| Abstract: | We examine the evolution of Latin American cities in the last two decades of the twentieth century and in the first years
of the twenty-first on the basis of comparable data from six countries comprising over 80 percent of the region’s population.
These years correspond to the shift in hegemonic models of development in the region, from import-substitution industrialization
to neoliberal “open markets” adjustment. We examine how the application of the new policies correlates with change patterns
in four areas: urban systems and urban primacy; urban unemployment and informal employment; poverty and inequality; and crime,
victimization, and urban insecurity. We present detailed analyses of each of these topics based on the latest available data
for the six countries. We conclude that significant changes in patterns of urbanization have taken place in the region, reflecting,
in part, the expected and unexpected consequences of the application of the new model of development. Implications of our
findings for each of the four areas examined and for the future of the region are discussed.
Alejandro Portes is department chair and Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of sociology, and director of
the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University. His current research focuses on the adaptation process of
second-generation immigrants and the rise of transnational immigrant communities in the United States.
Bryan R. Roberts is professor of sociology and C.B. Smith Chair in US-Mexico Relations at the University of Texas, Austin.
His most recent work explores issues of develorment, globalization, immigration, and social policy in Latin America.
Data on which this paper is based were collected by theLatin American Urbanization at the End of the Twentieth Century project, sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. We thank our collaborators and directors of country teams, without
whom this study would not have been possible: Marcele Cerruti and Alejandro Grimson in Argentina; Licia Valladares, Bianca
Freire-Medeiros, and Filippina Chinelli in Brazil; Guillermo, Wormald, Francisco Sabatini, Yasna Contreras and their collaborators
in Chile; Marina Ariza and Juan Manuel Ramirez in Mexico; Jaime Joseph and the Centro Alternativa research team in Peru; and
Ruben Kaztman, Fernando Filgueira, Alejandro Retamoso and their collaborators in Uruguay. We would also like to thank Carolina
Flores and Lissette Aliaga for their assistance in assembling and analyzing survey data-bases from the six countries. We also
thank anonymous referees of this journal for their comments. Responsibility for the contents is exclusively ours. |
