The Travels of a Set of Numbers: The Multiple Networks Enabled by the Colombian ‘Estrato’ System

Abstract

This article documents how a Constitutionally grounded effort to institute ‘cross subsidies’ for public utility payments gave rise to a set of numbers that never achieved the goal of cross-class solidarity. This legal based system lived on, in large part because the numbers were quickly adopted both in popular speech and by multiple institutions, in an uncoordinated manner. Scalar tensions are key to the story: the Colombian ‘estrato’ system for classifying residential properties (initially for differential utility payment purposes) has at its core a set of numbers that was designed as nationally valid: but the work of labelling all residences with one of the six numbers to produce zoning-like ‘estrato’ maps incites qualitative micro-local knowledge. Overall, we show that local knowledges of socioeconomic difference constantly clash with and undermine not only the initial ambitious plan to render cross-class ‘solidarity’ technical but also the subsequent efforts to propose more rational alternatives.