Urban Governance and Intra-Urban Population Differentials in Latin America: A Case Study of Metropolitan Lima, Peru

Latin American megacities have developed within a specific set of cultural, social, and economic conditions that continue to exert tremendous influence over the daily lives of individuals and families within them (Gilbert, 1996). The combination of inequitable economic opportunities, unequal social divisions, formal and informal urban development patterns, and weak land-use planning create divergent and highly localized patterns of spatial segregation within the major cities of Latin American (Sabatini, 2003). Other physical geographic influences (such as abrupt mountain features and coastal boundaries) also exert considerable influence on the shape of the urban environment in Latin America, with many of the poorest neighborhoods located in environmentally degraded and marginal areas. As a result of these and other urban development factors, large divisions between the elite and poorer classes have emerged in Latin American megacities.