Hidden gems: The potential of places and social innovation for circular territories in Bogotá

Abstract

Urban literature and policy research on social innovation, call for agency building and influence on institutional planning as the main expected outcomes. Empirical evidence for this hypothesis is being tested in some European cities, but the hypothesis does not yet seem sufficiently explored in the cities of the Global South.Focusing on Colombia's capital, Bogotá, this article reports on the potential of Bogotá's urban cultural places as spatial platforms for the manifold manifestations of social innovation and urban policies and planning.The analysis builds on mixed qualitative methods, through a series of case studies, whose description makes it possible to recognize in specific urban places a fertile ground for the generation of the premises for and the materialization of the effects of social innovation. The knowledge produced shows that these places can become intermediaries between bottom-up initiatives and institutional planning, but only if they are networked and structured in a reciprocal loop of exchange and dialogue with both parties.