Divergent citizenships: Social urbanism and hip hop collectives in Comuna 13 (Medellin - Colombia)

Abstract

The bombing attacks against the civilian population promoted by the Colombian State in alliance with paramilitary groups (2001–2002) marked the history of the Comuna 13, a popular territory located on the slopes of Medellin. It has faced processes of structural, political and criminal violence for nearly 50 years. Its stigmatization as a space in conflict has justified military incursions as anti-subversive strategies. More recently, urban interventions based on the “social urbanism” model promoted by the municipal government have sought to pacify the population by means of sophisticated infrastructures. This paper aims to analyze the forces and folds of power present in citizen practices. Based on a scalar methodology that articulates ethnographic work with microhistory, the research reveals the configuration of divergent citizenships in hip hop collectives. The paper shows how they have been shaped by factors such as disputes over public spaces as settings of political life, interpellations to images of legitimate citizens, claims of rights anchored to territorial history, experiences of citizenship linked to body and emotions, citizen experiences connected to collective work, and the defense of universal claims based on the experience of young hoppers in different cities around the world. This research opens questions for legal geography to think about the relationship between citizenship and territoriality.