Adrián Guillermo Aguilar

Globalization, regional development, and mega-city expansion in Latin America: Analyzing Mexico City’s peri-urban hinterland

Abstract This paper examines the transformation of urban space in the peri-urban areas of Latin American mega-cities, further exacerbating the multi-jurisdictional political divisions that cover a single urban entity. This is against the backcloth of a sharp decline in metropolitan growth rates, absolute population loss in the city center, and an alleged “polarization reversal” of national urban patterns. It argues that previous approaches have failed to recognize that globally and nationally-derived economic development processes are often vested in these meta-urban peripheries. Using Mexico City as an example, the authors propose a new generic methodology that will allow for a broader definition and analysis of mega-city and large metropolitan development. Data are presented within this new framework that help to unpack the demographic, economic and land-use changes that are taking place in Mexico City’s broader urban area. Much of the contemporary vibrancy and dynamics of Mexico City’s metropolitan development are occurring in “hot-spots” in the extended periphery, which, to date, have rarely been considered an integral part of the mega-city. Yet these areas are also some of the principal loci of contemporary globalization processes.

Luxury Tourism and Regional Economic Development in Mexico

This article argues that little attention has been paid to the territorial and socioeconomic impact of consumer–service globalization on Third World countries. It specifically examines the economic role of tourism in Mexico and its limited effect on the countrys regional development. Despite governmental support in order to enhance economic growth, currency receipts, and employment, tourism contributes less than 5 percent to the gross domestic product, and the majority of tourism–related jobs are precarious and low–skilled. The promotion of luxury resorts in coastal areas has led to highly concentrated and fast–growing enclaves of mainly foreign investment. However, this strategy has failed to stimulate productive links between tourist centers and their hinterlands and has led to large–scale urbanization characterized by a considerable lack of basic services for the resident population.

Maquiladora Myths: Locational and Structural Change in Mexico's Export Manufacturing Industry

Trends in location, labor force, and procurement practices in maquiladoras are examined using recent data sources. A growing proportion of maquiladoras are selecting interior locations, south of the borderlands. Once dominated by young women, the labor force is rapidly approaching gender parity. While far below prevailing rates in the United States, maquiladora wages are comparable with equivalent manufacturing sectors in Mexico. Majority ownership of maquiladoras is split almost evenly between Mexico and the U.S., however, maquiladoras have failed to develop domestic sources of materials and parts and remain dependent on imported material inputs. As the North American Free Trade Agreement is phased in, the regulatory environment of maquiladoras will change but their role as low cost assembly specialists will persist.

Las mega-ciudades y las periferias expandidas

This article suggests a line of research about the growth and development of megacities, focused in their regional outskirts. Specifically, some elements seeking research on peri-urban areas on metropolitan expanded outskirts of the mega-cities are introduced, since it is in these zones where the biggest part of the metropolitan growth is taking place. The most important interests of this article laid both on the metropolitan Ciudad de Mexico, about wich a urban pattern, more scattered than the ones in most part of the regional territory, is shown, and on the springing up of many a great number of urban sub-centers, wich are reflected on a multinuclear structure, which in turns becomes the basic structure of the metropolitan territories. At the same time, it is stated that the discussed theoretical and methodological aspects are also relevant for other big metropolitan areas, what may contribute to a more systematic analysis of the regional outskirt of the mega-cities, and in particular to its new territorial patterns.

Mexico City Growth and Regional Dispersal: the Expansion of Largest Cities and New Spatial Forms

Abstract This paper argues that the recent urban expansion of the main metropolis in large developing countries is different from the process of simple suburbanization and the expansion and merging of continuous urban fringes. It also differs from the classical concept of metropolitan areas. These processes and concepts no longer seem appropriate to describe the territorial forms which main city urban systems are taking. The new spatial forms are showing qualitative changes, for example the spatial fragmentation of productive processes which affect rural areas, a less marked separation between the centre and the periphery, the emergence of new centrality patterns, and a network of cities which interact without distance constraints. The new spatial forms can clearly be seen in Mexico’s Central Region where decentralization policies, the improvement of communication networks and infrastructure provision have increased the economic and demographic influence of Mexico City in the Region. The recent development of Mexico City has been characterized by a slower demographic growth and a relocation of industrial activities at regional level. This has led to a rapid growth of nearby cities to constitute a polycentric urban pattern as the basic structure of a new urban regional order. The concepts used to understand the general trend in the largest metropolis have to be re-defined in order to incoporate structural changes linked to the global economy. One example is the technological innovations which enable the progressively centralized control of production and the greater decentralization of production to cheaper locations that include small cities and rural areas. This paper sustains that new spatial patterns and urban networks, such as those found in the expansion of Mexico City, require a regional approach which is focused on different urban categories and on the emerging social and territorial inequalities in the core region of each country.

