Territorial development in South America Spatial structures and regional disparities over time

Abstract

This paper is a personal essay on models of spatial organisation in South America, based on my own studies and also on some of the classic authors who have been referential in the field.
Contemporary economic processes and the dynamics of the changes taking place in national and regional spaces contradict the "petrification" of urban and regional structures. New forms of economic activities (such as the development of services, communication systems and networks of economic relations, all linked to the increasingly pervasive and invasive globalisation) are spreading so fast that it is difficult to foresee and prepare territories for the developments that are taking place. The growing competition between regions and cities to attract external investments affects the traditional way - when it exists - of territorial planning: thus, the long process of elaboration, approval of plans and introduction of the changes required by the force of current dynamics, becomes a real barrier to the exercise of urban and regional planning. On the other hand, these situations end up being functional to the interests that fight for the appropriation and control of land that becomes attractive to investors, because in this way they can realise their projects faster and without "bureaucratic" obstacles. Because of all this, space is structured in the form of "causal nodes" that condition its subsequent development, without this being understandable from the classical landscape categories or the basic rules foreseen by those who are committed to territorial planning.
Taking the flexibility of the production system as the dominant paradigm of contemporary development, it can then be assumed that such systems require spatial structures that are also flexible in terms of their territorial organisation and the occupation of new spaces in cities and regions. The most characteristic feature of territorial systems is their marked degree of inequality in terms of land use, forms of occupation and functions. The process of transformation of the forms and structures of territories (regions, cities, municipalities), and the articulation of networks of relations in meso and macro level in spatial structures, is a complex and costly event, and does not show its effects in a short period of time. For this reason, contemporary spatial development is "aggressive" in relation to new spaces, and leaves behind the "used" regional and urban space, which has not kept up with the pace demanded by
the changes. This is especially true for post-industrial, post-modern and post-colonial regions.