Between 1994 and 2002, Bogotá, Colombia, was the site of a grand social experiment in activating urban residents’ capacity for cooperation and management. Through a fusion of art, pedagogy, and public policy, then-Mayor Antanas Mockus, a mathematician and philosopher who was formerly a professor and provost at the National University of Colombia, inspired Bogotá citizens to work together in devising and applying solutions to the city’s most pressing problems. Together, Bogotá’s population participated in the shared creative project of addressing not only a soaring homicide rate and entrenched corruption, but also tax evasion, infrastructural woes, and basic social intolerance.
Teacher, politician, writer, researcher and innovator of the “Citizenship Culture” methodology, Antanas Mockus was elected Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia twice, from 1995 to 1997 and from 2001 to 2003. Both times, he reduced the rate of homicides in the city by 40%, made major fiscal improvements, and established participatory budgeting processes in 20 locations. Prof. Mockus ran for the Colombian presidency in 2010, but was defeated in a runoff election against candidate Alvaro Uribe.
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