Endangered City: The Politics of Security and Risk in Bogotá by Austin Zeiderman (review)

Endangered City begins its first chapter with the year 1985, from which two events rattled Colombia. One event was a mudslide that killed 25,000 individuals in the pueblo Armero. Zeiderman artfully narrates a story about a 13-year old girl named Omayra Sanchez, trapped in mud and concrete for 60 hours. Emergency workers could not free her and she finally succumbed by slipping into the elements from exhaustion. She became a religious and national icon for future preparedness. The other event was the M-19 guerrilla siege of the Palace of Justice, in Bogotá, ending in violence with 350 dead. Both events were perceived as government failures, tragedies that could have been prevented. Zeiderman argues that 1985 was the turning point for leadership in both the City of Bogotá and Colombia, in building a new social paradigm: risk management. The concept of disaster has been amplified in the recent past, especially with the focus on terrorism or climate change, but it would be wrong to state that there are more disasters occurring now than previously. Zeiderman is wise to avoid taking on this wider debate; rather he sticks to descriptions in Bogotá, a mega-city currently with a population of nine million.

Endangered City contains findings from Zeiderman's ethnographic and historical studies. His aim is to conduct "genealogies of security and risk" (27) using Bogotá as a template for other urban centers. But how is Bogotá different than London or San Francisco? He argues that southern hemispheric cities have much to reveal. One can expect violence, extortion, and extreme wage inequality in Latin American cities, framed by traditions of colonialism, military dictatorships, populist and socialist movements, and neoliberal reforms. Here it makes sense that "security" is on top of government agendas. Add to this the natural disasters to which Colombia is constantly exposed: earthquakes leading to devastating mudslides, and periodic torrential rains leading to deadly flooding. How does one manage risk under these situations?

Zeiderman is meticulous in documenting the effort and energy that Bogotá has put into experiencing, analyzing, and dealing with disaster. In fact, both city and country have been recognized multiple times as innovators in disaster management. Disasters come in many different flavors, and Colombia seems adept in managing each kind. Recall that civil war in Colombia, lasting more than 50 years, recently ended with a peace accord between the government and FARC rebels; President Santos received the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for this effort. And lest we forget, Colombia had over six million internally displaced people before this agreement, second only to Syria. Bogotá has absorbed many of these vulnerable wanderers.

The engine behind this absorption is a branch of the city government called the Caja de la Vivienda Popular, or Caja for short. The Caja emerged in 1942, supplying houses for the working class. Ever since 2003, it is the heart of Bogotá's program of resettlement for those deemed vulnerable to hazards. In addition, the Caja organizes and sponsors awareness campaigns, and educates its clients to become better citizens (consumers, taxpayers, responsible debt holders, etc.). Resettlement is voluntary.

One expects that Endangered City would be an analysis of poverty in Bogotá. Yet Zeiderman refreshes the reader by taking the perceptive of poverty as a consequence, not a cause, of high risk neighborhoods. In an interesting example, he explores all the players and outcomes in a protest in Bogotá during the global H1N1 influenza pandemic in Chapter 4. Not only can leaders invoke "high risk" to their advantage, but the vulnerable can also invoke "high risk" to their cause.

Endangered City is a book presenting several engaging twists and turns. However, though "risk" is the cornerstone idea, there lacks a solid hierarchy of argument. Zeiderman could have polished his text by dwelling more on the universal thinkers of risk. He does this sufficiently with Foucault, but he could stand to explore Ulrich more; we...