Privatization of Security and the Production of Space in Mexico City

Abstract

By observing the process of privatization of public security in Mexican cities, the authors focus on the social production of the urban space. It was defined by Lefebvre (1991) as the set of practices carried out by the State and civil society throughout history that gradually form and transform cities. The authors argue that the intervention of private agents in the production of security services not only weakens the State's monopoly on the use of force and exacerbates segregation, but it also diminishes the State's capacity to intervene in questions of urban (e-planning).