US–Mexico border cities and territorial development trends

Abstract

This chapter presents an analysis of territorial development at the US–Mexico border. The main question posed is: How have territorial processes and practices changed at the US–Mexico border? The main argument is that the territorial development at the US–Mexico border is framed by two territorial paradigms: on the one hand the classical approach of state/sovereignty/nation, and on the other hand a post-modern framework of state/security/mobility. The strategies of territorial development, to a great extent, have been shaped by a dialectical process of reterritorialisation and deterritorialisation manifested as a tension between economic integration and symbolic differentiation.