The sour benefits of globalization: metropolitan expansion and restructuring of Mexico City

Abstract

The changes in the Mexican economy during the last fifteen years have had profound effects on territorial organization, both on a national and regional scale; it also upset urban economies: a strong demographical and economic growth of medium size cities, and a restructuring of the metropolitan economies are some of its consequences. Such transformations allow us to see, although not directly, the possibility of a modification of the social system and, among others, of the perceptions and usage of the city by communities. This article is divided into two sections: the first one will analyze the economic transformations that have reconfigured Mexico City. The second part of this essay will deal with the transformations that have occurred in the urban structure of the capital in relation to large trends that have been dealt with before: new commercial compounds, neighborhood segregation, the coming of post modern spaces, etc.

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