Neoliberalising urban growth: local governance and real estate in three Argentine cities

Source abstract

In recent decades, local governments in South America have implemented fiscal and technical-regulatory incentives to foster a competitive “business climate”. Throughout the region, local urban management has increasingly utilized Public-Private Partnerships to bolster the real estate industry and “urban development”. This association has been encouraged by international organizations as beneficial for local governments, arguing that they facilitate the private production of urban land and housing and provide resources to municipalities in a context characterized by significant economic constraints.This article presents a critical analysis of the implementation of Urban Development Agreements – a form of PPP for urban development – in three Argentine cities during the 2003–2023 period. The study interrogates the pattern of urban space production and consumption promoted by these agreements, as well as the evolving role of urban regulation and local governance. Based on case studies, the research demonstrates that – under the dominance of neoliberal urbanism in the Global South- UDAs not only reinforce the commodification of urban land and housing but also accelerate and institutionalize it, thereby redefining the functions of the local state. The findings reveal that these instruments drive exclusive urban consumption patterns, deepening pre-existing social segregation and inequalities in access to the city.