Five Windows Into Latin American Cities: Current Research From Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico

Abstract

This article reviews research carried out in the last decade by Latin American authors working on the cities of Sao Paolo, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Santiago de Chile. The five books reviewed present a compelling account of the new forms of social exclusion, spatial segregation, and privatisation of the public sphere that Latin American cities face in the context of economic restructuring. They offer a useful framework for understanding how the challenges that Latin American cities are confronted with find expression in the material city, the experienced city, the imagined city, and its representations. As such, they provide an important theoretical contribution to the understanding of the role that space plays in shaping socioeconomic realities, social relations, culture, and politics in the city.