La planeación urbana y las ciencias sociales en Colombia

This essay examines the interest of the social sciences (especially sociology and anthropology) in space and cities, fr om the point of view of one of its traditional client groups: urban planners. More specifically, it analyses the changing relationship between the social sciences and local state planning in the organization of the conflictive and contradictory processes of urbanization. It is argued that around the mid-1980s a divorce took place between the academic disciplines and the institutions of government, at a time which also saw the waning of any kind of socio- spatial ?grand project?. The social sciences entered a period a academicist renovation, at remove from the themes and dynamics of social change imposed by neoliberal discourse. It is argued that only recently have the social sciences began to show the first signs of abandoning the margins of political debate and urban material realities, and that it is urgent that they cultivate this latent critical impulse in order to contribute once again to the progressive understanding and orientation of urban affairs.