Metropolitan territories and cities in the Americas: social and environmental impacts

Coordination : Dr. Cynthia Ghorra Gobin, RD and Prof. Denis Merklen.

This area focuses on metropolitan territories and more specifically on their issues in a world characterised by rapid processes of urbanisation where half the world population lives in cities, with the Americas representing the most urbanised continent. The metropolitan territory, regardless of its size – the last US census minted the expression "micropolitan territory" for central cities whose population is below 50.000 inhabitants – can be justified since it is at this scale that cities’ comparative advantage plays the most in terms of inter- metropolitan rivalry in a globalised context. The choice to be part of economic flows compels several decision-makers to give priority to spur territorial attractiveness by public policies focused on "prestig"e urban interventions – at times referred to as "mega" –. Such policies are aimed at attracting both investments and "creative classes" to ensure a satisfactory performance of the metropolises in international rankings. The attention paid to economic factors, stemming from the neo-liberal ideology, also entails social impacts and a number of environmentally-related conflicts. As such, big metropolises well represent the space of an urban social and environmental issue.

Although metropolitan territories are not all identical and there are some differences between those of North America and South America (poverty spatial distribution, organisation of the informal habitat), they share however a few similarities in a globalised world.  They are indeed characterised, in the North as much as in the South, by rich enclaves and poverty sectors (ghettoes, favelas, informal and closed quarters) where less economically integrated people - or people completely excluded from the formal economic networks - live. Hence our interest in clarifying metropolitan issues starting from a field analysis conducted in cities and metropolises of the northern, southern, and emerging world using a comparative analysis method (comparatisme) in order to identify convergences and gaps. Considering that several countries in the Americas have Federal States, it is possible to highlight, in addition to the Central or Federal government, the interrelations between the different levels and/or centres of administration created to ensure sustainability of metropolitan territories and a better handling of the issues related thereto.

From a political standpoint, cities and metropolises are not only the main theatre of national political life. The city represents the very territory of politics from different perspectives.

Through the territorialisation of public policies – particularly social policies – the city has established itself as the privileged space for the implementation of government action. At the same time, urban governance has emerged as a central issue, while innovations and pilot initiatives, in terms of urban management and government exercise, are amid the key preoccupations on the political agendas of several countries. This also results from the progressive weigh that metropolises have been gaining in national political scenarios, being as they are the natural territory upon which economic, cultural and social life stems, as well as conflicts related to the use of the environment. Some authors speak thus of “urban citizenship”, an institutional issue at the level of civil, political and social rights.

In Latin American metropolises issues related to urban violence and illicit traffics, an important informal sector and the way to tackle them, give urban issues a peculiar aspect. Ultimately, the city emerges as the territory of politics by definition, as it represents the public space (from the urban, media and political angle: the space of democratic diversity and conflicts) and it is the favourite arena for both social movements and the implementation of social participation mechanisms and policies at different scales.

Social and environmental issues will be studied starting from three main themes whose issues can been analysed based upon field research both in North and South America:

- Supply and access to housing and urban public services: a social and organisation issue.
By focusing on urban transportation, housing, solid waste management, power generation and distribution, our research aims at highlighting actors’ innovation capacities (self-organisation) stemming from the informal system, rather than from organised structures such as community-based corporations or associations characterised by a flexible structure and management costs lower than those of the public sector. Given its impact on opportunities for social and political integration, housing plays a central role in public services, particularly when research chooses an ethnographic methodology to better appreciate a daily life-, ordinary people-perspective as well as people’s projection in the future. One should ask oneself if the current trend towards a “dualisation” of urban services with a view to meet an extremely diversified demand might spur the emergence of a “post-network” model. When state budgets tend to be curtailed, would the South become a reference on metropolitan territories for the North?

- The environment: conflicts of representations and use

Environment has long been identified as a natural resource whose exploitation falls within the Federal or State government’s attributions. With the advent of sustainable development, the environment becomes a major issue of local actors, including inhabitants, with respect to its different uses. Thus some prefer nature preservation in favour of ecosystems biodiversity, or urban agriculture, whereas others are more concerned about the “sociability” of peri-urban leisure amenities, or the defence of their real-estate interests. As a result, public policies for land use planning, most notably in transportation to better local commuters’ mobility, are still basically hindered. Is participation of local actors to local urban planning a means to favour progress towards sustainability? And which are the chief arguments underpinning metropolitan sustainability?

- Territorial reconfiguration: the return to the city and the affirmation of suburban cities

Metropolitan territories including cities’ areas, suburbs and exurb areas are singled out by those who criticise urban sprawling negative repercussions on agricultural and natural green areas. So some observers conceive fighting against the urban sprawl via a territorial reorganisation that reconsiders such criteria as density, centrality and quality of public spaces, and a relocation of suburban populations to central districts. In the USA the return of suburban people to the city – referred to as “smart growth” – witnesses of a reorganisation policy supporting the use of different functions and “new urbanism” methods. Is this phenomenon – most frequent among wealthier classes – as common in South-American metropolises as it is in North America ones? And to what extent does it lead to metropolitan sustainability?

The growth of “peripherical cities” continues and is mainly reflected into the building of council housing (Mexico, Brazil) as a result of public policies launched at the Federal state level and the appearance of new informal sector-related  activities.  On the other end, these “new” quarters have the serious disadvantage of adding more complexity to the peri-urban tissue. Besides, they do not allow residents an easy access to “employment areas” situated downtown or in the nearest suburbs. Hence, the challenge to ensure connectivity between the different parts of the metropolitan territory.

The comparative analysis of metropolitan experiences in North and South America, by focussing on social and environmental issues, allows to underline similar urban dynamics in the globalisation era, and to contribute to the scientific debate over metropolitan sustainability.
 

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