Upgrading slums without relocations: urban struggles within neoliberal housing policies in the city of Buenos Aires

FAINSTEIN, CARLA; NAJMAN, MERCEDES ANALIA

Lisboa

Conferencia; The Struggle for Housing Justice: Crises, Movements, Knowledge and Policy; 2022

Council for European Studies Social Movements Research Network and Project HOPES

In this presentation we propose to explore the role that these instances of resistanceplayed in the redefinition of specific relocation policies. Under the assumption that publicpolicies cannot be thought outside of what happens in the territories or the analysis of socialmovements without the consideration of existing state regulations, we will investigate thedisputes that occur in the framework of urban policies that finally privilege and recognize thestrategies and social conditions of the inhabitants of villas. On the one hand, in the case ofthe slums located on the banks of the Riachuelo (the river that marks the southern limit ofthe city of Buenos Aires), the local government ordered the relocation of hundreds of familiesfrom the banks of the river, which led to a series of conflicts in which the axis of the debatewas the characteristics and location of the new housing. As a result of the struggle of thesocial movements of these neighborhoods, a local law was passed, several protocols forresettlement were elaborated and new guidelines were established in the policies for theparticipation of the grassroots organizations. On the other hand, we will analyze the case ofthe Parque Donado-Holmberg neighborhood, the result of an urban renewal andregeneration project in a central and formerly urbanistically deteriorated area of the city(former Highway 3), where informal modalities of access to housing had prevailed. Initially,the project showed an expulsive and gentrifying objective by promoting the displacement ofoccupied housing in this area. However, this was transformed as a result of a strong processof struggle developed by local social movements. These two case studies have highlightedthe dimension of location and habitat as key issues in the struggles for the right to housing.The presentation is based on the exchange and articulation of the results of theresearch that each author developed for their doctorate. They conducted fieldwork between2014 - 2021 in the city of Buenos Aires based on a quantitative-qualitative methodology inwhich they triangulated various instruments such as surveys, in-depth interviews, participantobservation and exhaustive survey of secondary sources.