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key not only for learning but also to create epistemic communities
through the formation of relationships between policy elites, experts
and practitioners over distance, what they call transurban policy pipe-
33
32
[32] Cook; Ward, 2012. lines. Temenos has also shown the important role of the kind of f2f
communication that takes place in conferences for the collaboration
[33] Temenos, 2015.
and creation of advocacy networks. Therefore, the mobilization of lo-
cal and transnational experts as well as the trust creation possibilities
derived from formal and informal face-to-face communications make
conferences and policy forums key sites for policy learning and the cre-
ation of policy networks. However, to better conceptualize the role of
conferences in policy adoption and circulation, it is also important to
understand power-related variables such as who organizes the forum
and whether the organization of spaces for f2f simply reflects exist-
ing power relations among urban actors or is deliberately organized to
try to change those urban governance structures.
When looking at the practices through which Bogotá ideas ar-
rived in Guadalajara, it becomes clear that as much as international
organizations can mobilize extensive funding and expert networks to
promote the policy problems they want to prioritize, they can also not
just impose their models and interpretations on cities. Local actors
have their own agendas, beliefs and aspirations and are embedded in
particular urban politics and governance dynamics. In other words,
rather than through coercion “from above”, Bogotá’s TransMilenio
and Ciclovía have circulated when influential local leaders — which
include mayors and high ranking officials but also coalitions of lo-
cal advocates, business leaders or journalists — have persuasively
learned them and formed local coalitions to implement them. Moving
influential policy actors from knowledge to action requires not only
exchanges of information or technical knowledge but the creation of
coalitions of powerful actors that will push for a particular policy. The
politics behind the global circulation of Bogotá policies is therefore
not about coercion “from above” but it is rather a politics of inspira-
tion, persuasion and local coalition-building that take place through
the organization of face-to-face meetings and study tours where the
telling and retelling of a simplified story of urban transformation due
to the implementation of a policy — or a small set of policies — plays
a fundamental role.

BOGOTÁ EXPERTS: THE PEÑALOSA BROTHERS AS “PERSUASIVE PRACTITIONERS”

In the last two decades, different types of experts have used
Bogotá references in conferences, workshops and forums around
the world. They include university professors, transportation con-
sultants, urban planners, or bicycle advocates. However, there is a

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