ABSTRACT
Latin America has one of the highest urban population rates in the world (82.13%), followed by the region composed of Latin America and the Caribbean (79.63%). An accelerated urbanization process, in a context of strong social and territorial inequalities, has built unbalanced urban-regional systems and segregated cities. The literature production on urban issues on the region is vast and growing rapidly both within and outside academia. This evidences the growing relevance and diversity of the urban phenomena and the processes of urbanization in the region. However, there are hardly any references on general interpretations including South and Central America and the Caribbean. In this introductory chapter, we present and explain the purpose of the book, conceived of as a handbook with a global, broad, and updated critical vision about current conditions in the urban world of Latin America and the Caribbean. We complete this with an explanation of the structure of the book and the identification of some major characteristics of the urbanization processes and the challenges facing Latin American and Caribbean cities.
