Urbicide: The Death of the City

Description

This book uses the reflection of academics specialized in the urban area of ​​Latin America, Europe and the United States, to initiate a comparative debate of the different dynamics in which Urbicidio expresses itself. The field or focal point of analysis that this publication approaches is the city, but under a new critical perspective of inverse methodology to that has been traditional used. It is about understanding the structural causes of self-destruction to finally thinking better and then going from pessimism to optimism. It is a deep look at the city from an unconventional entrance, because it is about knowing and analyzing what the city loses by the action deployed by own urbanites, both in the field of its production and in the field of its consumption. This suppose that the city does not have an ascending linear sequential evolution in its development but neither in each of its parts in the improvement process, showing the face that commonly not seen but others live. The category used for this purpose is that of Urbicidio or the death of the city, which contributes theoretically and methodologically to the knowledge of the city, as well as to the design of urban policies that neutralize it. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the book has an inclusive view of the authors. For this reason, gender parity, territorial representation and the presence of age groups have been sought. Contents Editors and Contributors Part I Introduction 1 Urbicide: An Unprecedented Methodological Entry in Urban Studies? 1.1 Introduction 1.2 The Urbicide: New Methodological Entry for Urban Studies 1.3 The Structure and Content of the Book 1.3.1 Part 1. Introduction 1.3.2 Part 2. Urbicide. The Death of the City 1.3.3 Part 3. Annihilation: The End of the Public Space 1.3.4 Part 4. Decline of the Built Environment 1.3.5 Part 5. Dissolution of Social Interaction 1.3.6 Part 6. Degradation and Abandonment 1.3.7 Part 7. Destruction of Common Life: Violence 1.3.8 Part 8. Contraction of Public Management: Privatization 1.3.9 Part 9. Urbicide: Cities Cases 1.3.10 Part 10. Epilogue References Part II Urbicide. The Death of the City 2 Urbicide. The Liturgical Murder of the City 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The Trajectory of the Formation of the Urbicide Concept: Background 2.3 What Do We Understand by Urbicide? 2.3.1 Toward a Typology of Urbicide 2.4 Conclusions References 3 Death By Theory and The Power of Ideas: From Theories of Cities to “Smart” Cities 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Powerful and Dangerous Theories 3.2.1 Theories of Legality Which Become Theories of Exclusion 3.2.2 Theories of Recognition: Formality and Informality 3.2.3 Theories of Description: The Myth of Marginality 3.2.4 Theories of Validation 3.2.5 Theories of Profiling 3.2.6 Theories of Intra-Urban Inequality 3.2.7 Theories of Income and Theories of Wealth 3.2.8 Theories of Density 3.3 Smart Cities and the Death of Localism and Local Knowledge 3.4 Toward a Conclusion References 4 Urbicide: Towards a Conceptualization 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The Concept of Urbicide 4.3 The Features of Urbicide Violence 4.4 The Mechanisms Involved in Urbicidal Practices and Processes 4.5 Urbicide Experiences from the South 4.5.1 The Eradication of Slums 4.5.2 Abandoned Neighborhoods with Empty Houses 4.5.3 Urban Catastrophes 4.6 Conclusions References 5 Urban Order and Disorder. Genealogy of Urbicide 5.1 Introduction 5.2 The Urban Context 5.2.1 City Government, Governance, and Urbicide 5.2.2 Ruins, City and Modernity 5.2.3 City and Biopolitics in the Andes 5.2.4 Urbicide in the Andes 5.2.5 The Organization of Space and the Governance of Populations References 6 