Abstract

JAJAMOVICH, Guillermo. Large Alternative Urban Projects or Alternatives to Large Urban Projects: A Revision on the basis of the Concept of Just City. Cuad. Geogr. Rev. Colomb. Geogr. [online]. 2019, vol.28, n.2, pp.394-407. ISSN 0121-215X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcdg.v28n2.72090.

The article reorganizes the Latin American discussion regarding large urban projects on the basis of the concept of just city. While part of the literature associates the former with urban neoliberalism due to its focus on economic profit, another part discusses how the links between justice and space point toward the opposite political and urban direction. On the basis of the analysis of secondary sources and previous approaches to large projects, it suggests that rather than belonging to opposed worlds, conceptions of just city can reinforce critical as well as reformist positions regarding large urban projects. This is so because these concepts can be mobilized from different ideological and political positions regarding heterogeneous large urban projects. The article suggests the existence of "critical", "reformist", and "enthusiastic" positions based on the following issues: evaluation criteria promoted, positions regarding participation, and postures concerning the link between large projects and surplus recovery. The relation between large urban projects and just city, suggested on the basis of the Latin American experience, makes possible an in-depth approach and evaluation of those projects from new perspectives, as well as a conceptually expanded analysis of broader urban policies.

Highlights: Reflection article that explores the Latin American discussion regarding large urban projects on the basis of the concept of just city and identifies diverse uses of the such concept, mobilized from different ideological and political positions.

Keywords : just city; large urban projects; spatial injustice; just city; spatial justice; surplus recovery policies; urban policies.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )