Latin American Cities and Regions

Book Chapter

Authorship

JAJAMOVICH, GUILLERMO PAZ ; Sosa López, Oscar ; Silvestre, Gabriel

Date

2021

Publishing House and Editing Place

Wiley Blackwell Publishing, Inc

Book

The Wiley - Blackwell Companion to Urban and Regional Studies (pp. 41-61)
Wiley Blackwell Publishing, Inc

ISBN

978-1-119-31682-4

Summary Information provided by the agent in SIGEVA

This chapter discusses Latin American cities and regions as an analytical category and a material reality. Rather than providing a definitive definition of what the Latin American city is vis-à-vis other categories, this chapter traces the intellectual history of the category and describes current urbanisation dynamics to highlight long-standing tensions between specificity, exceptionalism and generalisation that have shaped and continue to shape how scholars understand and analyse urban... This chapter discusses Latin American cities and regions as an analytical category and a material reality. Rather than providing a definitive definition of what the Latin American city is vis-à-vis other categories, this chapter traces the intellectual history of the category and describes current urbanisation dynamics to highlight long-standing tensions between specificity, exceptionalism and generalisation that have shaped and continue to shape how scholars understand and analyse urbanisation in the region. The chapter begins by tracing the Latin American city as an idea that has correlated with economic, political, and intellectual realities of different historical moments. A second section discusses contemporary dynamics present across the region, focusing on the last two decades of the twentieth century and onwards. A final section serves as conclusion by reflecting on what ongoing and nascent research avenues on Latin American cities might tell us about these cities’ position in relation to today’s urban studies field.