A Political Economy View of ASSA Meetings: The U.S. Mexican Border

Abstract

The URPE tour to Tijuana unveiled the social underpinnings of regional integration. Alongside the dance halls, cheap eateries, and “schlock” stores are the sexoservidoras and itinerant merchants hawking their wares. The city is privatizing public services while many of its industrial plants have moved to China. Most workers’ housing lacks basic public services, and authorities on both sides of the border refuse to implement a growth management strategy to reverse the environmental disaster that benefits powerful elites, North and South.