On the urban-regional studies and territorial restructuring (as a presentation)

Abstract

This article is a presentation of the set of works gathered in this issue of Economía, Sociedad y Territorio devoted to “territorial restructuring”. In views of giving a context to the introduction, we opted to make a brief reconstruction of the field of urban-regional studies from the disciplines that have been part of them, bearing in mind that inside this field that the analytical proposal of “territorial restructuring” appears. This should not be understood as a balance of urban-regional research, it is not the objective and to do so we refer to numerous concluded works.

A quick review of the disciplinary traditions of the field of urban-regional studies allows us to postulate a “turn toward policies” as a characteristic of this field in the Mexican context, which in spite of having particularities, also recognizes similarities with what takes place in other countries. In like manner, we consider a methodological aspect that somehow has operated as a constant in this field: the conception of the territory in scales. Finally, we make a brief revision of the concepts that have been coined or sharpened in recent years to understand current phenomena; among them, no doubt, that of territorial restructuring holds an outstanding place.