Latin   American   Urban   Cultural   Studies :     Unique   Texts ,   Ordinary   Cities    

   Urban  communication  research  in  Latin  America  is  not  just  responding  to,  or  rejecting,  Western  perspectives  but  producing  material  that  can  be  valuable  for  understanding arguments about ordinary cities within the context of globalisation. We  interrogate current frameworks in urban cultural studies and communication theory  to highlight how research in Latin America provide new possibilities for exchange and  dialogues  into  an  area  of  study  that  is  often  missing  or  limited  in  Western  urban  cultural analysis. We argue that this research moves away from theories that deemed  Latin American cities as underdeveloped or unequally  inserted  in  to  the network of  global cities by providing ways of narrating, imagining and understanding the city in  their own terms. This research however does not go unchallenged; we also argue that  Latin American capital cities are often privileged at the cost of forgetting, ignoring or  just describing as traditional other Latin American cities in the region.  Key  words:  urban  communication,  urban  cultural  studies,  Latin  American  urban  cultural studies, Latin American communication research 

WestminsterPapersinCommunicationandCulture8(1) 133 We will first provide a context for understanding the academic framework within which the work is discussed. We will then consider authors identified as 'classics' beforebrieflyassessingtheworkofauthorswhohaveprovidednewwaysofthinking aboutcities(particularlyviathenotionsofimaginarymapsandspacesofexperience). WearguethatLatinAmericanurbanculturalstudieshaveprivilegedcapitalcitiesand excluded regional cities and towns. Such a focus has tended to reproduce the arguments and claims made by scholars in Europe and North America. Finally, we reflect on this material under three headings: the problem of the periodization; the ideaoflocalization;andtheissueof'blendedculture'.

TheContextforLatinAmericanUrbanCulturalStudies
Urban theorists have excluded many cities and their inhabitants from explanations and descriptions of what it means to live in these cities, ignoring vernacular terms usedtodescribeandimagineurbanareasandtheirtransformations.Inasimilarway communicationscholarshaveneglectedcitiesassitesofproductionandconsumption, and ignored the dynamic practices of their inhabitants (Graham, 1996;1997). It is fromwithinthisspacebetweenthesetwodisciplinaryapproachesthatwelocatethe arguments emerging from a tradition of urban communication studies in Latin America.
In the United States and Europe Latin American urban studies has been framed as developmentstudies,whileresearchaboutEuropeanandAmericancitiesfallsunder theumbrellaofurbanstudies.ThirdWorldcities: seemed incommensurable with the cities of advanced industrial capitalism. Thus, as more pragmatic approaches to cities in poor contexts emerged throughthelatterhalfofthelastcenturyunderthesignofdevelopment,urban sociological theory retreated into its original concern with western urban experiences. (Robinson,2004,570) In this context, the Latin American city has been measured against the backdrop of dependency,underdevelopmentandglobalizationtheories (Davis,2005).

