Abstract, The Transition to Entrepreneurial Governance in a Middle-Sized Ecuadorian City

:::::: Abstract ::::::

The Transition to Entrepreneurial Governance in a Middle-Sized Ecuadorian City
by José Prada-Trigo


A key issue in territorial studies in recent years has been the transition in urban governance from managerialism to entrepreneurialism. North American and European cities were pioneers in this transition, and Latin American metropolises adapted their postulates to a different reality. Middle-sized cities in the region seem to have copied the intervention models of the nearest metropolis, uncritically applying them to a context characterized by important urban and social deficiencies and low standards of urban governance. The result has been a transition from no management to urban entrepreneurialism. In the case of one middle-sized city, this model has generated “islands of investment” attractive to foreign capital without resolving such long-standing problems as poverty, inequality, underemployment, and scarcity.

Abstract, The Transition to Entrepreneurial Governance in a Middle-Sized Ecuadorian City

:::::: Abstract ::::::

The Transition to Entrepreneurial Governance in a Middle-Sized Ecuadorian City
by José Prada-Trigo


A key issue in territorial studies in recent years has been the transition in urban governance from managerialism to entrepreneurialism. North American and European cities were pioneers in this transition, and Latin American metropolises adapted their postulates to a different reality. Middle-sized cities in the region seem to have copied the intervention models of the nearest metropolis, uncritically applying them to a context characterized by important urban and social deficiencies and low standards of urban governance. The result has been a transition from no management to urban entrepreneurialism. In the case of one middle-sized city, this model has generated “islands of investment” attractive to foreign capital without resolving such long-standing problems as poverty, inequality, underemployment, and scarcity.

Book Review, Scars and Resistances in Latin American Cities

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Scars and Resistances in Latin American Cities

by María Mercedes Di Virgilio                     


The production logics of Latin American cities have not followed the same canons as those of American or European ones. Although in many cities we can recognize neighborhoods or areas that appear to conform to the “North Atlantic urban ideal,” these areas or neighborhoods—as expressions of the so-called formal city—clearly adjoin and interact with what has come to be known as the informal city. The two volumes reviewed here contribute to the vast literature on Latin American cities and to discussions regarding poverty and the scars that informality has stamped on these cities since their foundation (for an overview, see McTarnaghan et al., 2016).

Cities from Scratch: Poverty and Informality in Urban Latin America, edited by Brodwyn Fischer, Bryan McCann, and Javier Auyero, is another in the long list of works on urban informality, but it attempts to move beyond the truisms and paradoxes found in this type of analysis (1):

Introduction, Planning Latin American Cities: Housing and Citizenship

:::::: Introduction ::::::

Planning Latin American Cities: Housing and Citizenship
edited by Clara Irazabal and Tom Angotti                                                                


After the 1973 coup in Chile, the Pinochet dictatorship, aided by advisers from the United States, became a proving ground for neoliberal reforms in Latin America. Its efforts to minimize the public role and maximize private initiative have strongly influenced social housing programs in other countries in the region. In effect, Chile’s housing reforms were recognized as best practices. The massive social housing program it launched in the early 1990s has been emulated throughout the Americas, most notably in Brazil’s Minha Casa, Minha Vida program. Following its developer-driven and neoliberal approach to housing, Chile produced a significant volume of new housing units. However, from the larger vantage point of community development and citizenship rights, the new housing has been deficient. It has generated new urban ghettos and peripheral neighborhoods and contributed to suburban expansion, auto dependency, unevenness in the provision of services, and a new form of poverty.

Abstract, The Future of Global Peripheral Cities

:::::: Abstract ::::::

The Future of Global Peripheral Cities
by Erminia Maricato


In June 2013 an unprecedented movement spearheaded by young people took to the streets of Brazilian cities. Despite the diversity of explanations of the protests, one thing became clear: the urban question was at the center of events. Brazil has become an international role model for its innovations in social policy and even urban policy. There have been social struggles for a democratic city. New policies, new programs, new projects, and a Ministry of Cities have been created. This democratic and participatory process has taken place in the context of fiscal adjustment and therefore contention over resources. When the federal government resumed investment in cities following a developmentalist project, capital linked to the production of space took over the leadership of the urban process and the virtuous cycle of urban policy declined. Investment in works directed by the real estate market in the context of mega-events such as the World Cup and the Olympics together with tax relief for the purchase of automobiles deepened the deterioration of urban living conditions, especially housing and mobility.

Abstract, The Future of Global Peripheral Cities

:::::: Abstract ::::::

The Future of Global Peripheral Cities
by Erminia Maricato


In June 2013 an unprecedented movement spearheaded by young people took to the streets of Brazilian cities. Despite the diversity of explanations of the protests, one thing became clear: the urban question was at the center of events. Brazil has become an international role model for its innovations in social policy and even urban policy. There have been social struggles for a democratic city. New policies, new programs, new projects, and a Ministry of Cities have been created. This democratic and participatory process has taken place in the context of fiscal adjustment and therefore contention over resources. When the federal government resumed investment in cities following a developmentalist project, capital linked to the production of space took over the leadership of the urban process and the virtuous cycle of urban policy declined. Investment in works directed by the real estate market in the context of mega-events such as the World Cup and the Olympics together with tax relief for the purchase of automobiles deepened the deterioration of urban living conditions, especially housing and mobility.

Introduction, Planning Latin American Cities Dependencies and “Best Practices”

:::::: Introduction ::::::

Planning Latin American Cities
Dependencies and “Best Practices”
by Tom Angotti and Clara Irazábal


Latin America is the most urbanized region in the world, with over 80 percent of the population living in cities (United Nations Human Settlements Program, 2012). Yet most of its cities lack the basic infrastructure and services enjoyed in the North, are sharply divided into luxury enclaves and sprawling peripheries, and reflect deep social and economic inequalities.1 Alongside the growth of urban industry and trade, there is widespread violence, congestion, and pollution. Despite some progressive urban reforms promoted by social movements aimed at improving the quality of life, powerful ruling oligarchies are fragmenting cities to build financial districts, shopping malls, stadiums, and gated luxury enclaves, neglecting the problems in the daily lives of the majority of the population. When the land they are living on is coveted for new development, the poor are pushed out by market forces or unceremoniously evicted, continuing the long history of displacement and accumulation by dispossession of capitalist urbanization. The majority of the urban population lives in peripheral areas that lack basic services and infrastructure until they are singled out as profitable real estate investment targets (Irazábal, 2009).