Latin American urbanization during the years of the crisis

Reviews recent trends in the urbanisation process of major Latin American cities, against the background of the well-researched situation in the 1960s and 1970s. The central features of that era were accelerating primacy, spatial polarisation of social classes, and high informal employment. Attempts to assess whether the regional economic crisis of the late 70s and 80s has changed these central features, and if so whether it is a common phenomenon in many countries. Concentrating on three major urban centres-Bogota, Montevideo and Santiago-finds that primate city growth is declining, spatial polarisation has undergone significant changes, and informal sector earnings have contracted due to greater formal sector unemployment. Suggests that the shift towards an export oriented economy may be at least partially responsible for some of these effects. -M.Amos