Vargas&Velázquez,LatinAmericanUrban… 134
The literature emerging from Latin America that we discuss here coincides with a renewedinterestinWesternurbantheoryasameansofunderstandingtheproblems of advanced industrialized cities within the context of globalization. Understanding therevivalofthedilapidatedurbancentresoftheindustrializedworldandtheirplace in the global economy is central to contemporary Western urban theory (Harvey, 2000;Robinson, 2004). This shift puts cities in the United States and Europe at the centre of the debate (Davis, 2005). The global city becomes the 'yardstick' to which theLatinAmericancityshouldaspire (Davis,2005).
Aswiththediscourseofmodernity,theoriesoftheglobalcitybecomeyetanotherway of measuring temporal progression, of legitimizing a particular type of development for the rest of the world (Massey, 2000). Such a representation implies that Latin American cities experience layers of intense development without undergoing the samelogicofprogressionasthe'advanced'capitalistcitiesoftheworld.Thefollowing quote from David Harvey (2000,16), when trying to explain the problems of postindustrialcities,isindicative: But all of these problems of the advanced capitalist world pale into insignificance compared to the extraordinary dilemmas of developing countries, with the wildly uncontrolled pace of urbanization in São Paulo, Mexico City, Cairo, Lagos, Mumbai, Calcutta, Seoul, and now Shanghai and Beijing. On the surface there seems to be something different going on here, even more than just that qualitative shift that comes with the quantitative rapidity and mass of urban growth that has Mexico City or São Paulo experiencing in just one generation what London went through in ten and Chicagointhree. Or,takeforexamplethefollowingquote: IfthereisonedominantimpressionIhaveoftheurbanprocessesthatarereshaping cities particularly in developing countries (Seoul or São Paulo, for example),itissimplythatofanurbanprocessinwhichthecontenttranscends theform-socialprocessesliterallyburstingattheseamsofurbanform-ona scaleneverbeforeencountered.Howtocreatethepoetryofoururbanfuture insuchasituationisthefundamentalquestion. (Harvey,2000,28) WestminsterPapersinCommunicationandCulture8 ( (Sarlo, 1988), socio-economic analysis (Coraggio, 1999), urban ethnographies (Carman, 2006;Lacarrieu, 1988) and semiotic (García Canclini, 1999;Silva, 1992), ecological (Cuenya and Herzer, 2004), political (Gorelik, 1998;Sábato, 1988;Svampa, 2001) and cultural (Silvestri,2003) approachestocities.
Thestudiespresentedhereasuniquetextsarepreciselysobecausetheymoveaway fromtheoriesofdependencyandglobalizationthatdeemedLatinAmericancitiesas underdevelopedorunequallyinsertedintothenetworkofglobalcities.Theyarealso uniquebecausetheyarecapableofnarrating,imaginingandunderstandingthecityin their own terms; precisely because they uncover 'the poetry of our urban future' (Harvey,2000,28). Romero synthesizes forms of Latin American urbanity from the conquest until the middle of the twentieth century. He proposes a chronological typology that systematically organizes these cities into six periods. These types are: 'foundation cities' (sixteenth century); 'noble cities of the Indies' (seventeenth century); 'Creole cities' (last decades of the eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century);
We would now like discuss the work that took on board the arguments presented here, but this time incorporating rich ethnography and semiotics to the study of the citywithincommunicationstudies.  Thus, 'to get to the interior' involves a rather prolonged journey in space and time.

ArmandoSilvaTellezpublishedabookonurbanimaginariesinLatinAmericain1992
This estrangement -and condemnation to the past -appear across the spectrum of scholarly production (i.e. the idea of 'traditional interior' in Argentine sociology, present in the work of Gino Germani, 1969), artistic production (i.e. the process of displacement of the hero in The Lost Steps by Alejo Carpentier, 2001Carpentier, (1953) or the description of a dusty city, stopped in time, present in the novel The Lost Place by Norma Huidobro, 2007) and media companies (most of whose headquarters are locatedincapitalcities) The idea of exclusion and estrangement is present in the work discussed above in variousways.JoséLuisRomeroattributesthisversionof'traditionalsocieties'tononcapital cities through his category of 'stagnant cities' that appear in the chapter on 'Bourgeoiscities: 1880-1930'(2001[1976],250).Herethecitiesoftheinterior-with theexceptionofafew,generallyports-areopposedtothecapitalsinhisdichotomy of'transformation/impasse'.ForRomero,thecitythatwasleftoutofmodernization 'retaineditsprovincialcharacter'.Hedescribesitinthefollowingway: They did not change when others did, and because of this they became stagnantcities.Manyofthem,however,managedtokeeppacewith their area of influence, but also kept their traditional lifestyle without accelerating its pace. The streets and squares retained their peace, architecture its traditionalmodality,theformsofcoexistence,itsnormsandcustomaryrules. Certainlythehorizonwasnotexpanded,whereinothercitiesthepossibilityof adventure, of easy wealth and social promotion seemed to grow. By contrast thecitiesthatescapemodernizationcouldseemmorestagnantthantheywere.
In rural areas and small and medium-sized cities the old patrician class was deeplyrootedandconstitutedavigorousandhomogeneousaristocracy.Itwas that 'gentleman's democracy' that was spoken of in Arequipa, Tunja, Trujillo, Salta,orPopayán.Therewerenogroupsthatsuggesteddiversifyingtrendsnor humbleormiddlegroupsthatwillrejecttheconsenttoauthority.Thatiswhyit wastherewheretheybetterwithstoodthetestofthenewera.Incapitalsand in ports, in the cities which were transformed, these circumstances began to undermine the structure and the strength of the nobility, even though it was wellformedandhadunequivocalpower…(Ibid.,259) Martín Barbero is silent about non-capital cities, and they are excluded from Silva's urbanimaginariesandSarlo'speripheralmodernity.
Theresearchandtheoreticalargumentevaluatedherecontainsasignificantflawinits failure to acknowledge the differences between metropolitan and non-metropolitan urbanexperiences(presentinRaymondWilliams'TheCountryandtheCity,1973)and thishasrepercussionsfortheorizingurbanLatinAmerica.Althoughsomenon-capital cities are very briefly mentioned, they are approached from the point of view of theoretical and methodological models that emerged from research on capital cities.

