Urbicide (eBook)

This book uses the reflection of academics specialized in the urban area of ??Latin America, Europe and the United States, to initiate a comparative debate of the different dynamics in which Urbicidio expresses itself. The field or focal point of analysis that this publication approaches is the city, but under a new critical perspective of inverse methodology to that has been traditional used. It is about understanding the structural causes of self-destruction to finally thinking better and then going from pessimism to optimism.

It is a deep look at the city from an unconventional entrance, because it is about knowing and analyzing what the city loses by the action deployed by own urbanites, both in the field of its production and in the field of its consumption. This suppose that the city does not have an ascending linear sequential evolution in its development but neither in each of its parts in the improvement process, showing the face that commonly not seen but others live.

The category used for this purpose is that of Urbicidio or the death of the city, which contributes theoretically and methodologically to the knowledge of the city, as well as to the design of urban policies that neutralize it. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the book has an inclusive view of the authors. For this reason, gender parity, territorial representation and the presence of age groups have been sought.

Fernando Carrión Mena graduated from Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales. He is Academic at Flacso Ecuador. Its focuses of study are the topics of housing, urbanization process, city, historical centers, cultural heritage, violence, security and drug trafficking, borders, decentralization and the sociology of soccer, among others. He created 8 thematic magazines (political science, security, city, historical centers, borders), wrote more than 1,000 journalistic articles and 306 academic ones, published 76 books (editor of 52 and author of 24) and published 12 book collections (97 volumes). He produced 4 film documentaries. He worked as a consultant for multilateral organizations and as a university professor. For his career, he won 9 awards, 6 decorations and 5 distinguished citizenship distinctions. He was the director of the CIUDAD Research Center, FLACSO, Municipal Urban Planning, as well as a consultant to the Municipality of Quito. He is considered one of the 50 most influential Ibero-American intellectuals.

Paulina Cepeda graduated from Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales. She is Academic of FLASO-Ecuador. She is Architect by profession and completed Master of Research in Urban Studies with a research grant. She is Senior Architect, developing heritage housing restoration and rehabilitation projects, design and construction of new projects and urban consultancies to municipalities. Within the academic field, her lines of research are housing policies, urban planning, governance, market and land policies, with several articles and books on the matter. Coordinator of the Urbs.tic interurban Alliance dedicated to the development of critical thinking in the region, which brings together four universities: UNAM Mexico, FLACSO Ecuador, UNC from Argentina and UFRJ from Brazil. Founder of the Intercontinental Alliance for Urban Studies (AIEU) that brings together universities in southern Europe, Latin America and Africa and founder of POLIS.TIC, a local urban network.