Imaginaries and Archetypes on the Death of the City 6.1 Introduction 6.2 God's Wrath Against Cities: Punishment as a Foundational Urbicidal Archetype 6.3 The Imaginary of the Late-Modern Urbicide and the Crisis of Inhabiting References 7 COVID-19 and the City: Reframing Our Understanding of Urbicide by Learning from the Pandemic 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Examining the COVID-19 Impacts Through the Lens of Urbicide 7.2.1 On the Material Destruction 7.2.2 On the Symbolic Destruction 7.3 Reframing Our Understanding of Urbicide Based on the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic 7.3.1 Environment 7.3.2 Planning 7.3.3 Society 7.3.4 Economy 7.3.5 Democracy 7.4 Concluding Remarks References Part III Annihilation: The End of the Public Space 8 The Ideology of Public Space and the New Urban Hygienism: Tactical Urbanism in Times of Pandemic 8.1 New Citizenist Municipalism 8.2 The Idealism of Public Space as a Moral Scenario 8.3 Tactical Urbanism: From Tactics to Strategy 8.4 Emergency Urban Planning in Times of Pandemic 8.5 Against Conflict Conceived as a Plague 8.6 Conclusion References 9 The Transformation of Urban and Digital Spaces from a Democratic Perspective 9.1 The Global City and Digital Networks 9.2 Space, Power, and Democracy 9.3 Territory, Ecology, Politics, and Social Processes in Public and Digital Space 9.4 Towards a Democratic Urban Digital Space References 10 Streets, Avenues, Highways 10.1 The Street 10.2 The Avenue 10.3 The Highway 10.4 The Killing of a City 10.5 The Way Back to the Street References 11 The Post-automobile City From Deterritorialization to the Proximity City: The Case of Madrid 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Metropolis and Territorialization 11.3 Contemporary Formations of Metropolis 11.4 The Contemporary Transformations of the Madrid Metropolis 11.5 The Qualitative Leap in the Diffusion of Accessibility: Linear Attractors and Nodes 11.6 The Post-metropolitan Territory: From Fragmentation to Fractality 11.7 Put People First: The Proximity City 11.8 Strategies for a New Sustainable Urban Mobility: The Proposal of the Madrid Centro Project 11.9 The Urban Cell as a Basis for the Articulation of Public Space 11.10 Conclusions References 12 Mobility as an Expression of the Urbicide: The Risks of Transport Modernization in Latin American Metropolises 12.1 Introduction 12.1.1 Daily Mobility in Latin American Metropolis 12.1.2 Transport Policies, with Modernization and Sustainability in Sight 12.2 Mobility Infrastructures: Changes and Permanence 12.2.1 The BRT in the Network of Public Spaces in the City 12.2.2 Costs of the BRT for the Average Citizen 12.2.3 The Effectiveness of the System 12.2.4 Coverage of the BRT System in the Metropolis 12.3 Informal Transport: Problem or Alternative for the Poorest? 12.3.1 The Stigmatization of Informal Transport 12.3.2 An Alternative Offer 12.4 Active Mobility: A Privilege for Some, a Burden for Others 12.4.1 The Prioritization of the Automobile, the Forgetting of the Peripheries 12.4.2 Unwanted Cyclists 12.4.3 From Fear to Pedestrian Exclusions 12.5 Conclusion References Part IV Decline of the Built Environment 13 The Urbanisation of Risk 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Disaster and Catastrophe in Cities 13.3 The Basic Constituents of Urban Risk 13.3.1 Hazard 13.3.2 Exposure and the Resource-Hazard Continuum: The Beginnings of All Urban Risk 13.3.3 Vulnerability: Multi-dimensional Poverty and Resilience 13.3.4 Disaster Risk: The Concatenation of Hazard, Exposure and Vulnerability Factors 13.4 The Social Construction of Urban Disaster Risk 13.4.1 Increasing Hazard Exposure 13.4.2 Socio-Territorial Inequality 13.5 Urbanisation as a Driver of Systemic Risk References 14 Urbicide or Suicide? Shaping