A new paper titled “Connection beyond borders: exploring sense of belonging across urban satellites conurbed by a medium-sized Mexican city” has been published in the journal “Urban Ecosystems” by a member of the Earth Observation Research Cluster (EORC) in cooperation with colleagues from the University of Helsinki and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

In this research, our colleagues assessed the urban expansion and resulting conurbing of the urban satellites of Morelia, a medium-sized Mexican city, during the 1970–2010s. Additionally, they analyzed the sense of belonging in different types of settlements conurbed by the city through surveys. Their results show that the conurbing decade, settlement type, and length of residence were the main determinants of the sense of belonging. The inhabitants of “pueblos” (towns in English) conurbed longer time ago by the city and with a larger length of residence showed the strongest sense of belonging. This might be related to the higher number of traditions and festivities which are preserved in old settlements, which promotes local identity and social cohesion. These findings highlight the varied levels of sense of belonging that exist within cities and emphasize how settlement type continues to shape social bonds even after having been incorporated into a larger urban conglomerate.

Read the open access paper here: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11252-024-01630-1