Rethinking the Latin American city

"The Latin American city today is neither a political center for imposing control over its region nor a commercial and industrial hub linking the countryside to an economic network. It has, according to Richard M. Morse, become a lodestone that draws people to itself willy-nilly. In the 1980s, the poor especially became concentrated in urban areas, where they often lived in degrading or unhealthy conditions, were unemployed or underemployed, and were vulnerable to constant interference from authorities." "Rethinking the Latin American City does not ask how academic disciplines and administrative devices may be applied to urban "problems" but instead admits that cities are out of control - socially, economically, politically, administratively, and culturally - and seeks new paths for adjusting scholarly discourse to the realities of contemporary urban phenomena. The very categories of study must be reformed, according to Morse, on the basis of intentions, voices, and forms of association that may arise from the people." "The book presents responses by seventeen experts from city management, philosophy, architecture, history, and law. Many contributors have been municipal officials or national political officials; others are teachers, researchers, and writers."--Jacket.