Abstract

RONDA, Stéphanie  and  UGALDE, Vicente. Urban Planning in México City in the 1950s: Controversies and Debates in the Federal District Planning Commission. Secuencia [online]. 2008, n.70, pp.67-100. ISSN 2395-8464.  https://doi.org/10.18234/secuencia.v0i70.1031.

This text reviews the work of the Federal District Planning Commission in the 1950s. This approach sheds light on the decision-making process of urban policies envisaged by the legis-lation of the time. The aim is to determine the role of this original mechanism in public decision-making; it is original in that it involves several actors and attempts to opérate as a Consulting body on technical town-planning knowledge in the context of a city where the local public authority is not elected by its inhabitants. The discussion of urban projects leads to the crystallization of controversies that hamper public works, trigger changes in the legal framework and will incorpórate new actors into the decision-making process while at the same time, shedding light on the world of planners in México City: their conceptions of urban development in the city, the way they particípate in public actions and the way the identity of this professional field is shaped.

Keywords : México City; commission; DDF; expertise; history of planning in México; planning; scheduling; urban policies.