Social Relations, Property and ‘Peripheral’ Informal Settlement: The Case of Ampliación San Marcos, Mexico City

Abstract

This article explores the complexities of informal urbanisation at the metropolitan periphery of Mexico City through a case study of Ampliación San Marcos, a former agricultural area on the city's south-eastern periphery. While the physical annexation of small towns and their environs is a common feature of Mexico City's growth, the settlement of Ampliación San Marcos is more accurately described as a two-pronged process involving the extension of a nearby pre-Hispanic town and the expansion of Mexico City itself. The case study shows that the rural periphery of Mexico City is no tabula rasa upon which urban growth simply 'takes place', rather, settlement processes are influenced by longstanding in situ social relations and practices related to property. The paper highlights the importance of considering the relationships among social relations, property and informal settlement for understanding the complexity of metropolitan growth and change in large cities such as Mexico City. population of 3.2 billion will increase by another 2 billion, reaching its expected apogee of approximately 10 billion in 2050 (Davis, 2004). Almost all of this urban growth will be accommodated in the so-called developing world where many of the largest and fastestgrowing cities in the world are now located (UN-HABITAT, 2003;World Bank, 2000).

Entanglements of Periphery and Informality in Mexico City

“…The industrial sector benefited from this ‘irregular' situation because employers could pay lower wages to workers paying no rent or local taxes (Ward, ). By the late 1970s, peripheral urbanization involved both the expansion of the core city and the expansion/annexation of many outlying pre‐Hispanic and colonial towns (except for the 36 rural villages or poblados rurales located in the Conservation Area) of the Federal District (Wigle, ; ).…”

“…Historically, the development of the Federal District benefited from an import‐substitution policy concentrating economic activities in the capital until the 1970s, and the centralization of many key governmental, educational, health, cultural and banking institutions in the capital city, but this entrenched centralism translated into a lack of representation and democracy (Ward, ; Connolly, ; Wigle, ). Since the 1990s, Mexico City has developed some traits of the global city through neoliberal structural reforms manifested by the promotion of market rule over the interventionist state.…”

“…While the literature review gave us a better understanding of the historical trajectories and political circumstances through which the entanglements of informality and formality are formed, direct observations made some of these relations materially tangible throughout the various built environments. Our discussion benefits particularly from many urban Mexican(ist) scholars who have analyzed urban growth in Mexico in terms of larger macro‐economic processes (Aguilar, ; Aguilar and Ward, ), socio‐demographics and diversity of urban forms (Connolly, ; ), local planning constraints (Pezzoli, ; Ward, ; Connolly, ; ; Wigle, ; ; ), and socio‐spatial segregation (Bayón, ; ; Monkkonen, ; Bayón and Saravi, ). Much of this urban research has focused specifically on irregular housing production (Varley, ; Duhau and Giglia, ; Connolly, ).…”

“…Detailed case studies have been crucial in understanding the specific processes and practices at play throughout the Valley of Mexico. For example (and, it should be noted, among many others), Wigle (; ) focused on the consolidation of informally settled Ampliación San Marcos and the tension between irregular settlement and ecological conservation in Xochimilco; Hagene () on urbanization and deforestation in San Lorenzo Acopilco; Méndez‐Lemus () on campesinos adapting to periurban development in Chalco; Pezzoli () on urban conflicts in the Ajusco hills; Moreno‐Carranco () on the development of the corporate neighborhood of Santa Fé; and Kanai and Ortega‐Alcázar (), as well as Becker and Müller (), on urban regeneration in downtown Mexico City. These detailed studies have provided exhaustive analyses on specific contexts of metropolitan urbanization.…”

Poverty in Peripheral Informal Settlements in Mexico City: The Case of Magdalena Contreras, Federal District

“…Unfortunately, the local government does not have current data on the population living in these areas, and even when information is available it is very rudimentary and outdated. Our analysis contributes to other data collection efforts and the application of surveys that have been conducted on the population living in informal settlements in Mexico City (see Gilbert & Ward ; Schteingart & Torres ; Torres ; Duhau ; Wigle ).…”