The socio/spatial production of the global: Mexico City reinvented through the Santa Fe urban megaproject

During the current neoliberal economic times, along with the opening of the Mexican economy, a major paradigm shift in urban planning occurred characterized by the emergence of "urban megaprojects" as a dominant strategy in the construction of Mexican cities. This dissertation focuses on the megaproject of Santa Fe in Mexico City, the largest urban development in Latin America, widely decried as an insertion of a global urbanism imposed by undemocratic means for the benefit of transnational capital. Santa Fe was ambitioned as the most global place in the city, it is not integrated to its surroundings due to the attempt to create an exclusive space embodying the physical characteristics necessary to attract multinational companies and improve Mexico City's standing in the global arena.;Mexico City is competing, with cities such as Miami and Sao Paulo to become an increasingly important metropolitan force in the financial and productive networks of the global, or at least, regional economy. Like other globalizing "third world" cities, it is a hub of economic and cultural activity at a supranational regional scale (Sassen, 2002). The objective of this work is to examine the urban, political, and cultural consequences of creating a physical space to be a global service center (or global city).;I would argue that the original aims of the project of attracting global capital are being only partially achieved; instead the megaproject is resulting in increased spatial segregation, spatial exclusion, gentrification, and privatization of the city space. The process of implementing urban megaprojects at first appears to be omnipotent and unidirectional. However, I hypothesize that these projects are highly contested by supposedly powerless voices, and are thus continuously renegotiated and reframed.