Environmental Risk in an Urban Growth Context: The Example of Quito City (Ecuador) 14.1 Introduction. The Urbicide Concept from the Point of View of the Environmental Risk 14.2 Quito City 14.2.1 Growth of the City of Quito 14.2.2 The Multipurpose and Multihazard Exposure Model of the MDQ 14.3 Shaping Environmental Risk in the City of Quito 14.3.1 Modification of the Hydrographic Network 14.3.2 Heavy Rains Near the City of Quito 14.3.3 Flood and Debris Flow Risk Assessment Based on MEMM-DMQ 14.4 Discussion 14.5 Conclusion Appendix: Query Description to Calculate ASPVI References 15 Between Greens and Grays: Urbanization and Territorial Destruction in the Sabana de Bogotá 15.1 Introduction 15.2 The Sabana De Bogotá: Massive Urbanization in a High Andean Plateau 15.3 Types of Territorial Destruction: Between Resilience and Points of no Return 15.3.1 Deterioration of Hydrological Processes (Pollution and Flood Risk Management) 15.3.2 Unregulated Resource Extraction, Mining and Atmospheric Contamination 15.3.3 Annihilation of Green Areas and Urban Trees 15.3.4 Consumption and Destruction of Soils with Agrological Potential 15.3.5 Lack of Habitat Conditions, Loss of Urbanity 15.3.6 Loss of Cultural Practices or Heritage 15.4 Divergent Understandings of Territories Destruction References 16 Overregulation, Corruption, and Urbicide 16.1 Introduction 16.2 Pernicious Effects of Overregulation 16.3 An Intractable Challenge: More Issues, Fewer Rules 16.3.1 Building Regulations and the Regulation of Procedures 16.3.2 More Requirements, Lengthier Procedures 16.4 Mexico City: The Enigma of Underreporting 16.5 Final Remarks References 17 Obsolescence of the Built Environment 17.1 Introduction 17.2 City, Power and Obsolescence 17.2.1 The City for Dwelling versus The City of Power 17.2.2 Crisis of Urbanism 17.2.3 Urban Planning, Urbicide and Obsolescence 17.2.4 Urban-Architectural Obsolescence 17.2.5 Tyranny of the New 17.3 Spatial Condemnations 17.3.1 Gentrification 17.3.2 The City of the Peripheries 17.4 Criticism of Expiration 17.4.1 Date of Expiry 17.4.2 Time in Architecture and City 17.4.3 Re-politicization of the City. Toward Another Urbanism 17.4.4 Architecture for Uncertainty 17.5 Conclusion References Part V Dissolution of Social Interaction 18 The (Un)made City: Spatial Fragmentation, Social Inequalities and (De)compositions of Urban Life 18.1 Introduction 18.2 A Socio-anthropological Critique of the Concept of Fragmentation 18.3 Place Composition 18.4 Production of Conviviality 18.5 Two Squares and the Limits of Conviviality 18.6 Concluding Remarks References 19 The City and the Abandonment of Public Space. Between Neoliberal and Citizen Urbanism 19.1 Urbicide. Destruction and Reinvention of the Real and Imaginary City 19.2 The Neoliberal City and the Abandonment of the Public 19.3 Urban Macro-Projects and the Power of Private Over Public 19.4 Public Space: Closure and Abandonment 19.5 Final Note, ¿Toward the Open City? References 20 A “New” Urban Colonialism? North–South Migration and Racially Structured Gentrification in Latin America 20.1 Introduction 20.2 From “Ghost City” to U.S. Paradise 20.3 U.S. Migration and Border Externalization 20.3.1 The U.S. Migration to San Miguel During the First Half of the Twentieth Century 20.3.2 The U.S. Migration to San Miguel De Allende During the Twenty-First Century 20.4 The Destructive Production of the City 20.4.1 Destructive Production of Physical Space: Racial Gentrification in the City 20.4.2 Destructive Production of Symbolic Space: Occidentalist Imaginary Geographies and Urban Orientalism 20.4.3 Destructive Production of the Relational Space: The “Foreignization” of the Native 20.5 Conclusions References 21 Urban Frontiers in the Fracturing City: Heritage, Tourism and Immigration 21.1 