ABSTRACT
Comparisons have been at the heart of urban studies in and about Latin America at least since the 1970s. This chapter claims that even if direct comparisons were not so common, a fruitful tradition produced knowledge departing from conversations between multiple places in Latin America. It explores the subject in two main sections. It defines some important ontological points of departure concerning urbanization in the region. The chapter explores the theoretical, epistemological, and thematic shifts of the field chronologically. The theoretical construction of urban studies in the region started in the late 1950s and 1960s. Consequently, discussions on Latin-American cities unfolded in the 1980s into a broad research agenda focused on the cities themselves and their production. Studies in and about Latin American cities followed three moments since its origins in the 1970s, respectively characterized by the field's foundation, its consolidation/expansion, and the current moment of specialization.
