Presentation dossier: Urban Historiography in Latin America. Themes, perspectives and scales during the last half century

Abstract

Latin American urban historiography has undergone significant development since the mid-twentieth century. From its origins, it focused on cities and their urbanization processes, with the works of the region's first generation of urban historians strongly influenced by the economic and social approaches that dominated the social sciences during that period. In subsequent decades, shifts within the historical discipline fostered more diverse research themes and perspectives, while new scales of analysis for studying urban spaces shaped the scholarship of subsequent generations. By the late twentieth century, theoretical and methodological reflections—spurred by the emergence of new and diverse perspectives, such as those from cultural and environmental studies—also influenced changes in the scales of analysis. These shifts addressed urban issues in their various dimensions, advancing understandings of the "urban" toward a more territorial scale.