Apuntes sobre la construcción conceptual latinoamericana de la fragmentación urbana. Un enfoque hacia el vector turístico

Abstract

Metropolitan areas reflect processes of increasing social inequalities, with tourism activities being among those that generate such urban transformations. This article aims to traverse the scientific production on the issue of urban fragmentation, with the dual objective of both reflecting on the theoretical construction of this concept from Latin America and the possible application of this theoretical framework in Iberian urban and metropolitan areas transformed by intensive tourism activities. Drawing from a corpus of reference publications on Latin American metropolises, a discursive and hermeneutic analysis is applied in combination with a comparative approach. First, the emergence of empirical studies and, to a lesser extent, theoretical studies on urban fragmentation is highlighted in urban and metropolitan areas which have been historically marked by particularly significant social fractures. Second, the emergence of transformations linked to tourism activities, in different case studies, reveals forms of urban fragmentation and enables innovative approaches to its study. Finally, the discussion revolves around how this theoretical apparatus of urban fragmentation could be both understood in a holistic manner by considering the social, urban, and political trialectics, and applied to the analysis of urban transformation processes which are influenced by recent tourism phenomena in the Iberian context.