One of the chapters in his book is entitled ‘The Bus Stop:
Cultivating Community’. In it he describes the impacts that were achieved in
one of his projects simply by rerouting a bus service that used to run around
the outskirts of a deprived area to run through the centre of the slum where it
intersected with another route. At this crossing point a small shaded area was
provided as well as a water standpoint.
Because bus services were irregular, people would sometimes have to wait
for a considerable period before they were able to leave for the main city
centre. As a result, an informal market
developed with micro-enterprises being established by local people to service
the needs of the waiting travellers. A
couple of street lights were installed to facilitate the operation of the
market and associated informal activities into the evening so that the role of
this location as a hub for community activities increased still further. And
this then encouraged an NGO to locate a small health centre in the same place.
So the simple act of diverting a bus route and creating a new stop led to the
creation of a whole new economic and social infrastructure.
I was reminded of this chapter on one of our field visits
for the Entoto project when we stopped off at the Maryam Church on Entoto
Mountain. This is the location of a holy spring and is a major pilgrimage
destination for Orthodox Christians, as well as being located right next to the
former palace of King Menelik II, one of the most famous Ethiopian rulers. As a
destination for cultural tourism, this location on a ridge above the city is
ideal for development. But the challenge
for us as a team, if we select this site rather than one of the other locations
we have looked at along this 20 km ridgeline (a decision yet to be made) is how
to integrate into our proposals the thriving informal economic community that
has grown up in recent years around the church.
As well as food sellers and cafes, gift shops and souvenir stalls, there
are (very) low cost accommodation providers for pilgrims wishing to stay more
than a day and even tailors who will alter or mend your clothing or make you a
new suit or dress. Given that these
micro-businesses are providing a major service to pilgrims it would not be
appropriate to move them in any attempt to ‘prettify’ the place for
international heritage tourists. Our role, should we use this site, will be to
ensure that they can provide additional services to a new market rather than
lose their livelihoods altogether. Over the coming days, my colleague Dr
Roberto Durero and I will be exploring these opportunities with community
representatives in order to identify appropriate development strategies for the
site.
This demonstrates the significant impact of what one could
term ‘place friction’ – as you provide a space where people must slow down or
stop, it becomes easier to sell them things and to encourage them to consume
services. It’s a simple concept, and was
of course well known in the past – think of all the medieval markets that were
established immediately outside cathedrals and abbeys so that they could
capture the spend of pilgrims and worshippers attending services on Saints’
days. So whether or not we do select the
Maryam church site for our development, it has been fascinating for me to be
able to relate my experiences in Addis this week both to the work of one of the
world’s leading development academics but also to processes that we experienced
centuries ago as our own economies were developing.
