Neoliberal Urban Development vs. Rural Communities: Land Management Challenges in San Andrés Cholula, Mexico

Eduardo Gutiérrez Juárez, Anne Kristiina Kurjenoja, Melissa Schumacher, María Guizar Villalvazo, Edwin Gonzalez Meza and Pamela Durán-Díaz
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Eduardo Gutiérrez Juárez: Department of Architecture, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Cholula 72810, Mexico
Anne Kristiina Kurjenoja: Department of Architecture, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Cholula 72810, Mexico
Melissa Schumacher: Department of Architecture, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Cholula 72810, Mexico
María Guizar Villalvazo: Department of Architecture, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Cholula 72810, Mexico
Edwin Gonzalez Meza: Department of Architecture, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Cholula 72810, Mexico
Pamela Durán-Díaz: Chair of Land Management, Department of Aerospace and Geodesy, Technical University of Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: Since the 1980s, the municipality of San Andrés Cholula, Puebla, has been a territory with constant clashes between its rural population and the official land use policy. In this context, the rural community and its millenary bio-cultural traditions have collided with neoliberal political and economic interests, new urbanism, and land speculation, commodification of local culture and privatization of the public space. The above-mentioned facts represent a challenge for sustainable land management of the territory and for socio-spatial justice, as a large portion of the land is becoming a private asset, meanwhile the large extension of rural land has been for communal use. The present work aims to discuss the processes triggered by neoliberal urban development logic in the area, and how these dynamics have affected the identity of the place, endangered its bio-cultural heritage and jeopardized the local communal right to the land. It will also examine the possibilities for a creation of a collaborative instrument to enhance the participation of the local community (or pueblos originarios —original people—as they identify themselves), in sustainable land management processes, in order to obtain a balance between the community, the public policy and the economic forces in urban development.

Keywords: neoliberal urbanism; land management; local community; socio-spatial justice; peri urban development in Cholula (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:7:p:1058-:d:861258

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