Co-creating acapulco:
socioenvironmental challenges
and sustainable potentialities
-a city blog series
in collaboration with
universidad autonóma de guerrero
welcome to the ‘co-creating acapulco: socioenvironmental challenges and sustainable potentialities’ blog series. acapulco, a city located on the pacific coast of mexico, has captured the imagination of many storytellers throughout history. from the films of elvis presley to the diary musings of tennessee williams to the music of the 1970s, acapulco has been depicted as a tropical paradise with stunning beaches, inviting seascapes, and a vibrant nightlife.
however, despite its reputation as a tourist destination,acapulco faces many pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. the city is known for its high murder rate and has been ranked as the second most dangerous city in the world. along with violence, the local population is also grappling with poverty, crime, corruption, economic decline, and environmental degradation. these issues have a profound impact on the daily lives of those who call acapulco home, affecting their quality of life and access to basic services.
in this blog series, we will delve deeper into the complex reality of acapulco, exploring its rich history, contemporary struggles, and efforts to make the city a more livable place. we have invited four msc students from our master’s programme in sustainable development management who will be presenting their projects focused on waste management, mangrove conservation, housing justice, and sustainable tourism. additionally, we have invited a diverse range of academics to contribute their perspectives. our goal is to create a comprehensive and nuanced picture of the city and to inspire action to address its challenges.
the msc in sustainable development management trains students to design, manage, and execute sustainable development projects. through fieldwork and national and international mobility, students learn to impact real problems and engage with various sectors, including indigenous populations, urban women, fishermen cooperatives, and youth. the programme focuses on the united nations’ 17 sustainable development goals, with an emphasis on gender equality, sustainable cities and communities, and responsible production and consumption.
the collaborators of this project aim to embody the ethos of co-creation and co-construction in their work. by working hand in hand with one another, we seek to unleash their creative energy and transform the regenerative experience into a collaborative, value-generating process. unlike traditional approaches, the research and design of this experience will involve active collaboration between practitioners, academics, students, artists, historians, and consultants, allowing ourselves the creative control to co-create solutions. this approach aligns with the 2030 agenda, where the term co-creation has become more widespread, particularly in the context of territorial planning for a sustainable city.
acapulco provides an important case study for several reasons. chief amongst them is that it is a coastal city with historical relevance on the world stage in terms of the development of capitalisms alongside colonial structures. this has meant that over the decades, it has attracted labour migrants who have in turn increased the pace of urbanisation for the tourist economy. this has meant structural neglect and mismanagement on the part of local, state, and federal governments. thus, acapulco suffers from poor infrastructure which continues to place its residents in vulnerable positions in relation to disasters associated with natural hazards, housing, public services, and infrastructure. the msc programme trains professionals to help their local communities tackle these problems in acapulco and other parts of guerrero.
our project draws from an epistemically marginalised city to produce urban praxes for broader audiences, taking into account this knowledge is co-produced with local subjects narrating their own experiences on their own terms. this project works with the critical force of decolonisation and anti-colonisation to centre local experiences in documenting their vulnerabilities and articulating their resistance.
this is the blog space where we will be showcasing the rich history, contemporary struggles, and efforts to make acapulco a more livable place. we hope that the diverse set of voices will provide a comprehensive and nuanced view of the city, inspiring action to address its challenges. stay tuned for our upcoming series of blog posts.
organisers and co-editors:
dr. ulises moreno tabarez
dr. hector becerril miranda
dr. rocio lópez velasco
dr. dulce maría quintero romero
* the lowercase letters are intentional, it’s a feature built in to this website. this aesthetic is meant to pay homage to bell hooks, a radical black feminist who chose to use all lowercase letters in her name to signal an equalising of language structures. this is the ethos the editorial collective of this journal seeks to foster, and one that this project seeks to build.
