ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes three urban socio-spatial and political dynamics in Latin America helping us to understand the production and reproduction of contemporary public space in the region. The study is approached with three dispositions in mind. First, public space is considered beyond its physical attributes, not solely as a result or tangible manifestation of design and legal determinations, but especially because it supports and embodies its socio-cultural and political dimensions. Second, public space is examined according to contingent conditions of time and space, history and institutions. Third, the study focuses on everyday micro-relations in public space examining the Santa Tereza Overpass in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; pixo as a form of visual expression on Latin American city surfaces; and informal street vending in Mexico City.
The study shows that by examining everyday life, the multiple geographies of power that compete for the materiality and immateriality of the city can be recognized. The study invites us to de-territorialize our preconceived notions of public space in order to broaden our capacity to interpret historically, culturally, and geographically situated realities. This task is important at a time increasingly marked by socio-spatial fragmentation, disciplinarization, and political polarization widespread in the (re)production of Latin American public space.