Mexico City as a peripheral global player: The two sides of the coin

This article considers the effects of globalization on Mexico City, as well as whether this urban area, one of the largest in the world, can be considered a “global city.” We base our arguments on a number of scales of analysis suggested in the literature on these topics. At the international scale, we look at the increased concentration of corporate headquarters and air traffic flows in the city. In terms of its role in the national urban system, we argue that while domestic migration patterns have shifted toward other destinations, the majority of domestically produced merchandise continues to find its way to the capital. At the metropolitan scale, our analysis suggests increasing spatial segregation, as well as longer commutes. At the intraurban level, we find that the sectoral composition of jobs has shifted toward commercial and service sectors, the informal sector has expanded, the labor force is polarizing, and that high-level service sector growth is spatially concentrated. In view of these findings, we suggest that the effects of globalization on Mexico City are mixed, as it consolidates its position as a second-tier global city. We also argue that, in spite of welcome steps toward democratization, pre-existing income inequalities in the country have accentuated the socio-economic polarization predicted by the literature on global cities and globalization, giving rise to a megacity with two very distinct sides. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2003

Diferenciación sociodemográfica del espacio urbano de la Ciudad de México

El objetivo de este analisis es establecer una diferenciacion socio-demografica del espacio urbano de la Ciudad de Mexico a partir de un metodologia que presenta dos principales aportes: el primero es que se aplica una clasificacion geodemografica que muy pocas veces se usa, basada en estilos de vida o niveles socioeconomicos que tienen su origen en la geodemografia o geomarketing; y en segundo lugar, se usa informacion censal altamente desagregada a nivel de manzana que en muy pocos estudios se han llevado a cabo; como parte de los resultados se identifican seis clusters y se calculan varios indices de segregacion residencial. Lo anterior se elabora tomando como referencia los estudios de segregacion residencial que se han llevado a cabo en America Latina y en Mexico. Las conclusiones dan cuenta de como en la Ciudad de Mexico se notan rasgos del modelo tradicional de segregacion, como la persistencia de las elites en ciertos espacios, y como los estratos proletarios y las clases medias han tenido una marcada dispersion, junto a la localizacion periferica de los grupos pobres, mas en sintonia con las propuestas del actual modelo de dispersion y fragmentacion del espacio urbano

Metropolitan growth and labor markets in Mexico

The objective of this paper is to examine the main changes in the metropolitan labor markets associated with economic restructuring in Mexico during the late 1980s and beginning of the 1990s. The analysis refers particularly to the four largest metropoles of the country, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Puebla, looking for common characteristics in their emergent employment structures now strongly differentiated in terms of rewards, stability in employment relations and conditions of access to jobs. The analysis reveals that largest metropolitan areas have been the most profoundly affected by the economic restructuring resulting from globalization, through a rapid de-industrialization and the expansion of the tertiary sector. Metropolitan labor markets in Mexico, at the time that show signs of social polarization in the formal sector, put in evidence a general process of precarization – less labor stability, replacement of permanent by part-time jobs, and increasing subcontracting –, segmentation of the labor force, and an increasing informal conditions of economic activities with small businesses and unskilled, temporarly and poorly paid jobs. The labor force segmentation and its more precarious and casual conditions are mostly explained by the impact of recent neoliberal policies, and recurrent economic crisis during the 1980s and 1990s which highly contributes to social inequality.

Water Insecurity among the Urban Poor in the Peri-urban Zone of Xochimilco, Mexico City

This paper examines access to water among the urban poor in illegal settlements in a peripheral area of Mexico City, where supply is characterized by insecurity and exclusion, and where the water needs of the population are commonly met by an array of non-conventional and officially non-recognized informal operators. The analysis focuses on a southern zone of the urban periphery, the District of Xochimilco, where data were collected and questionnaires applied in three informal settlements. Analysis shows that while both illegal and formal settlements lack good quality infrastructure and a constant water supply, it is in irregular settlements that the supply is most precarious, inconsistent and expensive, with poorer groups more often forced into the informal water market. Local government appears incapable of securing adequate water services and of regulating supply on an equal basis.

THE URBAN LABOR MARKET IN MEXICO: GLOBAL CHANGE, INFORMALITY, AND SOCIAL POLARIZATION

In this study I argue that Mexicos integration into the global economy has increased the dependent nature of its capitalist development and has resulted in the weakening of organized labor and growth of the informal sector. Neoliberal policies in Mexico have accentuated the disparities between the formal and informal sectors and between highly paid skilled workers and those working in unskilled and poorly paid occupations. New forms of geographic dispersion and agglomeration of economic activities contribute to the reproduction of differentiated labor markets in various regions and cities. This is particularly true in those areas most affected by the global economy, such as the major metropolitan areas and the northern regions of the country. The main changes in the urban labor market associated with economic restructuring in Mexico during the 1980s are analyzed. The paper makes three main points: (1) the ability of the formal sector and especially industry to absorb labor has declined, and there is a cl...