Latin America has undergone profound urban transformations in recent decades, characterized by increasing socio-spatial inequalities, the financialization of the production of space, climate change, the spread of digital technologies, and the growing complexity of urban governance. In this context, public space continues to be one of the main settings in which conflicts, disputes, negotiations, resistances, and everyday practices that express different visions of the city are manifested. More than a physical support for urban life, public space constitutes a fundamental dimension of democracy, citizenship, and the collective construction of the right to the city.
This symposium proposes to bring together researchers, professors, and students interested in discussing the contemporary challenges of public space in Latin American cities, considering its multiple social, political, cultural, environmental, economic, and territorial dimensions. It starts from the understanding that the right to the city goes beyond guaranteeing access to urban spaces and also implies the possibility of producing, transforming, appropriating, and actively participating in the construction of urban life, in a context marked by profound power asymmetries and various forms of exclusion.
Papers addressing emerging themes in the fields of urbanism, the city, and public space will be accepted, considering different scales of analysis and diverse methodological approaches. Topics of interest include: the production and transformation of public spaces; occupations, appropriations, and everyday and temporary uses; popular festivals and cultural manifestations; heritage, memory, and identity; tactical, social, and civic urbanism; active mobility; accessibility; relationships between people, the city, and nature; urban public policies; gender, race, indigenous peoples, traditional communities, and other historically vulnerable groups; spatial justice and socio-environmental justice; territorial conflicts; social participation; environmental impacts of urbanization; green infrastructure; nature-based solutions; smart and responsive cities; digital governance; the production, circulation, and use of urban data; as well as innovative urban design and management experiences aimed at building more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities.
The symposium seeks to promote dialogue among different fields of knowledge, articulating contributions from architecture and urbanism, geography, urban and regional planning, sociology, anthropology, political science, law, environmental studies, design, cultural heritage, and other disciplines dedicated to the study of the production of urban space. Research grounded in Latin American specificities will be especially valued, recognizing the territorial, cultural, and historical diversity of the continent, as well as the multiple forms of knowledge produced by local communities, social movements, and various territorial actors.
From a critical and interdisciplinary perspective, this symposium aims to foster reflection on the contemporary processes of transformation in Latin American cities and on the possibilities of building more democratic, inclusive, and environmentally responsible public spaces. It is expected to contribute to strengthening international research and cooperation networks, expanding the exchange of experiences among researchers from different countries, and consolidating public space as a central category for understanding contemporary urban challenges and promoting the realization of the right to the city.
