Los bordes de la esperanza: nuevas formas de participación popular y gobiernos locales en la periferia de Caracas

this article examines changes occurring on the outskirts of metropolitan caracas, in the context of a sociopolitical conflict that confronts two visions of the country and two models of development, one based on the postulates of the washington consensus which has failed, and the other an emerging paradigm which has yet to clearly define its objective and is being constructed as it goes along. the new visibility of the lower-income groups after years of exclusion and territorial enclosure in the stigmatized slums of caracas and its periphery plays a major role in these changes. the city of caracas continues its metropolitan expansion and the tuy valleys are an area of intensive urban development, both regulated and unregulated, linked to the construction of a metropolitan commuter rail system and other public and private investments. impoverished middle-income groups live there, together with poor lower-income groups, on the edge of the city but also with the hope of improving their quality of life through the implementation of new public policies and different forms of community participation that point to a process of social inclusion and construction of citizenship.