Caribbean Island Cities: Urban Issues, Urbanization Processes and Opportunities for Transformation

• Michelle A. Mycoo ^[1]
  1. [1] University of the West Indies

     University of the West Indies

     Jamaica

     
• Localización: The Routledge handbook of urban studies in Latin America and the Caribbean: cities, urban processes, and policies / Jesús M. González Pérez (ed. lit.), Clara Irazábal (ed. lit.), Rubén Camilo Lois González (ed. lit.), 2023, ISBN 9780367677404, págs. 579-602
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • Caribbean cities face urban issues that warrant transformative solutions for inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable urban development. Urban planning policymakers and practitioners, as they launch a multi-pronged approach to address rapid urbanization; increasingly high levels of urban population; and rising demands for land, housing and basic urban services, are confronted by climate change and the socio-economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. These unprecedented combined challenges require a bold, innovative reimagining of what the urban future will look like in a Caribbean context. A new urban orthodoxy is central to achieving transformative urbanization. The key ingredients of transformative urbanization are enabling processes aimed at improved urban governance and citizen activism, strengthening a pro-marginalized perspective geared toward inclusivity, fiscal autonomy of urban agencies, effective climate change adaptation and mitigation in cities and efficient use of information communication technology to improve the science-policy-practice interface. This chapter first provides a historical overview of the urbanization process experienced in the Caribbean. A critical analysis of the main urban issues is then provided, followed by a discussion of what has been done so far to confront such issues. The conclusion is then presented.