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Enclosures within Enclosures and Hurricane Reconstruction in C ancún, M exico
Author(s) -
AZCÁRATE MATILDE CÓRDOBA,
BAPTISTA IDALINA,
RUBIO FERNANDO DOMÍNGUEZ
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
city and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1548-744X
pISSN - 0893-0465
DOI - 10.1111/ciso.12026
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , real estate , tourism , capital (architecture) , corporate governance , public space , business , architecture , economy , finance , engineering , political science , geography , economics , law , architectural engineering , archaeology , philosophy , linguistics
This article focuses on the reconstruction processes undertaken in C ancún, M exico after hurricanes G ilbert in 1988 and Wilma in 2005. The article argues that both hurricanes facilitated the creation of an evolving logic of “enclosures within enclosures,” whereby hotel and real estate investors, aided by government authorities, privatized and commoditized C ancún's public lands and resources for the exclusive use of the global tourism market. In practice, this meant a radical spatial, aesthetic, and economic reconfiguration of the H otel Z one in C ancún from a low‐density luxury resort to a mass tourism, all‐inclusive resort destination after G ilbert, followed by the emergence of the contemporary timeshare high‐rise condominium model after W ilma. With each new business model, investors strategically used post‐hurricane reconstruction to redefine space, displace risk, and to reposition themselves and the city in global circuits of capital accumulation. The case of C ancún provides an empirically grounded example of how, in the aftermath of natural disasters, strategies of enclosure are deployed through approaches to governance, business models, and forms of architecture and surveillance all in the name of defending the public good, providing security, and enhancing economic growth.