This handbook presents the great contemporary challenges facing cities and urban spaces in Latin America and the Caribbean. The content of this multidisciplinary book is organized into four large sections focusing on the histories and trajectories of urban spatial development, inequality and displacement of urban populations, contemporary debates on urban policies, and the future of the city in this region. Scholars of diverse origins and specializations analyze Latin American and Caribbean cities showing that, despite their diversity, they share many characteristics and challenges and that there is value in systematizing this knowledge to both understand and explain them better and to promote increasing equity and sustainability.
The contributions in this handbook enhance the theoretical, empirical and methodological study of urbanization processes and urban policies of Latin America and the Caribbean in a global context, making it an important reference for scholars across the world. The book is designed to meet the interdisciplinary study and consultation needs of undergraduate and graduate students of architecture, urban design, urban planning, sociology, anthropology, political science, public administration, and more.
About the Author: Jesús M. González-Pérez holds a PhD in geography from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and is currently a full Professor at the University of the Balearic Islands (Spain). He is the President of the Spanish Geographical Association (AGE).
He has stayed at about twenty universities in a visiting scholar capacity, including Stanford, Paris 1, Glasgow, Bergen, Missouri-Kansas City, Havana, São Paulo, and UNAM. In 2015, he was a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. And in 2016, he was a Tinker Visiting Professor at Stanford University
He has published nearly 200 papers in numerous high impact journals (JCR, SCOPUS) and prestigious publishing houses (Routledge, Springer, Wiley, Peter Lang, etc.), which are available in a wide range of languages (Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Chinese, etc.), and has participated in over 30 research projects. His main research lines are urban inequality and fragmentation, social segregation and immigration, and tourist gentrification. His experience researching these phenomena goes beyond Europe, embracing the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Clara Irazábal is the Director of the Urban Studies and Planning Program in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at the University of Maryland, College Park. In her research and teaching, she explores the interactions of culture, politics, and placemaking, and their impact on community development and socio-spatial justice in Latin American cities and minoritized communities in the US.
Irazábal was a professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Columbia University in New York; and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She lectures at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona. She got her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Irazábal has published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, and has worked as consultant, researcher, and/or professor in countries of the Americas, Europe, and Asia. She has taught planning and interdisciplinary studios in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Trinidad and Tobago and domestically in minoritized and immigrant/refugee communities.
Rubén C. Lois-González is full Professor of Geography at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and Vice President of the International Geographical Union (UGI). He has been visiting professor at universities in France, Norway, Italy and the Federal University of Bahia-UFBA (Brazil). He is Principal Investigator of several European and international cross-border cooperation projects. He is author of about 200 books and book chapters, and more than 150 articles in academic journals. These include Finisterra, Annales de Géographie, Sud-Ouest Européen, Die Erde, European Planning Studies, Land, Use & Policy, Revista Geográfica del Norte Grande, Mobilities, Territory, Politics, Governance, Sociologia Ruralis and Gender, Place & Culture. He has directed 37 doctoral theses. He has been Dean of the Faculty of Geography and History of the University of Santiago de Compostela. He is a member of the Board of the Association of Spanish Geography and founder of the College of Geographers of Spain.
