Miasta i procesy urbanizacji w Ameryce Łacińskiej z perspektywy badań geograficznych prowadzonych w Instytucie Studiów Regionalnych i Globalnych WGSR UW

The text is a summary of results of research on Latin American citics and urbanization processes in the region, carried out in the Department of Latin America, transformed into the Department of Regional Studies of Latin America and later, the Department of Geography, at the Institute of Regional and Global Studies, Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Warsaw. The author presents general characteristics of urbanization processes in Latin America and a more detailed description of urbanization dynamics in the case of Colombia. Another case discussed in detail is the one of small towns in Mexico, based on the example of Huejutla de Reyes in the state of Hidalgo. Spatial development of Latin American cities is the author's main focus. She describes processes of socio-economic fragmentation of urban space and the advancing 'Americanisation' of urban space. In order to understand particular factors shaping spatial processes in Latin American space three cases: Lima, Bogota and Toluca have been selected for detailed analysis carried out in the period 2011-2014. Occurrence of similar processes and actors who drive them have been detected such as: the dynamics of population movements within urban space, rigidity of social fragmentation and spatial polarisation. Each one of the metropolitan areas mentioned has special features that are specific to its development. Similar processes tend to take place in different moments of cities' bistory, bringing different results.