ABSTRACT

This chapter revisits the analytical assumptions on which this book’s historical analysis of international, regional and national urbanisation tendencies and patterns are based. The main findings on urbanisation and metropolitan development in Mexico are summarised, and the key implications and research and policy prospects are presented. The political economy of urbanisation and development in Mexico is depicted as deficient in political and institutional capacity and lacking in coordination, resulting in development failure in most cities. The country illustrates how public policy action and particular legal structures and politics have resulted in an urbanisation model in which economic agglomeration is ineffective and inefficient. Although Mexico’s urbanisation process has been similar to that of other countries in several ways, its specific context determines the experience and outcomes of its urban and metropolitan development. A more active policy approach to managing urbanisation in ways that maximise both economic efficiency and wellbeing, and international research that pays more attention to the local roots and routes of specific urban models and paradigms without losing the comparative angle, are strongly advocated.