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type of expert that has been particularly important in the spread of
the Bogotá model. After analyzing — and participating in — many
conferences and forums where Bogotá policies were presented to
an audience, I found that often the most successful events that have
resulted mobilization of Bogotá policies in other cities have used a
particular type of expert, what I call here “persuasive practitioners”.
The main representatives of this type of expert are two Bogotá’s
public figures who claim expertise based on their local knowledge
and their participation in the transformation of Bogotá during the
1990s: Enrique Peñalosa, Bogotá mayor from 1998 until 2000 and a
key person behind the design and implementation of TransMilenio
brt; and his brother Gil Peñalosa, Bogotá Commissioner of Parks,
Sports and Recreation from 1995 until 1998 and a key person in the
expansion of Ciclovía from 24 kilometers in 1994 to 121 kilometers
in 1999. Even though their expertise resides in their local knowl-
edge, Bogotá “persuasive practitioners” are constantly on the move.
They became ambassadors of the “Bogotá model” while receiving [34] Porto de Oliveira, 2016.
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substantial benefits for their participation in the many conferences,
workshops and forums organized by actors as different as multilat-
eral development banks, global think tanks, sustainable transport
advocates or bus manufacturers have hired them to mobilize their
charismatic and persuasive capacities to spread the adoption of brt
and bicycle policies around the world. [35] Montero, 2017b.
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These experts do not rely on technical knowledge or scientific ex-
pertise to legitimate themselves. Instead, their legitimacy relies on
their participation in the implementation of these policies — hence
their identification as practitioners — and in a narrative that puts
these policies at the center of the Bogotá’s urban transformation
success. To produce inspiration and move conference participants
to action, Bogotá's “persuasive practitioners” use two strategies.
First, they make extensive use of narrative and visual artifacts to
convey a simplistic story that links urban transformation — in Bo-
gotá and other cities — with specific small public space and trans-
portation interventions so that participants can identify with the
heroes of these narratives and think that it can be easily replicated
in their cities. Second, they use different emotional artifacts, such as
repeated quotes on the need the protect children from cars, to con-
nect with their audiences and create urgency to move them to action.
Finally, spaces for formal and informal face-to-face communication
during conferences policy forums are essential for the creation of
multi-actor coalitions that will be neccesary to eventually move Bo-
gotá policies from ideas to adopted items in another city’s agenda.
In the following section I show how this process worked in the case
of Guadalajara, Mexico.

66 PERSuASIVE PRACtItIONERS AND tHE ARt OF SIMPLIFICAtION ❙❙ Sergio Montero

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