- Barriadas and Elite: Recent trends of urban integration and disintegration in Lima, Peru    636 kb by    Fernandez-Maldonado, Ana Maria | a.m.fernandezmaldonado@tudelft.nl    Short Outline The case study presents the contradictions in the use and development of the urban space in Lima, Peru, which due to its singular integrative processes makes it a useful case to report the effects of both integrative and disintegrative forces in the urban space. Abstract Lima has been intensely affected by a process of rapid urbanization with poverty restrictions which has turned it into a city widely surrounded by barriadas, spontaneous (but organized) settlements located at the periphery of the ‘formal’ city. After a prolonged period of economic crisis and political violence which deepened the dichotomy between the formal/informal or rich/poor sides of the city, the 1990s have brought about many political-economic transformations linked to the international neo-liberal agenda. The local commercial, financial and real-estate firms have been weakened or replaced by foreign firms and economic groups, which have pumped great amounts of capital into new urban projects. ‘Islands of modernity’ have emerged in different locations addressing the residential, commercial and recreational demands of ‘global’ consumers. On the other hand, Lima presents some singular developments that, although not planned or initiated by the government, can be considered as integrative. The elite have not moved from their traditional quarters and Lima has not developed the ‘fortified enclaves’ that are strongly affecting other Latin American metropolises. At the same time, an important share of the new commercial and recreational urban facilities has been located in the poor peripheral areas to attend the demand of the ‘new’ consumers who have been ‘discovered’ by the local and transnational capital. Additionally, informal cybercafés are operating in low-income neighborhoods and poor peripheral areas, providing cheap access to computers and Internet to local residents, and effectively reducing the digital divide. These contradictions in the use and development of the urban space make Lima a useful case to report the effects of both integrative and disintegrative forces in the urban space. The purpose of this paper is to present the particularities of these simultaneous processes of democratization and social exclusion, relating them to demographic, socio-economic and cultural processes operating at local and international level. Keywords barriadas, elite, urban integration, digital divide Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper