ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the analysis departs from the historically-based discussion of the uneven pattern of capitalist development in Latin America to a consideration of contemporary patterns of urban life. In the twentieth century, the export sector continues to be an important source of foreign earnings and of finance for industrial development in underdeveloped countries; but developing the internal market for manufactured products becomes an increasingly significant economic strategy for national governments and for national and foreign entrepreneurs. Capital-intensive industrialization, adopted in different degrees throughout Latin America, brings some convergence in the pattern of urbanization and in the nature of urban social and political organization, as indicated, for example, by the prevalence of populism. In many Latin American countries industrialization had begun before the end of the nineteenth century. The development of chemical industries in the advanced countries began to replace the demand for natural fibres and nitrates.
