Informal housing in the city of Buenos Aires: an outl

MARINA WERTHEIMER

Manchester

Workshop; INFORMAL POLITICS IN THE CITY: MIGRATION, INFORMALITY AND URBAN CITIZENSHIP; 2013

Universidad de Manchester

Informal housing in the city of Buenos Aires: an outlook * Marina Wertheimer Becich** This paper seeks to draw a general overview of the current housing informality in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA). It starts with a regional contextualization of the process and a brief history of the popular/working class housing in the city of Buenos Aires. Next, it defines the concept of informality as accurately as possible –since it is a very broad concept– differentiating it from other associated concepts. Within the scope of the housing informality, identifies different types of urbanization, as well as its emergence and rapid evolution in recent decades. Finally, the paper explores the public policies regarding ownership regulation and some processes of self-improvement in housing. The research is based on secondary data and literature review about housing informality (Cravino, Fernández & Varela, 2008; Di Virgilio, Arqueros Mejica & Guevara, 2010; Clichevsk, 2000; amongst others), as well as data previously collected by the author, from a social organization located in one of the most densely populated slums in Buenos Aires.