Urban violence as the politics of space in Monterrey, Mexico

Abstract

Despite decades of research, public policies and responses, urban violence continues to be one of the most ubiquitous phenomena in Latin America affecting social and economic development of the region. Recent policy and research approaches have advocated examining the urban processes that shape the multiple spaces where violence occurs, and where violence is manifested. Drawing from the theoretical framework of the politics of space as a transversal concept, this article tries to further understand the complex and sometimes conflicting relationships of people in space, with space and towards space, which would allow us to unravel how these dynamics relate, converge and finally manifest, as urban violence. The framework is grounded in a study of an irregular settlement located in the south-centre of the city of Monterrey, Mexico. It illustrates the different layers at which processes configuring urban violence occur, showing how violence is fluid, elusive and prevalent. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .