UTOPÍAS, Iztapalapa

Zach Mortice, Karol Yáñez, Itzel Fuentes

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Writer Zach Mortice and an author team of urban planners Karol Yáñez Soria and Itzel Julieta Fuentes Morales are developing complimentary analysis of the UTOPÍAS (an acronym for Units for Transformation and Organization for Inclusion and Social Harmony), a network of major parks and community spaces in Iztapalapa, Mexico City generated through varying combinations of grassroots activism and federal and municipal urban social policies.
Yáñez and Fuentes, both urban planners, are writing a bottom-up, community-centered analysis focusing on how residents and activists shaped the UTOPÍAS program through organizing and participation. Their case study will examine how decades of grassroots activism, particularly feminist and popular movements, created the conditions for and directly influenced the design and implementation of the UTOPÍAS.
Mortice, a journalist, is focusing his analysis on how political structures, electoral democracy, and government bureaucracy enable and shape the UTOPÍAS program. This case will examine the program as a tool of the Morena party’s political strategy and investigate the tensions between democratic participation and technocratic management in large-scale public works delivery.

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