Neoliberal Reforms, Public Policy, and Citizenship in a Region of Metropolises

• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18807915
• Published date: 01 May 2020
• Author: Carla Fainstein
• Date: 01 May 2020
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 232, Vol. 47 No. 3, May 2020, 242–243

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18807915

© 2018 Latin American Perspectives

242

Book Review

Neoliberal Reforms, Public Policy, and Citizenship

in a Region of Metropolises

by

Carla Fainstein

Tom Angotti (ed.) Urban Latin America. Inequalities and Neoliberal Reforms. Latin

American Perspectives in the Classroom. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017.

In Urban Latin America. Inequalities and Neoliberal Reforms, edited by Tom Angotti, the

contributors undertake a rich, complex, and multidimensional study that provides a

variety of perspectives on the region’s cities. The hypothesis that the form of develop-

ment of this region is dependent capitalism (Angotti, 2017) is nodal in the collection.

The articles focus on the period of neoliberal reforms, considered as a particular stage

of the capitalist mode of production that has effects on all the dimensions of life and on

urban space.

One of the merits of the collection is the complexity of its analysis of urban phe-

nomena. In addition to adopting a multidisicplinary approach (including history,

anthropology, sociology, and urban studies, among others), the contributors identify

a set of social actors—state, private (domestic and international), “civil society,” and

nongovernmental—that have the potential to help elucidate the logics (Pírez, 1995)

that are shaping and transforming Latin American cities. At the same time, the vari-

ous articles reveal the nonlinear, porous and permeable relationships among these

actors, making the analysis even more complex. Public policy and urban planning can

be considered as representing interests in urban space that go beyond state bureaucra-

cies and as consisting of complex and nonlinear processes that vary with the correla-

tions of forces in these societies.

Furthermore, it is worth highlighting the articles’ theoretical reflection on the use of

the term “informal settlements” and the characteristics these neighborhoods assume in

the various countries. This discussion attempts to trace their origins and eliminate mis-

conceptions and pejorative views of them. Thus, the contributors talk about “self-help

housing” (Gilbert) and the social production of habitat (Zárate), approaching these pro-

cesses as social relationships and thus avoiding formality-informality dualism and

allowing an exploration of the positive nature and the symbolic, social, material, and

cultural productivity of these urban spaces. These studies address the variety of experi-

ences of organization and resistance in these neighborhoods—the various collective

action repertoires centered on demands for the right to housing, to the city, to transport

and urban services, and to a healthy environment.

Another issue that is emphasized throughout the volume is different scales of analy-

sis and their articulation. Although the cases studied refer to processes developed in

particular cities, there is an effort to place them in constant dialogue with processes on

Carla Fainstein is a Ph.D. candidate in urban studies at the Universidad Nacional de General

Sarmiento. Her work focuses on informal settlements, public policy, and social organization in the

metropolitan area of Buenos Aires.

807915LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X18807915Latin American PerspectivesFainstein / Book Review

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