Inheritance and Succession in Informal Settlements of Latin American Cities: A Mexican Case Study

How are civil society organizations responding to COVID-19’s impacts on informal settlements? In Latin America, civil society organizations have developed a repertoire of collective action, seeking to provide immediate and medium-term responses to the emergency. This paper aims to map these initiatives and identify strategic approaches to tackle the issues, given the strengths of those undertaking the initiative, and the scope, purpose and sphere of intervention. Using direct contact, a survey, and a virtual ethnography with social organizations has allowed us to identify and characterize the initiatives. The repertoire focuses on emergency measures around food security, and pedagogies for prevention, sanitation and income relief at the neighbourhood and district levels. We argue that the civil society response repertoire is diverse in form and resources but limited in scope; meanwhile the urgency of the situation and the mismatch with state action mean that crucial spheres of informality, vital to cultivating grounds for a healthy recovery phase, are being neglected.

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Reproducing Tradition: Everyday Public Space in Popular Neighbourhoods in Mexico

Open House International ◽

10.1108/ohi-04-2006-b0007 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 49-57

Author(s):

Mauricio Hernandez Bonilla

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

Latin American ◽

Low Income ◽

Culturally Responsive ◽

Great Part ◽

Informal Settlements ◽

The Public ◽

Spatial Expressions ◽

Private And Public ◽

American Cities

In Latin American cities a great part of the urban environment has grown through self-help processes leading to informal settlements. In the Mexican context, informal settlements are called “colonias populares” which means people’s or popular neighbourhoods. In the late 1960s Turner (1969) argued that popular neighbourhoods should be reconsidered as environments which are socially and culturally responsive to the needs of the inhabitants, as the architecture produced by low-income settlers is based on a system responsive to the changing needs and demands of the users. In these settlements the built environment is the result of the freedom available to inhabitants to take decisions and shape their own environment. This in turn gives place to a myriad of spatial expressions in which culture, identity and popular character are imprinted in both the private and public spaces. This paper explores these issues in the spaces between the dwellings in the public realm.

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Santiago Chile, 1541–1581: A Case Study of Urban Stagnation

The Americas A Quarterly Review of Latin American History ◽

10.2307/980784 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 205-225

Author(s):

Joseph B. Fichandler ◽

Thomas F. O’Brien

Keyword(s):

Latin American ◽

New World ◽

Ruling Class ◽

Urban Centers ◽

Empire Building ◽

Mother Country ◽

Imperial Power ◽

American Cities

Attempts to understand the nature of colonial Latin American cities have tended to focus on the role of urban centers in the process of empire building. The Spanish cities of the New World served initially as spearheads of conquest, and later as centers for the exercise of Imperial control. A particularly important aspect of this control was the effort by the Crown to limit the power of encomenderos, men whose royally granted right to use Indian labor threatened to create a local ruling class independent of Imperial power. Richard Morse has recently asserted that the patrimonial nature of many of these urban centers resulted from the efforts of the mother country to retain them in the Imperial structure against the counter-claims of the encomenderos. As for those poorer settlements on the outskirts of empire. Morse believes that the appeal of landed wealth drew many of their most prominent citizens into the countryside, leaving the cities to stagnate.

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Environmental health indicators and a case study of air pollution in Latin American cities

Environmental Research ◽

10.1016/j.envres.2010.10.005 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 111 (1) ◽

pp. 57-66 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

Michelle L. Bell ◽

Luis A. Cifuentes ◽

Devra L. Davis ◽

Erin Cushing ◽

Adriana Gusman Telles ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Environmental Health ◽

Latin American ◽

Health Indicators ◽

American Cities

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THE ENDURANCE OF THE MODERNIST PLANNING PARADIGM: THE FUNCTIONAL CITY IN CONTEMPORARY PLANNING IN MEDELLĶN, COLOMBIA

Journal of Architecture and Urbanism ◽

10.3846/20297955.2017.1355280 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (3) ◽

pp. 234-252

Author(s):

Edwar Calderón

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Urban Planning ◽

Latin American ◽

Public Debate ◽

Data Sources ◽

Primary Data ◽

Economic Perspective ◽

American Cities

The Functional City principles steered the development of Latin American cities post WWII, but their influence in current urbanisation in LA has not been acknowledged or studied, due to the presumption by planners that contemporary planning operates within a very different planning paradigm to the earlier modernist one. In contrast, this paper argues that contemporary urban planning practices in Colombia are still dependent today on functionalist urbanism. Through a case study of three of the 28 approved Planes Parciales (sectorial plans) in Medellin, Colombia, based on primary data sources, I argue how the Functional City principles have been overshadowed by and formulated from a socio-economic perspective which creates discrepancies between local planners and academics regarding their application. This study contributes to a better understanding of current urbanisation patterns in Latin America. Furthermore, this study will invite reflection and public debate over questions such as: urbanization for whom/against whom and who decides?

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Influence of driving patterns on vehicle emissions: A case study for Latin American cities

Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment ◽

10.1016/j.trd.2015.12.008 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 43 ◽

pp. 192-206 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Robinsson A. Rodríguez ◽

Edgar A. Virguez ◽

Paula A. Rodríguez ◽

Eduardo Behrentz

Keyword(s):

Latin American ◽

Vehicle Emissions ◽

Driving Patterns ◽

American Cities

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Between walls and fences: How different types of gated communities shape the streets around them

Urban Studies ◽

10.1177/0042098020984320 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 004209802098432

Author(s):

David Kostenwein

Keyword(s):

Latin American ◽

Urban Landscape ◽

Spatial Dimension ◽

Gated Communities ◽

Community Research ◽

Negative Effects ◽

External Effects ◽

Different Types ◽

American Cities

Gated communities in Latin American cities have become the new normal. The streets bordered by fences, walls and the occasional gate, formed when two or more gated communities face each other, dominate the urban landscape today. Taking Bogotá with its 3500 gated communities as my case study, I create a novel typology focusing on the gated community’s spatial dimension, not portraying it as an isolated island but as an integral part of the urban realm. Using an empirically grounded typology formation process, I present five distinctive types of gated communities in Bogotá, varying widely in how they shape the surrounding public spaces. Some types have significant expected negative effects on activity and security in the adjacent streets and others hardly any. I show how future gated community research and policymaking would benefit from disaggregation of the concept and present some policy strategies to mitigate negative external effects of gated communities.

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