Metodología para el análisis de las prácticas y políticas de ordenamiento territorial en América Latina. El caso de Argentina, Ecuador, México y Paraguay

This article is the product of a research project whose main objective was to present, on the basis of experiences of multiscale cases (national, regional, rural and city), a methodology that allows us to know the status of territorial planning initiatives in four Latin American countries, pointing out the main factors that limit or inhibit its implementation and its results, so that some clues and recommendations can be raised for the improvement of land use policies and practices throughout the region.The study was executed between 2017 and 2018, within the technical assistance projects (PAT) sponsored by the Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH) that is dependent on the Organization of American States (OAS) and had the participation of the Military Geographic Institute of Ecuador, the National Autonomous University of Mexico through the Environmental Geography Research Center (CIGA) of the Morelia Campus, the Development Research Center of Paraguay and the National University of the South through the ADETER Center (Territorial Action and Development) of Argentina. To this was added the support of numerous researchers from other universities and research centers in the countries involved. In this research framework, the strategy included field work through interviews with important actors and knowledgeable about the problem. In addition, secondary information was collected from the official sources of each nation, based on all these instruments several workshops and discussions were held that allowed to obtain several products.The result of the investigation recognized common problems around the territorial planning present in the four countries analyzed, and which are also manifested at all scalar levels; Subsequently, based on these common themes for all, based on the methodological instruments developed and the expert criteria of the participants, proposals were generated that provide practical ideas in order to improve territorial planning policies in Latin America.