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Latin American Urban Studies

Latin American Urban Studies is a research topic within Urban Studies. Science Explorer counts 18k research works in it since 1951. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the phenomenon of urban segregation, residential fragmentation, and social inequality within the context of Latin American cities. It explores the impact of globalization, housing policies, and socio-spatial dynamics on the formation of gated communities, urban sprawl, and the division of metropolitan areas.

  • Segregation
  • Residential
  • Urbanization
  • Latin America
  • Social Inequality
  • Metropolitan Areas
  • Housing
  • Globalization
  • Socio-spatial
  • Fragmentation
Research works
18k
fractional, since 1951
In the world top 10%
1.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-13%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Spain
22% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Latin American Urban Studies

Which countries lead Latin American Urban Studies research?

By volume, Spain and Mexico publish the most (843 and 755 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Spain 843 works
  2. 2 Mexico 755 works
  3. 3 Argentina 653 works
  4. 4 Colombia 358 works
  5. 5 Chile 342 works
  6. 6 Ecuador 233 works
  7. 7 Peru 219 works
  8. 8 United States 196 works
  9. 9 Brazil 187 works
  10. 10 France 70 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

Spain: 21.9%Mexico: 19.6%Argentina: 16.9%Colombia: 9.3%6 others listed: 32.3%22%largest
Spain843 · 21.9%Mexico755 · 19.6%Argentina653 · 16.9%Colombia358 · 9.3%6 others listed1,247 · 32.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Latin American Urban Studies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas publishes the most Latin American Urban Studies research, followed by Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Universidad de Buenos Aires.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y TécnicasArgentina 178 works
  2. 2 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoMexico 97 works
  3. 3 Universidad de Buenos AiresArgentina 85 works
  4. 4 Universidad Politécnica de MadridSpain 84 works
  5. 5 Pontificia Universidad Católica de ChileChile 69 works
  6. 6 Universidad Nacional de ColombiaColombia 62 works
  7. 7 Universidad de GuadalajaraMexico 55 works
  8. 8 Universidad Autónoma MetropolitanaMexico 49 works
  9. 9 Universidad de SevillaSpain 47 works
  10. 10 Universidad Nacional de CórdobaArgentina 46 works

Who are the leading researchers in Latin American Urban Studies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Latin American Urban Studies include Pierre Bourdıeu, Michel Foucault and Francisco Herrera.

  1. 1 Pierre Bourdıeu France 268k citations
  2. 2 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
  3. 3 Francisco Herrera Spain 141k citations
  4. 4 David Andrew Collier United Kingdom 89k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Latin American Urban Studies?

The most cited paper in Latin American Urban Studies is "Segregación residencial en las principales ciudades chilenas: Tendencias de las tres últimas décadas y posibles cursos de acción" (Francisco Sabatini, Gonzalo Cáceres, Jorge Cerda, 2001), with 465 citations. Next come "Latin American Squatter Settlements: A Problem and a Solution" (427) and "Urban sprawl and fragmentation in Latin America: A dynamic quantification and characterization of spatial patterns" (361).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Segregación residencial en las principales ciudades chilenas: Tendencias de las tres últimas décadas y posibles cursos de acción Francisco Sabatini, Gonzalo Cáceres, Jorge Cerda · EURE (Santiago) Open access Dec 2001 465
2 Latin American Squatter Settlements: A Problem and a Solution William Mangin · Latin American Research Review Open access 1967 427
3 Urban sprawl and fragmentation in Latin America: A dynamic quantification and characterization of spatial patterns Luis Inostroza, Rolf Baur, Elmar Csaplovics · Journal of Environmental Management 12 Dec 2012 361
4 Assessing equity in transport accessibility to work and study: The Bogotá region Luis A. Guzmán, Daniel Oviedo, Carlos Rivera · Journal of Transport Geography Open access 2017 320
5 Globalisation, Networking, Urbanisation: Reflections on the Spatial Dynamics of the Information Age Manuel Castells · Urban Studies Nov 2010 302
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Latin American Urban Studies research done?

The largest centres of Latin American Urban Studies research in 2022-now are Madrid (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Mexico City (Mexico) and Santiago (Chile). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Corrientes, San Miguel de Tucumán and Mar del Plata.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 MadridSpain 258 works
  2. 2 Buenos AiresArgentina 253 works
  3. 3 Mexico CityMexico 243 works
  4. 4 SantiagoChile 201 works
  5. 5 BogotáColombia 198 works
  6. 6 LimaPeru 123 works
  7. 7 BarcelonaSpain 105 works
  8. 8 QuitoEcuador 65 works
  9. 9 GuadalajaraMexico 59 works
  10. 10 CórdobaArgentina 59 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. CorrientesAR · 22.6 works103×
  2. San Miguel de TucumánAR · 34.7 works71×
  3. Mar del PlataAR · 29.4 works69×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Latin American Urban Studies than the world average.

See Latin American Urban Studies on the map

Where is the best place to study Latin American Urban Studies?

Among universities, judged by research, University of the Americas, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%60%mean 17.8%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of the Am…Universidad Complute…Pontificia Universid…Universidad Politécn…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of the AmericasChile 70.153.1%91.2×9 +100.2%
2Universidad Politécnica de MadridSpain 59.910.8%71.2×84 +38.2%
3Pontificia Universidad Católica de ChileChile 54.216.1%59.0×69 -36.5%
4Universidad Complutense de MadridSpain 53.918.5%13.6×45 +37.3%
5University of ConcepciónChile 51.716.4%45.5×24 +114.3%
6Universitat de BarcelonaSpain 49.520.7%13.9×40 -12.8%
7Universidad de ZaragozaSpain 49.411.9%24.9×41 +15.3%
8Universitat Politècnica de CatalunyaSpain 49.410.2%27.1×35 +10.6%
9Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoMexico 49.28.4%26.1×97 -18.7%
10Universitat Politècnica de ValènciaSpain 48.911.9%30.6×40 +11.6%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Latin American Urban Studies, country by country

Is Latin American Urban Studies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 13% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Latin American Urban Studies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Latin American Urban Studies0.016% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Latin American Urban Studies over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Latin American Urban Studies9.9% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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