2017 Urban Research Awards: Armored Cities

Armored Cities: Violence and Urban Seclusion in Latin America

Sociology Assistant Professor Ana Villarreal seeks to examine a new form of urban seclusion taking place in municipalities and communes across Latin American metropoles in response to increased violence and fear. Villarreal is targeting cities that have created enclaves of gated communities, dubbing them armored cities. They are characterized by upper class leverage of state resources to create cities within cities or states within states.

Villarreal will conduct observational field studies, interviews, and comparative analysis to find out why and how increased violence and fear impact urban inequality. Her fieldwork will take place in Monterrey, Mexico; San Antonio, Texas; Caracas, Venezuela; and Medellín, Colombia.

Villarreal hopes to leverage her research to find similar socio-spatial urban formations in other regions of the world with high levels of violence. In addition, she plans to release her findings in both academic circles and for news publication.

View more projects funded through our Early Stage Urban Research Awards