Introduction 21.2 The Dual Tourist City: Urban Patches of Gentrification and Impoverishment 21.3 Urban Agents and Processes 21.3.1 The Territorial. Heritage as a Gentrifying Agent 21.3.2 The Sectorial. Tourism and the Unequal City 21.3.3 Urban Borders and Immigration 21.4 Conclusions References 22 The Production of Emptied Places in the Borderlands of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires 22.1 Introduction 22.2 Metropolitan Borderland Territories, Nameless and Expressionless Spaces 22.3 The Prefigurations of Urban and Environmental Land Management 22.4 The Networks of Illegality and the Forms of Circulation of Violence 22.5 The Privatization of Public Space and the Gated Communities 22.6 Final Reflections References Part VI Degradation and Abandonment 23 Reconstructing Cultural Paradigms. Experiences in East Europe: The Historical Memory of the Historical Centers in Lithuania 23.1 Introduction 23.2 Sacredness of the City and Modernization 23.3 The Cultural Landscape of the City 23.4 Vilnius, Capital of Lithuania 23.5 The Labyrinth of Cultural Identity 23.6 Conclusions References 24 Lose the Memory, Lose the History, Lose the City 24.1 Introduction 24.2 Lose or Preserve the Historic City 24.3 The Transformations of the Historical City 24.4 Incontinent Urbanization and Urban Heritage 24.5 The Disconnection of Planning with Urban Conservation 24.6 The Logics for Urban Conservation (Local Daily Life or Tourism) 24.7 Tourism for What and for Whom? 24.8 The Lack of Local Projects 24.9 Conclusions References 25 Revolt and Destruction. The Public and Monument Landscape in Latin American Cities 25.1 Introduction 25.2 Unrest, Revolt, and Rights 25.3 Protests in Historical Centers 25.4 Barricades, Fires and Acts 25.5 De-monumentalizing the Public 25.6 Uprising Monuments 25.7 Notes for a Democratic Public Space (Or How to Avoid Urbicide) 25.7.1 The Common Space of the Different 25.7.2 Squares for the Protection of the Urban Condition References 26 Trends of Urban and Territorial Reconfiguration in Metropolitan Buenos Aires 26.1 Introduction: “Cities of Walls” in Pandemic Times 26.2 Buenos Aires, Neoliberal City: Territory and Symbolic Reconfigurations in Dispute 26.3 Old and New Trends in the Urban Segregation During the Pandemic Present 26.4 Guernica and Nordelta: Divergent Peripheries of the MRBA 26.5 Between Urbicide and the Right to Beauty: Walls that are Murals and Landmarks of Self-managed Urbanism 26.6 Colophon. In the Face of Urbicide, the Right to Beauty References 27 Anatomy of an Urbicide. Social Housing in Santiago 1980–2006 27.1 Introduction 27.2 Housing Policy 1980/2006 27.2.1 Origin 27.2.2 Take-Off 27.2.3 Boom 27.2.4 Decline 27.3 The Footprint 27.4 Outcome 27.4.1 Large Fragments of No-City 27.4.2 Dissatisfied Dwellers 27.4.3 Difficult Coexistence 27.4.4 Difficult Recovery 27.5 Today References 28 Urbicide. A Look Through the Mirror 28.1 Introduction 28.2 Is Physical Loss of the City Possible? 28.3 The Symbolic and Anthropical Death 28.4 Final Reflection References Part VII Destruction of Common Life: Violence 29 The Besieged City: Geographies of Crime 29.1 Introduction 29.2 Territory and Perception 29.3 Spaces of Transgression 29.3.1 Borders 29.3.2 Territories 29.3.3 Routes 29.3.4 Plazas 29.3.5 Hubs 29.4 Conclusions: Characterizing the Spatial Structure References 30 Urbicide, Violence, and Destruction Against Cities by Criminal Organizations 30.1 Introduction 30.2 Urbicide and Violence in General 30.3 Clarification and Conceptual Limits 30.4 Urbicide and Criminal Organization Actions 30.5 Urban Violence and Urbicide, Approaches, Proximities, Limits 30.6 Expressions of Urban Violence Associated with Practices of Criminal Organizations 30.7 Ecuador’s Western Cities, an Example of Recent Regional Crime Growth 30.8 