"The cities and urban processes under the logic of neoliberalism.

BRITES WALTER FERNANDO

Korinthos

Conferencia; Annual Conference. Market vs Society. Human principles and economic rationale in changing times.; 2011

Commission on Urban Anthropology, (CUA). International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, (IUAES).

The cities and urban processes under the logic of neoliberalism.In Latin America the cities have differently experienced, the impact of the neoliberalmodel. The ´90s marked the peak of this great transformation. The restructuring of thestate and the free market, not only led to cuts in social spending and freedom to privateinitiative, but also gave rise to situations of increased vulnerability, poverty,unemployment and social exclusion.In the context of this process, the cities have been scenarios of changes to a moredualized social structure, showing the relationships between the ?social and spatialaspects?. The patterns of urban space are reconfigured in terms of socio-spatialdifferentiation and segregation. Situation which extended to a residential distinctionbetween different social sectors. In many cases the State has supported the logic of thereal state market, together with the implementation of programs, zoning, urban renewalor relocation. This process has selectively embellished parts of the cities and directlygenerated greater commerce of urban space.In this context, the social sectors with more purchasing capability have benefited fromrevalued urban areas both because of market action, and also because of largeinfrastructure building projects. While the poorest social sectors are directly orindirectly displaced from those places which the urban growth re-valued, and therefore,forced to live in areas of lower market value, where there are shortcomings in servicesand infrastructure.This form of segregation is the result of the contradictions of capitalism, and neoliberalismhas generated a particular stamp, which marks a trend towards a moredifferentiated production process in the city between the urban centre and urbansuburbs.