Néstor García Canclini

Cidades e cidadãos imaginados pelos meios de comunicação

The megalopolis of Mexico City exists as a social and physical space, as a demographic ordering and disorder, but also in the forms imagined every day by the press, radio and television. These media organize the invisible communities of their public, which are informed through the media about the city, and they sometimes participate with readers letters or in phone-in programs. How is the public sphere reconstituted in these communicational circuits? Do the media contribute to the transparency and democratization of the city, or do they simply reproduce urban common sense?

City/art : the urban scene in Latin America

Acknowledgments ix Introduction: City/Art: Setting the Scene / Rebecca E. Biron 1 Part 1. Urban Designs What is a City? / Nestor Garcia Canclini 37 Buenos Aires is (Latin) America, Too / Adrian Gorelik 61 The Spirit of Brasilia: Modernity as Experiment and Risk / James Holston 85 Part 2. Street Signs City, Art, Politics / Nelly Richard 115 The Writing on the Wall: Urban Cultural Studies and the Power of the Aesthetics / Marcy Schwartz 127 Miami Remake / Jose Quiroga 145 The Jew in the City: Buenos Aires in Jewish Fiction / Amy Kaminsky 165 Part 3. Traffic On Maps and Malls / Hugo Achugar 185 Culture-Based Urban Development in Rio de Janeiro / George Yudice 211 Latin American Megacities: The New Urban Formlessness / Nelson Brissac Peixoto 233 Bibliography 251 Contributors 267 Index 271

A culture of informality

This article offers an ethnographic account of informality, showing the complicity between the formal sector and the informal economy. Taking the reader on a car journey of urban disorganisation and traffic jams in Mexico City, the analysis shows how informality has become part of an everyday social contract. It is argued that the diverse world of informal practices, working as a popular survival strategy, is also entrenched in the workings of formal institutions, which draw on under-the-counter agreements and exchanges with the illegal economy, be that in the construction of public works in the city, in film and clothes piracy or in the public provision of water, transport, light or Internet services. The global hegemonic system could not function without these agreements: the transition from informality to illegality is slippery. If Mexico City is a global city it is not just for participating in the networks of transnational corporations, consulting firms and international tourism; it is also because of its networks with super brands in legal and illegal production. The article concludes by suggesting that an informal system of production, transactions and distribution of goods and services linking entrepreneurs from all continents can position the city on a global scale through non-hegemonic globalisation.