Urban Violence, How to Avoid It References 31 Discursive Understandings of the City and the Persistence of Gender Inequality 31.1 Introduction 31.2 The Connection Between Urban Violence and Violence Against Women 31.3 Violence Against Women in the City: The Private and the Public Realms 31.4 Urban Policy and Violence Against Women 31.5 Conclusion References 32 Border Cities Between Life and Death: Ciudad Juárez and El Paso 32.1 Introduction 32.1.1 The Border Wall 32.1.2 The Geopoetics of the Wall 32.2 Ciudad Juárez, Abandonment, and Urban Degradation 32.2.1 Geopoetics of Abandonment and Urban Degradation References Part VIII Contraction of Public Management: Privatization 33 The Metamorphosis of Infrastructure in Latin American Urbanization: From Insufficiency to Presence as Fictitious Capital 33.1 Introduction 33.2 Metamorphosis of Infrastructure as a Global Process: From Fixed to Fictitious Capital 33.3 The Insufficiency of Infrastructure in Latin American Urbanization: The Limits of the Public Funds and Urban Spoliation as an Accumulation Strategy 33.4 The Presence of Infrastructure as Fictitious Capital in Latin America Cities: The Transformation of the Role of Public Funds and The Emerge of New Forms of Spoliation 33.5 Final Considerations References 34 Public Policies (Or Their Absence) as Part of Urban Destruction 34.1 Introduction 34.2 The State as Facilitator of Private Action 34.3 A Misunderstood Subsidiarity 34.4 The Abuse of “Tactical Urbanism” 34.5 The Reconfiguration of the Public References 35 Metropolitanicide? Urbs, Polis and Civitas Revisited 35.1 Introduction 35.2 Metropolitan Government or Misgovernment? 35.2.1 Competencies, Funding and Multilevel Governance 35.2.2 A Practical Example: The Implementation of SDGs 35.3 The Difficulties of Building a Metropolitan Civitas 35.3.1 Metropolitan Elections 35.3.2 Political Orientations and Practices 35.4 Conclusion References 36 International Tourism, Urban Rehabilitation and the Destruction of Informal Income-Earning Opportunities 36.1 Introduction 36.2 International Tourists and Street Traders 36.2.1 The Direct Impact on Traders 36.3 The Indirect Impact on Artisans 36.3.1 Artisan Decline and Displacement 36.3.2 Artisans and the Refurbishment of Public Spaces 36.4 Artisans and Transport Infrastructure Improvements 36.5 Crime, Violence and The Informal Sector 36.5.1 In-Market Violence 36.5.2 Street Violence 36.5.3 Catching Criminals Versus the Management of Tourist Space 36.5.4 Street Crime in Artisan Neighbourhoods 36.6 Conclusions References 37 De-urbanization: From the Shock to the Revolution of a New Urban Logic 37.1 Introduction 37.2 Shock and De-urbanization. Cycle or Rupture? 37.2.1 The Urban Shock Doctrine. Blank Slate or Ruins? 37.2.2 City and Urbanization. Historical Construction or Human Caprices? 37.3 De-urbanization and Decitizenization. Production or Waste? Process or Flow? 37.4 Conclusions References Part IX Urbicide: Cities Cases 38 Grassroots Spaces Make London Exciting: The Relationship Between the Civitas and the Urbs 38.1 Introduction 38.2 From Institutional Support to Struggles on the Ground 38.3 Understanding the Relationship Between the Civitas and the Urbs 38.4 Re-assembling the Civitas and the Urbs 38.5 Conclusions References 39 Rio de Janeiro: The Trajectory of the Wonderful City, Violence, and Urban Disenchantment 39.1 Building Capitality 39.2 The Capital Leaves Rio 39.3 Rio’s Structural Crisis in the Post-1960s 39.4 City and State of Rio de Janeiro: Intertwinings 39.5 Impacts of the 1964 Civil-Military Coup on the Politics of Rio de Janeiro 39.6 Socio-territorial Inequalities in the City of Rio de Janeiro 39.7 Facing Social and Territorial Inequalities in Rio de Janeiro References 40 The Implosion of Memory. City and Drug Trafficking in