Urban Shrinkage and Depopulation Dynamics for Sustainable Urban Governance

Abstract

This analysis has the objective of addressing the shrinkage of the Municipality of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, treated here as the counterpart of suburban expansion, which has been caused mainly by the depopulation of the city and determines a tendency that defines the dynamics of the great contemporary metropolis in terms of sustainable urban governance. The methodology used consisted of tours to neighborhoods and communities, the observation of structure and the opinion of qualified informants, in addition to the review of documents of municipal government institutions and publications in the local press. A review was made based on opinions about knowledge and experiences accumulated from a social–urban stratification of the Municipality of Guadalajara. The analysis concludes that the great challenges of the policy based on sustainable urban governance of territorial distribution of the population to reverse the depopulation and shrinkage of the Municipality of Guadalajara are to achieve a balance of the same within the territory in accordance with a sustainable territorial order, and take advantage of the competitive advantages that the city offers, framed so much in the local economy as a state. A prosperous city invariably requires a platform of public and social policies based on sustainable urban governance that guarantees and promotes the economic growth of its inhabitants.