Tactical Urbanism in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)

Abstract

Tactical urbanism, a term developed from High-Income Countries (HICs), describes grassroots activities in urban settings for neighbourhood building which are short-term, low-cost, iterative, make efficient use of resources, and are reactive/activist. In HICs, examples include citizens adding street signs, pop-up projects in disused buildings, painting bike-lines, and car free days where parking spaces are repurposed as parks. Examples and case studies labelled as tactical urbanism from LMICs, are predominantly related to road safety (Brazil, India, Tanzania, and Chile) and are described in informal resources such as blog posts. There was little evidence of tactical urbanism being promoted or delivered in response to COVID-19.