Beyond socio-spatial fragmentation: inequality, mobility and conviviality in Latin American cities. Reflections from the Metropolitan Region of Buenos Aires

RAMIRO SEGURA

Dijon

Conferencia; Simposio CESAER; 2022

Centre d'Economie et de Sociologie appliquées à l'Agriculture et aux Espaces Ruraux (CESAER)

“Beyond" segregation / fragmentation to think about Latin American cities because:-Categories that in their usual uses become synonymous with urban inequalities.-Categories that in their usual uses refer to the distribution of social groups in space (proximity, homogeneity, concentration) and/or to discontinuous qualities of the built space (barriers, walls, surveillance, etc.).-Categories that in their usual uses tend to emphasize distance, separation, and reciprocal isolation between social groups and classes in urban space. Proposal:It is not about "overcoming" these concepts, but about changing the perspective of inquiry: move from a panoramic (and cartographic) point of view of the city towards a look centered on the practices of (im)mobility, social interactions and ways of coexistence and cohabitation (conviviality). Thesis:Latin American cities are "fragmented", but also "interconnected". Cities (even divided and unequal) continue to be cities, that is, they imply physical and socio-spatial concentration and agglomeration of functions and social relationships. The city is a space for meeting, relationship, negotiation and conflict between the people and groups that inhabit it.