Medellín and the Aburrá Valley 40.1 Introduction 40.2 Demolishing the Ignominious Past 40.3 Medellín Embraces Its History 40.4 A Benefactor of the Low Income Barrios 40.5 It Was not the Rule, but It Was not the Exception Either… 40.6 The Metro System: A Symbol of the Times in the Metropolitan City 40.7 The Dramatic Change of the Metropolitan Landscape 40.8 The Criminalis Metropolis 40.9 Between Permanence and Mutation…as a Colophon References 41 Caracas. Urbicide and Precariousness of Urban Life at the Beginning of the Venezuelan Twenty-First Century. The Worst of Capitalism and Savage Populism 41.1 Introduction 41.2 Urbicide: A Useful Concept for Urban Analysis 41.3 Urbicide in a Petro-state 41.4 The Urbicide in Caracas 41.5 Information Opacity 41.6 The Urbicide Demonstrations in Caracas 41.6.1 Symbolic Urbicide 41.6.2 Urban Policies 41.6.3 Territorialization of the Political Conflict 41.6.4 Urban Violence and the Proliferation of Organized Crime 41.6.5 The Deterioration of the City’s Government and Infrastructure 41.6.6 The Popular Neighborhoods and the Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela (Great Mission Housing Venezuela) 41.6.7 The City Center: Deterioration and Spurious Recovery 41.6.8 Utility Problems Persist 41.6.9 Adding Up Problems: Urbicide, Complex Humanitarian Emergency, Pandemic, and Climate Change 41.7 Urban Management in the Wild Populism 41.8 Weaving the Threads of the Analysis of the Urbicide and Its Manifestations in Caracas References 42 Santiago, the Non-city? Destruction, Creation, and Precariousness of Verticalized Space 42.1 Introduction 42.2 The City as an Object of Destruction in the Production of Urban Space 42.2.1 The Expressions of Destruction: Debris and (Re)construction 42.3 Verticalization and Transit Towards Its “Precarious” Expression 42.3.1 The Context of Chilean Cities 42.4 Evolution of Verticalization in the City of Santiago de Chile: Transition Towards New Forms of Precariousness 42.4.1 Verticalization as a Temporal and Territorial Process: Between Dispersion and Atomization, Systemic Height Adjustment and Critical Magnitude of the Residential Building 42.4.2 Transcendence of Verticalization: From Zones to Silos of Precariousness 42.5 Conclusions: Precarious Verticalization as a Recursive Process and Conformation of an Urbicide References 43 Neoliberal Urbicide in Barcelona. The Case of Ciutat Vella 43.1 Introduction 43.1.1 The Instrumental Space of Urban Neoliberalism in Barcelona 43.2 Neoliberal Urbicide in Ciutat Vella (1970–2018) 43.2.1 The Capitalist Production of Space in the Old Quarter of Barcelona During the Late Francoism Period and the Spanish Transition 43.2.2 Ciutat Vella SA: Urban Entrepreneurialism for a Middle-Class Center 43.2.3 Ciutat Vella Premium: Violence of the Financialized Real Estate Circuit 43.3 The Production of Radical Social Space Against Neoliberal Urbicide 43.3.1 Transformative Urban Demands 43.3.2 (De Facto) Righ to the City 43.4 Conclusions References Part X Epilogue 44 Epilogue. Remake Us from Ruins, Collective Memories and Dreams 44.1 The Life of People and Life of Cities 44.2 Urbicide, Recent Trends 44.2.1 Physical Destruction Due to Economic, Political and Social Causes 44.2.2 Symbolic Destruction 44.2.3 Obsolete City 44.2.4 War and Disaster as Business 44.2.5 Ghost Urbanism 44.3 Learning from History 44.3.1 Utopias and Ideal Cities 44.3.2 Latin American Ideal Urban Visions 44.3.3 Science Fiction and Futuristic Cities 44.3.4 Over Ruins and Devastations 44.3.5 Reconstructions of Cities 44.4 Colophon 44.4.1 Between Urban Justice and the Right to the City 44.4.2 Another End of the City is Possible 44.4.3 Reinvent Urbanism 44.4.4 Public Policies for the People, not for the Market 44.4.5 Radical Positions 44.4.6 The Future Dispute References Index