Metropolitan area of the Valley of Mexico: neoliberalism and urban contradictions

Following 32 years of implementation of neoliberal policies in Mexico, the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico, one of the four largest metropolitan areas in Latin America, has undergone significant demographic, economic, social and territorial changes. It has grown strongly in population and extension; its economy has de-industrialized and grown in outsourcing with predominance of informality, it has lost dynamism of growth and comprises the largest concentration of poor in the country. Its territory spreads towards periphery and is internally rearranged by the action of the real estate and financial capital, it is restructured over a network of tertiary urban corridors, its mobility is dominated by the private car, and it shows a strong socio-spatial segregation. Being politically and administratively fragmented, the territorial policies applied to the metropolis are uncoordinated, contradictory, pragmatic, circumstantial, unplanned, and mainly aimed to facilitating capital interventions, particularly the real estate and financial. The contentious character of the metropolis continuously generates urban movements that now include middle and upper classes who advocate for living conditions of their neighbourhoods against the combined interventions of real estate capital and local governments. The metropolis is under crisis, but neither the dispersed social movement, nor the political parties have an alternative urban project to overcome it.

Keywords:
Metropolitan Areas of the Valley of Mexico; Neoliberalism; Territorial changes; Metropolitan crisis; Public policies.