Right to the City and Social Urbanism: A Critical Reading of the Medellín Model from the Alternative Habitat III

Abstract

This paper critically examines social urbanism in Medellín during the first decades of the 21st century —known as the “Medellín Model”— in light of the concept of the Right to the City and the warnings of the Quito Manifesto (2016). Motivated by the observation that the New Urban Agenda omits structural causes of inequality (land financialization, speculation, displacement), the article asks whether the mobility and transport interventions emblematic of the model realize or limit said right. Based on an analysis that contrasts the institutional narrative with the territorial effects documented by various authors, significant achievements in connectivity and quality of life are identified, but also deep tensions: land value capture generated by public investment has triggered gentrification processes and real estate pressure that threaten the permanence of original inhabitants. Citizen participation, although relevant in the Integral Urban Projects (PUI), operated mainly as state legitimation without influencing structural decisions on land. It is concluded that the Medellín Model, despite its advances, constitutes a technocratic version of the Right to the City which, by neglecting redistributive and land management mechanisms, ends up reproducing exclusions. The article proposes necessary conditions for future urban policies to effectively materialize the right to remain and to decide about the city.