Urban Governance and Urban Policy in Latin America: Theoretical Transitions and Epistemological Persistences in the Journal EURE (1970-2025)

Abstract

This article examines how urban governance and urban policy in Latin America have been conceptualized in the Journal EURE (1970-2025). The analysis identifies several theoretical transitions, ranging from early CEPAL structuralism, institutional reformism, and Marxist sociology to neo-institutionalist and neo-Marxist approaches addressing globalization and entrepreneurial governance, and more recently to socio-legal and political ecology frameworks. These perspectives have shaped debates on urban planning, urban social movements, housing policy, segregation, gentrification, and financialization. Despite this theoretical and thematic diversity, three epistemological patterns persist in the journal: theoretical dependency and empirical reductionism, the predominance of binary analytical categories, and an elitized praxis of urban change. In response to these limitations, rather than proposing a new theoretical turn, the article outlines strategies to advance toward more situated and decolonizing forms of knowledge production through relational and comparative frameworks and the co-production of knowledge with territorial actors.