The 'Graying' of 'Green' Zones

Spatial Governance and Irregular Settlement in Xochimilco, Mexico City

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4884790
AutoresJill Wigle (0000-0001-9826-0625, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies Carleton University Ottawa ON K1S 5B6 Canada, autor correspondente)
Ano2014
Volume38
Fascículo2
Páginas573-589
Data de publicação2014-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0309-1317 • E-ISSN: 1468-2427
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-2427.12019
OpenAlexW1590707028
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas29
Referências citadas19

This article details the evolving social and spatial dynamics of a planning approach that is now being used to regulate irregular or informal settlements in the conservation zone of Xochimilco in the Federal District of Mexico City. As part of the elaboration of 'normative' planning policies and practices, this approach counts, maps and then classifies irregular settlements into different categories with distinct land-use regularization possibilities. These spatial calculations establish a continuum of 'gray' spaces, placing many settlements in a kind of planning limbo on so-called 'green' conservation land. The research suggests that these spatial calculations are now an important part of enacting land-use planning and presenting a useful 'technical' veneer through which the state negotiates competing claims to space. Based on a case study of an irregular settlement, the article examines how the state is implicated in the production and regulation of irregularity as part of a larger strategy of spatial governance. The research explores how planning 'knowledges' and 'techniques' help to create fragmented but 'governable' spaces that force communities to compete for land-use regularization. The analysis raises questions about the conception of informality as something that, among other things, simply takes place outside of the formal planning system

Archaeology · Business · Corporate governance · Economic geography · Economics · Environmental planning · Geography · Human settlement · Management · Normative · Political science · Sociology · Spatial planning · Computer Science · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Artificial Intelligence