06 Can sprawl be sustainable?

MARENGO, CECILIA

Permacity

TUDelft (Delft University of Technology)

Lugar: Delft - The Netherlands; Año: 2007; p. 66 - 71

Transformations derived from globalization have introduced significant changes on urban agglomerations. Cities have become the fundamental technological and organizational systems in the process of economic growth and the decisive knots in the model of growth of informational societies. At the same time the new economic order means new opportunities for development and challenges due to the intensification of deep social inequalities in the urban space. Innovative urban policies have been applied in Secondary Cities in Latin America. In the case of Cordoba, the goal was to impel urban transformations, to attract foreign investments and to promote urban competitiveness in the regional and international context. However, the question: To what extent urban transformations have contributed to sustainable growth?, seems to be waiting for debate. An extended periphery with growing social contradictions demands particular analysis. Is it possible to achieve a more integrated city in a context of an increasing income-gap, and high social inequity? To what extent are public policies effective to counteract the negative externalities of growth, to attenuate social contradictions and harmonize contradictory interests? The fragmentation and dispersion of residential areas in the city periphery and the effects on segregation represent good evidence to examine spatial planning in this new and complex scenario.