Urban projects, stigmatization, and territorial disputes in the Independencia neighborhood of Monterrey, Nuevo León, México

Abstract

The city of Monterrey has become a space of great inequalities and increasingly notorious socio-spatial phenomena. Its different problems have been used by the government and the private sector to justify interventions in working-class neighborhoods, as is the case of the “Independencia” neighborhood. This article looks to analyze the aspects that turn this neighborhood into a disputed space and identify how this is reflected in the territory through the (in)action of public and private actors. It uses a qualitative methodology supported by interviews, informal talks, and non-participant observations that were made in 2019 and 2020. The paper shows how abandonment and a lack of government investment in working-class neighborhoods is part of an urban revaluation process that seeks to attract private investment to these sectors and end the presence of those "others" who are considered a threat to the urban order.