Historical Geographies, Spatialized History

The habilitation focuses on the formation and transformation of Latin American cities in the 20th cities, placing particular emphasis on Mexican cities. Building on theoretical and methodological debates in social sciences about the relationships between geography, history and society, the habilitation a) explores the social production of urban space: Why, how, by whom and under which specific historical conditions are specific cities produced? b) examines if and how these urban geographies further impacted on economic and social development of a specific society. The leitmotiv of the habilitation is, thus, that making history implies the making of geographies, and vice versa. Societies unfold not only in specific places. Rather, they develop through the continuous production and reproduction of spatialities, e.g. cities. These cities are not at all neutral towards different social groups and political or economic strategies. Being produced under certain conditions implies that spatialities are imbued with the concrete purposes or conflicts of a given society in a given moment. They are, therefore, a medium for certain goals and a constraint for others. The formation and transformation of the Mexican cities in the 20th century can thus be read as the spatial component (and not expression) of different trajectories in the country`s development from the Revolution over import substituting industrialization to globalization. The main contributions the habilitation makes to ongoing research are the following: First, by offereing a very detailed account on urban development in Mexico in the 20th century, it provides a reliable emprical base in order to ground the exploration of the links between geography and society. Theoretical arguments launched by Edward Soja, Benno Werlen or Martina Löw (to mention just three key thinkers on space) can be discussed in the light of an in-depth analysis of a concrete, though not too narrowly defined case study. A second important input lies in the focus on the historical dimensions of the "making of (urban) geographies". The habilitation argues that the dialectical relationships between space (e.g. the built environment of cities) and social processes can be best grasped through an historical analysis, which is often lacking in today`s debates on the "Handlungszentrierte Sozialgeographie". Third, the habilitation helps to overcome one of the major weaknesses of current urban geography in Latin American studies (and beyond). Most of the studies do not deal adequately with the social embeddedness of urbanization processes. Though phenomena such as the formation of "mega-cities" or, more recently, the emergence of new industrial cities are being described in detail, they barely have been subject to a close (not to mention exhaustive) exploration of the links between specific urban forms and processes (e.g. centralization or decentralization) and the wider social and economic development. The habilitation builds upon the FWF-funded project "Transformation and Urban Processes in Latin America" (2001 - 2005; P 14883)