Transformation and Urban Processes in Latin America

The proposed research project seeks to explore the impact that socio-economic transformation processes, which go on since two decades, have on urban developments in Chile and in Mexico. It is assumed that the evolution of cities and of urban systems is affected by transformation, that is, by the modified insertion of Latin American countries into the world economy (particularly a reinforcement of export production and a stronger insertion into global financial markets) and the reshaping of internal relations of state, capital, and labor. Among the most important changes in the form of urbanization are a weakening of urban primacy, growing social inequality and polarization, and new forms of spatial segregation, which include a greater intermingling of social groups and land use. The planned investigation seeks, first, to systematically conceptualize the relation of these urban changes and transformation processes. Second, it aims at comprehensively specifying the character of ongoing urban change. Third, the project aspires to understand consequences of urban change for the future of cities and urban dwellers. The innovative potential of the proposed project stems from analyzing Chilean and Mexican cities synchronically as well as diachronically. Commitment to arguments launched by geographers, sociologists and economists that transformation and globalization have changed the relationship between economy, society and space obliges to relate urban developments to socio-economic dynamics, spatial scales, and historical perspectives that lie beyond the scope of a particular city at a given moment. By systematically contextualizing and historicizing recent urban developments in Chile and in Mexico, the current project seeks to gain fresh insights in specific urban topics (such as urban primacy, social polarization, and spatial segregation) and to contribute to the generation of urban theory. Conceptualizing the relation of transformation and urban change includes questions such as: Which elements of transformation ("external" / "internal") cause which facet of urban change? How do centrifugal and centripetal dynamics of transformation operate in Chile and in Mexico and why does one of them gain over the other? For which elements of urban change is the relation to transformation direct and why? And, accordingly, for which aspects is the relation indirect or contingent and why? In order to specify the character of ongoing urban change, the following questions shall be answered: Do changes in urban primacy reflect structural transformations in urban systems? Is growing social polarization a transitional by-product of the crisis of the 1980s and of an early stage of transformation or is it part of a new "social compromise"? Does a multi-fragmented city emerge that differs substantially from the one known before? Finally, dealing with the consequences of urban change for the future of cities and urban dwellers means to explore whether transformation creates conditions for more decentralized urban systems, and whether it provides cities and their population with a base for sustainable economic and social development.