Urban transformations in intermediate cities under the logic of neoliberal urbanism: The case of Monteria, Colombia

Abstract

Intermediate cities have started competing for capital, thus becoming privileged sites for economic growth and policy formulation in agricultural, industrial, and service production areas. However, this process, driven by speculative urban development, exacerbates problems such as socio-spatial segregation, leading to an unequal production of urban space. Under this logic, the city of Montería is not the exception since, in recent decades, it has experienced unprecedented urban growth primarily driven by the private real estate market. Therefore, this research aims to study the urban transformations of the city of Monteria from 2006 to 2021 to determine, based on documentary information, spatial analysis techniques, and related cartography, which attributes of “neoliberal urbanism” are manifest and reproduced throughout the city and their consequences. The results show that current urban policies and planning instruments promote and transfer the responsibility of modelling growth towards new expansion zones to the private sector, generating profound transformations on the territory and exacerbating socio-spatial segregation.