Frontiers of research on reform of urban public service provision II

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The literature on the privatization of urban public service provision has generally assumed that a variety of services—such as water, transport, security, energy, and the planning of public space—have become privatized. The common wisdom is that services that were once commonly provided by the state are now provided by private entities, reconfiguring not only the role of the state, but also the role of other actors such as the private sector, social movements, non-governmental organizations, neighborhood and community based organizations, etc. Recent research, however, has begun to call some of this wisdom into doubt, suggesting a more nuanced and complex pattern of service provision.

In this session we will focus on the following questions, in work based on the experience of different cities and/or sectors of urban services going through processes of change:

• What have we learned about the actual trends of privatization in different cities, as well as the effects of such reconfigurations on social exclusion?
• What are the responses and reactions of civil society to these changes? Are there opportunities for action by new actors (i.e. new organizations providing services to previously not served areas)?
• What are the challenges these reconfigurations pose for democracy and governance?

In line with LASA’s attempt to encourage a cross-fertilization of area studies, the session will create a dialogue among scholars analyzing a wide range of cities, sectors, and actors, from different disciplinary perspectives.

Sub Track

• Cities and Urban Studies

Session Organizer

• Marcela G Gonzalez Rivas, University of Pittsburgh

Chair

• Clara E Irazábal, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Water governance paradigm change: responses from civil society beyond the privatization debate in Mexico City - Marcela G Gonzalez Rivas, University of Pittsburgh

• Public and private provisioning of cemetery services in urban Colombia - Christien J Klaufus, Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation

• New Forms of Private Water Provision in Cochabamba, Bolivia - Marcela Olivera

• Remunicipalization in Latin America: Where are we now and where are we going? - Raul Pacheco-Vega, CIDE

• New urban policies, new forms of public participation? The challenges of redevelopment projects in São Paulo, Brazil - Marina Siqueira

Discussant

• Clara E Irazábal, Columbia University