WestminsterPapersinCommunicationandCulture8(1)
145 Such an approach is similar to the unequal dialogues between the theory of the socalled core and peripheral countries. The dichotomy is compounded as a type of double dependency on both the capital and colonial centre by duplicating the colonizedargumentwhenreferringtonon-capitalcitiesinLatinAmerica.

ThreeFamilyTraits
Regarded as a whole, the studies of cities discussed in this article converge in three ways: a historical periodization that highlights a shared history given its articulation/disarticulation with political and economical frameworks (specifically, withthedevelopmentofcapitalism);atriplelocalizationthathighlightsthemultiple ways of being urban in Latin America; and the idea of 'blended culture' or 'mixed culture'.
We conclude by arguing that urban cultural studies provides -and in doing so, reinforces -a particular interpretation on the history of Latin America. The

periodizationpresentinRomero'sworkreinforcestheideaofacommonhistoryand
privileges the colonial experience, the insertion of nation-states in global capitalism, and the impact of globalization processes for social and economic practices in the region. In this period the relationship between urbanization and development is centraltounderstandthedevelopmentofnationalstates.Here,scholarshavestressed how demographic concentration in urban areas was linked to industrialization. The studies that we have discussed here as classics are themselves part of a period: the increasingquantityandqualityofworkpublishedsincethe1980shascoincidedwith theestablishmentofvariousformsofpoliticaldemocracyintheregion.Thisresearch demonstrates a concern for understanding the political contexts under which urban practiceswereoccurring,particularlyafterlongperiodsofpoliticalauthoritarianism whenurbanpracticeswerelargelycurtailed (Rosenthal,2000). We would like to stress here that Urban Communication, though fully established in LatinAmerica,isarelativelynewareaofstudyinplacesliketheUnitedStates (Burd etal.,2007;Gibson,2007)andBritain (Brunsdon,2007;Graham,1996;1997;2004 representationsofcitiesislessdisputedincommunicationandmediastudies.Finally, we identify the city as lived experience; here the city is about its physical form, its buildings, squares and parks, as much as the practices that make and define these places. Thus,joiningwithRobinson's(2006)proposalaboutordinarycities,wewouldliketo argue for the need to move away from hierarchical knowledge about cities, and this includestheclassificationofcities(asglobal,world,developing,underdeveloped)as much as hierarchical disciplinary divisions over whether research on cities falls within the remit of communication studies. Thus our call for understanding and comprehending ways of being urban in ordinary cities is a response to both a geographicalanddisciplinaryhierarchyofknowledgeaboutcities.
The Context for Latin American Urban Cultural Studies Urban theorists have excluded many cities and their inhabitants from explanations and descriptions of what it means to live in these cities, ignoring vernacular terms used to describe and imagine urban areas and their transformations. In a similar way communication scholars have neglected cities as sites of production and consumption, and ignored the dynamic practices of their inhabitants (Graham, 1996;1997). It is from within this space between these two disciplinary approaches that we locate the arguments emerging from a tradition of urb... Welcome to our Latin American Studies hubpage, where you can browse (and buy!) all our books and journal articles in this area of study! Read free chapters and articles from key books and journals. receive 20% discount on new books in our major books series. Read a special issue from the Journal of Latin American Studies on the political crisis in Brazil. Read blog posts, including one just in from Theodore W. Cohen on Mexico and the African Diaspora. Watch a "Lockdown Lecture" with Kris Lane and Matthew Restall, authors of Latin America in Colonial Times (along with the wonderful Me Urban communication research in Latin America is not just responding to, or rejecting, Western perspectives but producing material that can be valuable for understanding arguments about ordinary cities within the context of globalisation. We interrogate current frameworks in urban cultural studies and communication theory to highlight how research in Latin America provide new possibilities for exchange and dialogues into an area of study that is often missing or limited in Western urban cultural analysis.Â Vargas, Alejandra GarcÃ a. â€oeLatin American Urban Cultural Studies: Unique Texts, Ordinary Citiesâ€ . Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 8, no. 1 (2011): 131â€"53. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.178. Latin American culture is the formal or informal expression of the people of Latin America and includes both high culture (literature and high art) and popular culture (music, folk art, and dance), as well as religion and other customary practices. These are generally of Western origin, but have various degrees of Native American, African and Asian influence.