Urban and Regional Planning and Design Research Works

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Browsing Urban and Regional Planning and Design Research Works by Author "Irazabal, Clara"

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    Beyond ‘Latino New Urbanism’: advocating ethnurbanisms
    (Taylor & Francis, 2012) Irazabal, Clara
    This paper discusses the notion of Latino New Urbanism (LNU) and reflects on the significance of ethnic-based reformulations of urban practices and living preferences in Los Angeles and the potential these have for the transformation of policy making and development practices in the region and beyond. Can LNU truly avoid the pitfalls of New Urbanism and represent a new way of conceiving urbanism – one that is explicit and inclusive in its ways of recognizing and addressing ethnoracial and class diversity? Can LNU instead be intentionally or unintentionally used to mask some structural social problems that Latina/os face in the US? All of this poses questions related to the assessment of LNU in the context of tensions between structure vs. agency, diluting vs. celebrating ethnoracial differences, and oppressive vs. liberating urban design and community-building practices. Based on those considerations, I offer an alternate notion of multiple and evolving ethnurbanisms.
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    Boom, Burst e Doom: O Complexo Petroquímico do Rio de Janeiro como catalisador do Desenvolvimento Urbano-Regional
    (National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Urban and Regional Planning, 2019) Dias da Silva, Robson; Irazabal, Clara
    O desenvolvimento liderado por recursos naturais é amplamente debatido por conta das dificuldades de se converter a riqueza mineral em maior bem-estar social. Assim, a construção do Complexo Petroquímico do Rio de Janeiro – COMPERJ no estado do Rio de Janeiro, o maior produtor brasileiro de petróleo e gás, foi empreendida como uma estratégia de superação dos efeitos da “maldição dos recursos naturais” através da diversificação produtiva e melhoras urbanas em parte da periferia metro- politana do Rio de Janeiro reconhecida pelo déficit histórico de oportunidades de desenvolvimento social e infraestrutura urbana. Nesse contexto, o artigo analisa a trajetória do desenvolvimento urbano e regional na porção Leste da Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro entre 2006 e 2016, destacando as fases boom, burst e doom da dinâmica socioeconômica regional. O estudo assinala as principais características e objetivos do projeto, os desafios da região no momento do rompimento da “miragem” do crescimento liderado pela grande indústria, bem como as suas atuais condições. A análise sobre o COMPERJ e seus impactos regionais revelam os riscos e paradoxos de se investir nesse tipo de megaprojeto industrial como plataforma de promoção do desenvolvimento social para uma região sem maior diversificação econômica e planejamento urbano-regional. Natural resource-led development is widely debated because of the difficulties of converting mineral wealth into greater social welfare. Thus, the construction of the Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex - COMPERJ in the state of Rio de Janeiro, the largest Brazilian oil and gas producer, was undertaken as a strategy to overcome the effects of the “curse of natural resources” through productive diversification and urban improvements in part of Rio de Janeiro’s metropolitan periphery with historically deficient opportunities for social development and urban infrastructure. In this context, the article analyzes the trajectory of urban and regional development in the eastern portion of the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro between 2006 and 2016, highlighting the boom, burst, and doom of regional socio-economic dynamics. The study points out the main features and objectives of the project, the region’s challenges at the time of the “mirage” breakdown of large industry-led growth, as well as its current conditions. The analysis of COMPERJ and its regional impacts reveals the risks and paradoxes of investing in this type of industrial megaproject as a platform to promote social development for a region lacking economic diversification and urban-regional planning.
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    Bounded Tourism: Immigrant Politics, Consumption, and Traditions at Plaza Mexico
    (Taylor & Francis, 2007) Irazabal, Clara; Gomez-Barris, Macarena
    Conceived and owned by Korean investors, the shopping mall Plaza Mexico in Southern California embodies a unique case of invention and commodification of traditions for locally-bound immigrants and US citizens of Mexican descent, showing the force of the contemporary processes of deterritorialisation and reterritorilisation of identities and the recreations of imagined conceptions of homeland. The Plaza is a unique architectural recreation of Mexican regional and national icons that make its patrons feel ‘as if you were in Mexico’. Plaza Mexico produces a space of diasporic, bounded tourism, whereby venture capitalists opportunistically reinvent tradition within a structural context of constrained immigrant mobility. While most of the contemporary theory of tourism, travel and place emphasise the erosion of national boundaries and the fluidity of territories, the case of Plaza Mexico brings us to appreciate this phenomenon and its opposite as well – the strengthening of national borders and their impact on the (in)mobility of millions of individuals.
