Urban reshaping of emerging global cities in North and South America: Miami and Buenos Aires

Abstract

This article discusses the changes in the urban structure of two recently globalized cities during the end of the twentieth century: Miami and Buenos Aires. The observations are based on a broader study of cities in Chile, Argentina, Canada and the United States, which is part of the author’s Ph.D. in Social Sciences dissertation, in FLACSO, Argentina. Revisions were made of interviews with expert urban developers and census data by urban rings, which consistently show the transformation of the urban model associated to changes in residential segregation phenomena. The proposition is that such phenomena evidence urban governance and sustainability issues arising from the globalization process of the new economy and the reshaping of modern cities.