On 1 July 2000 regulations to liberalize trade flows between Mexico and the European Union came into force, after more than six years of diplomatic work and complex negotiations. These regulations are part of the "Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLCUEM), which is also one of the components of the Agreement on Economic Association, Political Concertation and Cooperation ("Global Agreement"). The Global Agreement through its three components - political dialogue, trade liberalization and cooperation- was at the time the most ambitious agreement ever constituted by the EU. The economic association component included in the Global Agreement - the TLCUEM- was the first overseas free trade treaty and served as an important precedent for later EU negotiations with other Latin American countries. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the reasons that led Mexico and the EU to the constitution of this treaty; to describe the main challenges of the Global Agreement negotiations of different components; and to briefly review the results of the first three years since the TLCUEM enforcement.

"As one of the outcomes of the Ephemeral City Research Project conceived in the Harvard Graduate School of Design with the aim of bringing to light the idea that nonpermanent configurations of the urban landscape are legitimate within the discourse on cities this book describes temporary settlements from all over the world that challenge the illusion of the permanence of the urban landscape. Ephemeral Urbanism invites us to ponder over aspects of material impermanence such as dematerialization and disassembly as an integral part of the designand construction processes of cities. Ranging from the scale of the small temporary infill within the urban, to the scale of the ephemeral mega cities, this book gives an overview of hundreds of cases, analyzing settlements or configurations that are constructed for a limited period of time. Through diagrams, photographs and aerial images, this preliminary survey presents an exploration of ome interesting prototypes of flexible urban planning and design. Texts by Richard Sennett and Ricky Burdett give the appropriate framework to understand the relevance of this book."--Provider.

A case study of urban development policies in Nigeria. The book provides the writings of both geographers and urban planners who analyze past urban policies in Nigeria, particularly policies from the oil boom years of the 1970s and 1980s, and recommends urban development strategies for the future.

In everyday practice, private and common property relations often accommodate a wide variety of demands made by the owners and users of land. In a stark contrast, many theories of property and land policy fail to recognize plural property relations. The polyrational theory of planning and property as employed in this book reconciles practice and theory. With international examples, this is a valuable resource for those concerned with town planning, land reform, land use and human rights.