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    Bounded Tourism: Plaza Mexico in California
    (Planner's Network, 2008) Irazabal, Clara; Gomez-Barris, Macarena
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    Citizenship, Democracy, and Public Space
    (Planner's Network, 2008) Irazabal, Clara
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    Constitutional Reforms in Venezuela Foretell a Planning Revolution
    (Planner's Network, 2007) Irazabal, Clara
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    Counter Land Grabbing by the Precariat: Housing Movements and Restorative Justice in Brazil
    (MDPI, 2018) Irazabal, Clara
    Social housing movements in Brazil, whose majority members are part of Brazil’s precariat or lowest-income class, are courageously pressing for true urban reform in Brazil, whose old promise has been systematically delayed and subverted, even by some of those who were put in power to realize it. By occupying vacant and underutilized land and buildings, not only are these movements confronting neoliberalism in Brazil at a time of the model’s highest level of hegemony in the country and the world, they are also unveiling the impossibility of the system to deliver sociospatial justice to the poor and are enacting an alternative. Through restorative justice practices, they go beyond critique and press for an alternate sociopolitical project that would allow millions of people in Brazil access to decent housing, and through it, to a myriad of other opportunities, including the right to the city. As shown in the experiences of those participating in housing struggles, restorative justice deserves further exploration as an alternative planning mode that can combine the strengths of advocacy planning and communicative action while reducing their drawbacks. These reflections focus on the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sen Teto (MTST) and partially feed from team ethnographic and planning studio work on several building and land occupations in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Brazil in 2016.
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    El Movimiento Ocupa Wall Street: Lecciones de Movimientos Latinoamericanos y de Derechos de los Inmigrantes en EEUU
    (Departamento de Urbanística y Ordenación del Territorio, 2012) Irazabal, Clara; Fumero, Gabriel
    Este ensayo indica la importancia de situar el movimiento estadounidense Ocupa Wall Street (OWS) en un contexto global de precedentes de movimientos sociales en protesta contra condiciones opresoras de determinados grupos sociales. En par- ticular, señala la oportunidad que tiene el OWS de reflexionar y aprender de movimientos de protestas y proyectos políticos en contextos latinoamericanos en contra del neoliberalismo y en el contexto de luchas en favor de los derechos de latina/os e inmigrantes en los Estados Unidos. Mientras que en algunos casos latinoamericanos los repertorios de protesta pública, y en particular las ocupaciones de espacios públicos, han ayudado a la elección de representantes políticos que apoyan las agendas populares, en el caso de las recientes luchas pro-inmigrante en los Estados Unidos las demostraciones públicas han estado seguidas de una reacción gubernamental represiva que ha empeorado tanto el riesgo y las condiciones de los inmigrantes sin autorización como la capacidad movilizadora del movimiento que los apoya. El artículo argumenta que, al igual que en estos precedentes, el OWS en EEUU pudiera resultar en la elección de políticos más afines a las demandas del movimiento, o por el contrario, agudizar los aparatos de control y represión en contra de la disensión pública. This essay shows the importance of placing Occupy Wall Street (OWS) in a global context of preceding social movements protesting against oppressive conditions from certain social groups. In particular, it suggests the opportunity that OWS has for thinking on and learning from Latin-American contestation and political projects against neoliberalism and in struggle for the rights of latina/os and immigrants in the United States. While in some Latin-American cases public protests, and in particular the occupation of public spaces, have helped in the election of political representatives who support popular agendas, in the case of recent pro-immigrant struggles in the United States the public demonstrations have been followed by a repressive governmental reaction that has seriously worsened both the conditions of non-authorized immigrants and the capacities of the movement that supports them. The article argues that, as in these precedents, OWS could result in the election of politicians that recognize the demands of the movement, or, on the contrary, reinforce the devices of control and repression against public disagreement.
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    Emerging issues in planning: ethno-racial intersections
    (Taylor & Francis, 2015) Gonzalez, Erualdo R.; Irazabal, Clara
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    Enabling community-higher education partnerships: common challenges, multiple perspectives
    (Elsevier Science Direct, 2015) Irazabal, Clara; Mendoza-Arroyo, Carmen; Oritz Arciniegas, Catalina; Oritz Sanchez, Rubyselen; Maya, Jairo
    Since planning is an applied discipline that deals with real places and communities and has urban environmental sustainability as one of its primary raison deter, we believe cooperation between communities and higher education helps realize planning principles and strengthen social responsibility and ‘service-learning’ ethics in young professionals. This paper offers an open reflection from local community representatives, students, and professors from diverse institutional and geographic settings on a joint experience in an international, community-higher education planning studio. It focused on analyzing and proposing alternatives to a greenbelt project conceived as a mechanism to contain urban growth while controversially causing the relocation of dwellers of the selfbuilt ‘Commune 8’ located in Medellı´n, Colombia. We stress the relevance of community-higher education partnerships when developing action-oriented research and contextually relevant solutions. We also examine critical factors for these partnerships, such as motivations, approaches to community engagement, protocols for knowledge transfer, challenges, and future visions and directions.
