Enclosures within Enclosures and Hurricane Reconstruction in Cancún, Mexico

Abstract

This article focuses on the reconstruction processes undertaken in Cancún, Mexico after hurricanes Gilbert in 1988 and Wilma in 2005. The article argues that both hurricanes facilitated the creation of an evolving logic of "enclosures within enclosures," whereby hotel and real estate investors, aided by government authorities, privatized and commoditized Cancún's public lands and resources for the exclusive use of the global tourism market. In practice, this meant a radical spatial, aesthetic, and economic reconfiguration of the Hotel Zone in Cancún from a low-density luxury resort to a mass tourism, all-inclusive resort destination after Gilbert, followed by the emergence of the contemporary timeshare high-rise condominium model after Wilma. With each new business model, investors strategically used post-hurricane reconstruction to redefine space, displace risk, and to reposition themselves and the city in global circuits of capital accumulation. The case of Cancún provides an empirically grounded example of how, in the aftermath of natural disasters, strategies of enclosure are deployed through approaches to governance, business models, and forms of architecture and surveillance all in the name of defending the public good, providing security, and enhancing economic growth.

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