Natural resource growth poles and frontier urbanization in Latin America

What does globalization mean for societies dependent on natural resource extraction? Synthesizing comparative evidence with empirical analysis from Venezuela, I show how the “growth pole” model for economic growth translated to an applied model for the spatial transformation of Latin America’s resource frontier, and the contradictions this development model engendered. Specifically, I weigh, local versus national consequences of Venezuela’s variation of the growth pole concept, Ciudad Guayana. Despite unimaginable natural resources and staggering public investments, this forty-year-old frontier metropolis is Latin America’s most successful experiment with the model, yet it remains constrained by its status as a source of raw materials.