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    Entertainment-Retail Centres in Hong Kong and Los Angeles: Trends and Lessons
    (Taylor & Francis, 2007) Irazabal, Clara; Chakravarty, Surajit
    This paper examines the evolution and recent trends in the design of Entertainment Retail Centres (ERCs) in Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Most of the literature on spaces of consumption and leisure deals with economic reasons for the development of these spaces, and with the social, cultural, and political implications of the phenomenon. There are limitations to this approach that this study addresses. First, there has been a lack of attention to processes of globalization in the analysis of these spaces. Furthermore, a largely US-centred approach has left out an understanding of the significance of the ERC phenomenon in other societies. Secondly, the literature lacks a sufficient appreciation of the particularities of urban planning and design associated with ERCs. A body of work addresses the issues of the organization of space within the mall, and its architectonics. However, these studies are by definition limited to the complex, and not oriented towards the urban setting. This paper seeks to address these gaps by moving towards an understanding of the relationship of entertainment retail spaces to their urban and glocal contexts. It considers ERCs not only for the construction of economics, but also of urban, social, and cultural forces, and simultaneously as agents for the mediation of these forces in the built environment of localized places. The analysis is organized along four related themes—land use, transportation, urban design, and consumption patterns. The conclusion offers lessons that can orient both these global cities’ trajectories and those of the cities that follow in their footsteps.
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    Espacio, revolución y resistencia: Lugares ordinarios y eventos extraordinarios en Caracas
    (Organización Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Centros Históricas, 2012) Irazabal, Clara; Foley, John
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    Gating Tegucigalpa, Honduras: The Paradoxical Effects of "Safer Barrios"
    (Taylor & Francis, 2019-10-01) Handal, Cristina; Irazabal, Clara
    This paper analyzes the paradoxical political and socio-spatial dynamics created by “Safer Barrios,” a security program that redefines notions of citizenship, governance, participation, and space in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The rapid proliferation of street gates sanctioned by the state under this program is producing understudied effects both within and outside the gates throughout the city, a phenomenon that this study qualitatively analyzes. The findings reveal that these newly gated residential areas demand a more nuanced analysis than that which traditional gated communities have received in the past; this stems from their different constitution and consequences, particularly the program’s unique relationship to and sponsorship by the local government. The program paradoxically fosters a greater sense of community and safety for participants while negatively affecting mobility and sociability for the rest of city residents. The findings hold critical implications for city design, planning, and policy making.
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    Golden geese or white elephants? The paradoxes of world heritage sites and community-based tourism development in Agra, India
    (Taylor & Francis, 2011) Chakravarty, Surajit; Irazabal, Clara
    This study examines the relationship between World Heritage Sites (WHSs) and local community development in Agra, India. We investigate two interrelated themes: the role of planning in developing the tourism potential of the Taj Mahal and other WHSs in Agra, and the impact of the WHS framework on the development of the city. We analyze the weaknesses of the institutions and agencies responsible for Agra’s inability to convert the development potential created by its three WHSs into significant economic, community and infrastructure improvements. The Agra case reveals a set of developmental paradoxes, whereby the restructuring of the tourist industry induced by the designation of WHSs does not lead to proportionate advances in local community development. Several factors were found to be systemic problems, but some recent schemes are worth supporting and expanding. The paradoxes and potential of economic, tourism, and community development in Agra echo those of other developing localities which host WHSs around the world. Following an assessment of problems and challenges, a set of recommendations is directed toward the development of pro-poor, community-based heritage tourism with the aim of informing integrated planning for the community and for heritage and tourism resources in the future.
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    The High-Rise and The Shack: Rhizomatic Collisions In Caracas’ Torre David
    (University of British Columbia, Okanagan, 2020) Irazabal, Clara; Sosa, Irene; Schlenker, Lee Evan
    A 45-story tower in Caracas formerly occupied by some 5,000 squatters, Torre David was touted by international media accounts as the world’s most spectacular “vertical slum.” This, among other sensationalized accounts, failed to consider the paradoxical ways in which Caracas’ formal and informal, urban and architectural trajectories literally collided with each other in Torre David. The modern high-rise and the self-built shack—antagonist spatial typologies in Caracas’ growth—were dramatically superposed in the tower, unleashing hitherto un(fore)seen dynamics. Through site fieldwork, interviews, film production, media analysis, and historical research, we offer a nuanced theorization of Torre David that grapples with its charged tensions between the formal and informal, modern and traditional, modernity and postmodernity, reality and imagination, and capitalism and socialism. We begin our investigation with a historical account of the tower’s construction, abandonment, and ultimate occupation. This is followed by a theoretical positioning of Torre David as a social and physical space ‘in-between’. Ultimately, we argue that these tensions created a rhizomatic socio-spatial field heavily pregnant with both risks and hopes for the people, the government, and the spatial disciplines.
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    Immigration and Integration in Urban Communities: Renegotiating the City
    (Institute of Urban Studies, University of Winnipeg, 2010) Irazabal, Clara
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    Localizing Urban Design Traditions: Gated and Edge Cities in Curitiba
    (Taylor & Francis, 2019) Irazabal, Clara
    Gated communities and edge cities are new forms of space production and consumption that promote changes in the character of public space and citizens’ participation in public life. This study unveils the phenomena of their creation as a paradoxical attempt to return to community. Curitiba’s examples of gated communities and edge cities show that, despite being internationally showcased as a model of good planning and urban design, this metropolis has not been immune to the global capital pressures and urban design tendencies occurring in many urban areas throughout the world, thus signalling both the currency and trans-nationality of these issues.
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    Patrimonio Vivo: Documento de Enfoque.
    (Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, 2019) Navarrete, Jesus; Saenz, Luis; Larrain, Isidora; Caimanque, Rodrigo; Irazabal, Clara