Robinson Herrera on Mexico Megacity
James B. Pick, Edgar W. Butler. Mexico Megacity. Boulder, Col.: Westview Press, 1997. xviii + 411 pp. $90.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8133-8983-7. Reviewed by Robinson A. Herrera Published on H-Urban (March, 1999) Despite the existence of other important ur‐ economic, environmental, labor force, and corpo‐ ban centers in modern Mexico, Mexico City re‐ rate themes" (p. 2). mains the nucleus of political and economic pow‐ In the tradition of quantitative studies pio‐ er. In the last decades it has come to dominate neered by serials such as the Statistical Abstract popular culture as well, primarily due to its role of Latin America[1], Pick and Butler hesitate to in‐ as the central base for the country's television, ra‐ terpret the information too profoundly, preferring dio, and newspaper industries. To better under‐ instead to provide data, analysis, and narrative.[2] stand this massive metropolis' problems and po‐ This does not mean that Mexico Megacity is a tential, James B. Pick (professor of management mere collection of raw data, but it does demon‐ and business) and Edgar W. Butler (professor of strate the authors' greater interest in presenting sociology) have examined a forty-year period in findings and supporting data than in making val‐ the life of the city, from 1950-1990, occasionally ue judgments. Yet, at times, particularly in cases extending their analysis to 1930. The resulting dealing with the unequal distribution of resources work, Mexico Megacity, titled thus after the latest that result in exploitation, Pick and Butler do not moniker applied to the city under study, ranks as refrain from expressing their opinions.
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