The redesign and revitalization of traditional urban centers is the cutting edge of contemporary urban planning, as evidenced by the intense public and professional attention to the rebuilding of city cores from Berlin to New York City's "Ground Zero." Spanish and Latin American cities have never received the recognition they deserve in the urban revitalization debate, yet they offer a very relevant model for this "return to the center." These cultures have consistently embraced the notion of a city whose identity is grounded in its organic public spaces: plazas, promenades, commercial...

As we move deeper into the twenty-first century, the forces of globalisation continue to transform both the spaces around international borders, and the social processes, cultural practices, economies, and political dynamics within and between these spaces. The geographies of border regions have undergone a dramatic transformation over the last half century; nation-state boundaries growing ever more porous in many (though not all) areas of the planet. Global trade has become an accepted norm in business transactions almost everywhere. Coupled with the revolution in digital technology, the...