implies a crucial role of the built environment and its ongoing maintenance. CpT activists and others who formed similar groups brought the political into the public sphere as an experience-based way of living the city. In doing so, they strive to reconfigure political practice.

One of the main legacies of a single-party rule in Mexico during most of the twentieth century is the concentration of decision-making over public issues and resources. What CpT demands, therefore, is a politics of repair they consider necessary to achieve a longed-for democracy. A mapping of their performances and activities, however, shows that CpT activists concentrate most of their attention in the wealthier part of the city where they are from. The public debates that have ensued from their interventions have nevertheless implied a sense of shared yearning for change in political practice.