ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to deepen reflection on the historical, economic, social and political factors that condition the different forms and patterns of urbanization in the South. Special attention is given to three key issues in a critical development studies approach: urban production in terms of capital and labour; urban development in terms of the dynamics involved in reproducing the workforce and the social conditions of these dynamics – social exclusion, inequality and poverty; and forms of urban governance and politics. Urban development in the Global South over the past three decades has taken place in the context of what can be viewed as epoch-defining changes in social and economic organization and a process of globalization impelled by neoliberalism, a programme of 'structural reforms' in macroeconomic policy that includes the privatization of public enterprises, financial and trade liberalization, deregulation of markets and the decentralization of government administration.
