Insurgent Urbanisms in the Americas

Insurgent Urbanisms are often portrayed as spontaneous, grassroots responses to the inequities embedded in urban policies and—operating entirely outside state structures. But are they truly autonomous? In Insurgent Urbanisms in the Americas, Kristine Stiphany and Edna Ely-Ledesma offer a new perspective on how struggles for more inclusive and equitable cities take shape—and how they transform the very institutions and spaces they confront.

From Brazil’s favelas to Ecuador’s suburbios, and Puerto Rico’s hurricane-battered shores to the gentrified centers of U.S. cities, marginalized communities have long challenged dominant models of urban development. Over time, these struggles have not only resisted the status quo but have become new modes of urbanism and sites of planning. Stiphany and Ely-Ledesma show how insurgencies connect across places while remaining deeply context-specific—tracing their origins in housing movements, their evolution through co-produced knowledge, and their reinvention in response to climate crisis. Through powerful field research and firsthand activism, contributors reveal how insurgencies not only resist but actively reshape urban orders, built environments, and public landscapes—issuing a compelling call to make urbanism matter.

This volume is essential reading for students, educators, and practitioners of design and urban planning, Latin American and Latinx studies, and spatial justice—anyone seeking to understand how insurgency becomes a method for transforming cities.