ANALYZING THE LATIN AMERICAN CITY MODEL’S OMISSIONS IN STUDIES OF SEGREGATION IN INTERMEDIARY CITIES’ PERIPHERAL TERRITORIES: THE CASE OF MORELIA, MEXICO

ABSTRACT

The Latin American City Model has been a reference in regional segregation studies since the early twenty-first century. Despite over 20 years of continuous use, its approach has not accounted for the characteristics and processes relating to segregation in peripheral areas of Mexican cities. Consequently, we lack a comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon. This review is relevant in intermediary cities because segregation is manifest in varied forms in peripheral territories over which these cities are expanding. This article analyzes the model’s omissions, using empirical data from two peripheral municipalities of Morelia, Mexico. The methodology is based on a case study and guided by two key concepts: segregation and territory. The results showed the peripheral territories’ characteristics, which were used to adapt the model to the experience of Mexican intermediary cities.

Keywords::

• city model
• fragmentation
• intermediary city
• segregation
• territories

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The category of intermediary cities varies depending on country. In Latin America and the Caribbean, intermediary cities mainly range from 300 thousand to 1 million inhabitants (UCLG 2016).

2. Segregation has been understood as a process of differentiation expressed in physical and social dimensions (Sabatini and others 2001; García and Rodríguez 2017).

3. Social land tenures are areas that were distributed to peasant families of scarce resources after the Mexican revolution (1917). Their terms of usage limited their sale, change of use and regime. The ejido and the agrarian communities were classified as social land tenure. After the constitutional reforms of the 1990s, these lands can be sold, divided and their use changed, but they are still recognized as social land tenure.

4. Ejidos are lands granted to farmer groups for cultivation across Mexico. These lands can be inherited by family members but to be sold they must be made dominio pleno (separate from the ejido) according to Mexican agrarian laws.

5. Mexican cities are classified into urban centers, urban conurbations, and metropolitan areas. Intermediary cities host between 500 thousand and 1 million inhabitants and are considered Metropolitan Zones (SEDESOL, CONAPO, and INEGI 2012; SEDESOL and ONU-HABITAT 2011).

6. The 1980 Census was not included because it is not available at local level.

7. The PI are lands classified as such because of their physical characteristics, but the observations did not identify animal grazing.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México [IA300322,IG300319].