Revisiting Latin American Peripheries. Trajectories, Trends, and Current Debates

The notion of periphery has played a strategic role in the Latin American intellectual debate. In sociology, it has been used to highlight the dependency and subordination that characterize Latin American societies within the global system (Cardoso & Faletto, 1969; Frank, 1966). In territorial studies, it has shed light on how the production of peripheries is an inherent outcome of urban growth in these societies, while also reflecting the spatial and material dimensions of regional inequality (Castells, 2004; Fuster et al., 2023; Perelman & Di Virgilio, 2021).

Peripheries have been crucial in shaping the socio-economic and cultural fabric of the region. They are often seen as home to a rich cultural and ethnic diversity and as spaces where a plurality of lifestyles flourishes (García Canclini, 1986, 1998). Inhabitants of these areas are recognized for their creativity and resilience, as well as their capacity to innovate in addressing infrastructure deficits. These conditions have led to widespread informal economic activity (Hardy, 1987; Razeto Migliaro, 1987).

At the same time, peripheries have been identified as spaces where social and community movements emerge as key actors challenging inequality, driving political transformation, and advocating for rights and improved living conditions (Zibechi, 2008). In fact, the ability of these communities to organize and mobilize has been seen as critical to sustaining democracy in the region. In the cultural field, these spaces have also fostered resistance, generating significant contributions to Latin American cities (Souza e Silva et al., 2020).

Synthesizing regional discussions, early interest in peripheries focused on their potential as territories for the emergence of actors leading sociopolitical change, particularly through squatters' movements (Castells, 1972; Garcés, 2002). Later, peripheries gained prominence as spaces of resistance to authoritarian regimes that proliferated across Latin America (Cortés, 2014). Up to the present, interest has also centered on peripheries as reservoirs of solidarity and innovation during the rise of neoliberal policies and as alternatives to conventional forms of citizenship production (Auyero & Servián, 2023).

However, the heuristic and political relevance of the notion of periphery does not stop there. It has also sought to highlight -particularly at the present time- other socio-spatial dynamics that take place in territories far from urban and control centers (Hidalgo & Janoschka, 2014). Notably, the focus on extractive and dispossessive dynamics is increasingly present in peripheral territories (Lukas et al., 2020). The implementation of neoliberal policies is an example that increasingly demonstrates the power of appropriation of the peripheries with new forms of capitalist profit. New markets energized by the real estate and tourism sector open up (Paiva, 2016).

The debate surrounding security, crime, and delinquency has gained prominence, alongside discussions about anomie, lack of participation, associative disarticulation, political disorganization, and the presence of drug trafficking that currently characterize peripheral territories (Bayón, 2015; Castillo & García, 2021).

On the other hand, when examining the treatment of peripheries over historical duration (Castillo and Vila, 2022), one can observe the emergence of a perspective that regards them as an "other" space, which typically lies outside the margins defining the extent of the city, both in physical and symbolic terms (Aubán et al., in press). This, in turn, contributes to the production of subjectivities and imaginaries related to the peripheries (Lindón, 2017).

The historicized condition of peripheries reveals that it transcends its geographical status and functions as a social practice led by specific actors, evolving into a category described as hybridization, tapestry, threshold, non-homogeneous space, with blurred edges and uncertain boundaries, a periphery of peripheries, centrality, and "margins" (González García, 2018). In the complex status attributed to the periphery, the contributions of Feltrán (2010), Pittaluga (2020), and Ribeiro et al. (2023) resonate; Feltrán emphasizes that "peripheral situations" are not merely viewed as sites of informality, incivility, and violence, but also as places leading to the recognition of the "other" as a subject with legitimate interests, values, and demands. Pittaluga highlights its nature as an urban practice in transitional spaces characterized by ambiguity and resistance to traditional dichotomous categorizations such as center/periphery or public/private; Ribeiro et al. underscore it as a space for the production of knowledge constituted by a plurality of experiences, voices, and memories.

In any case, the social production of space shapes the significant meanings of the peripheral. Today, for example, peripheral locations do not necessarily indicate positions on the outskirts of the city, as these areas can also exist within urban centralities. The same applies to the identity contents attributed to high-income social classes located in the "periphery of cities," marketed as territorial segments that offer a natural and tranquil environment. This leads to associations like the ones proposed by Villarreal (2014), suggesting that not everything that occurs and resides today in the periphery of cities is popular. A challenge lies in discussing the periphery not only in relation to its geographical condition but also in terms of its characteristics of "precarity and lack of assistance" (Rolnik, 2010).

The aim of this special issue of Revista INVI is to stimulate discussion about peripheries in Latin America through debates that reveal their trajectories, highlighting the historicity that accompanies them with their temporal and spatial shifts considered over the long term, as Braudel (2007) notes. This perspective allows for exploration of their developments as a result of an ongoing and unfinished transformation process that leaves marks on conceptions, materialities, aesthetics, and territorialities that require recognition.

We invite you to submit contributions that reflect on the new theoretical, epistemological, and methodological approaches emerging to account for their singularities and relevance to current discussions. We especially welcome empirical analyses that adopt interdisciplinary approaches and a historical perspective, with articles addressing the following topics:

1. The evolution of meanings about peripheries recorded in theories, notions, institutional and dwellers narratives;
2. Transformations and continuities in the production and dwelling of peripheral territories;
3. Governance and control of peripheries;
4. Dynamics of political contestation from the peripheries; representation and identity of peripheries—culture as a factor of resistance and empowerment;
5. Processes of dispossession and extractivism in peripheral territories;
6. Transformations in peripheral appropriation forms and territorial uses;
7. Territorial aesthetics and the politics of representation and imagery of/from peripheries.

 

References

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Guest Editors:

• Luis Campos Medina. Universidad de Chile, Chile. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5157-4974
• Liliana María Sánchez Mazo. Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3985-8229
• Sergio Moraes Rego Fagerlande. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9269-0448

 

Timeline:

• Call for papers: November 2024.
• Deadline for paper submission: March 31, 2025.
• Special issue publication: November 2025.