The formation of social organizations and their attempts to consolidate settlements and neighbourhoods undergoing transition in Buenos Aires

Environment and Urbanization

Volumn 12, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 215-230

  Herzer, Hilda ^a,b   Di Virgilio, María Mercedes ^a,b,c   Lanzetta, Máximo ^a,b   Rodríguez, María Carla ^a,b   Redondo, Adriana ^a,b  

^a University of Buenos Aires ^*  (Argentina)

^b Texas University ^*  (Argentina)

^c UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

INFORMAL SETTLEMENT; LOW INCOME HOUSING; URBAN HOUSING;

ARGENTINA; BUENOS AIRES;

EID: 0034076088     PISSN: 09562478     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/095624780001200116     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. This study is based on a research project entitled "Low-income Housing, Neighbourhood Organizations and Local Government in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area" carried out between 1995 and 1998 at the IIGG (Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani) Urban Studies Area with funding from UBACYT (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciencia y Técnica) Programme.
2. Of the ten countries analyzed by Altimir in the period 1981-1990, Argentina experienced the highest rate of increase in income disparity, the greatest inequality and the highest increase in levels of urban poverty. See Altimir, Oscar (1997), "Desigualdad, empleo y pobreza en América Latina: efectos del ajuste y del cambio en el estilo de desarrollo", Desarrollo Económico Revista de Ciencias Sociales Vol 37, No 145, April-June.
3. Gazzoli, Ruben, Marta Bellardi, Ernesto Pastrana and Silvia Agostini (1995), "Vivir en un cuarto: inquilinos y hoteles en el Buenos Aires actual", Medio Ambiente y Urbanización Vol XIII, No 50-51, January-June.
4. Yujnovsky, Oscar (1984), Claves políticas del problema habitacional argentino, 1955-1981, GEL, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
5. PROHA-Programa Habitat (1991), Asentamientos en el Gran Buenos Aires, (mimeo).
6. Estimate based on data from the National Census of Population and Housing (1991), INDEC-Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas y Censos.
7. Herzer, H. et al (1997), "Aquí está todo mezclado: percepciones de familias ocupantes de inmuebles en Buenos Aires", Revista Mexicana de Sociología Vol 59, No 4, October-December.
8. The sociedades de fomento are neighbourhood based organizations with extensive geographical boundaries, made up of residents who become members through the payment of a small monthly subscription charge.
9. The Arraigo programme was created in the early 1990s. Its role was to regularize publicly owned land. It was implemented by the National Commission of Public Lands, a body under the control of the federal government.
10. The Catholic church-based community organizations are integrated into a parish and carry out religious and social activities within a certain area. The organizations are coordinated by a leader who is not necessarily an ordained member of the church.
11. Some buildings have not yet been sub-divided and receive a single bill for services such as water and gas. In such cases, the appointed person in charge of the building takes on the responsibility for dividing the bill between the number of families resident and for collecting the amount owed from each one.
12. The constitutional reforms of 1994 changed the structure of governance of the Federal District: the former municipal government became Buenos Aires city government, with a legislative body. The Federal District's own constitution was approved in 1995 and, in 1996, the residents were able to elect directly their first chief of state.
13. With great difficulty, the executive office of the Buenos Aires city government has attempted to carry out the first census survey of the area and set up a reconciliation committee to foster changes in the area which do not entail the eviction of the occupants.
14. In accordance with Argentina's civil code, the loan for use agreement is a free of charge contract consisting of a loan of the property which can be used for an indefinite period of time. As the former municipality of Buenos Aires used to request the payment of canon, it was granting disguised lease contracts in publicly owned buildings located in the zone of the FH3 and in other neighbourhoods such as La Boca and San Telmo, which are being kept up by the present Buenos Aires city government.
15. Coraggio, José Luis (1989), "La participación popular: ideologías y realidad", paper presented at the XIII Latin American Seminar of Social Work, Quito, Ecuador.
16. Giddens, Anthony (1995), La constitución de la sociedad: bases para una teoria de la estructuración, Amorrortu Editores, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
17. Rodríguez, María Carla (1998), "Consecuencias del proceso de reestructuración estatal sobre la política habitacional", Masters thesis, UNGSM.
18. See reference 15.
19. Jeifetz, Nestor (1997), "Hacia la generación de politicas populares autogestionarias en la ciudad de Buenos Aires", Ciudadanìa, Proceedings of the First International Seminar on the Improvement and Reordering of Precarious Urban Settlements, Mejorhab, CYTED, Caracas, Venezuela.
20. Lanzetta, Máximo (1996), "Sistemas de mediación estado-sociedad local en la gestión de la regularización dominial: Barrio Santa María, Bernal Oeste":, Nuevo Espacio: Revista de Sociología Vol 3, No 3, Faculty of Social Science of the University of Buenos Aires.
21. See reference 9.
22. In neighbourhoods like Santa María, electricity is paid monthly and non-payment results in disconnection. Reconnection carries a charge of at least US$ 25. This type of contract with the private service provider means higher proportional costs and a greater burden for families from low-income settlements than for other customers who pay every two months. In the case of the FH3, no differentiation is made between customers who are illegal occupants and other residents, meaning that illegal occupants also pay every two months and their supply is only cut off if payment is overdue by three months.
23. Moser, Caroline (1996), "Confronting crisis: a comparative study of household responses to poverty and vulnerability in four urban communities", Environmentally Sustainable Development Studies and Monograph Series No 8, The World Bank, Washington DC, USA; also Putnam, Robert (1993), Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, USA.
24. Moser, Caroline (1996), "Confronting crisis: a comparative study of household responses to poverty and vulnerability in four urban communities", Environmentally Sustainable Development Studies and Monograph Series No 8, The World Bank, Washington DC, USA; also Putnam, Robert (1993), Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, USA.
25. Roberts, Bryan (1996), "Estrategias familiares, pobreza urbana y prácticas ciudadanas. Un análisis comparativo", Anuario de Estudios Urbanos No 3, Autonomous University of Mexico Press, Mexico.
26. See reference 23, Moser (1996), page 17.
27. See reference 23, Putnam (1993), page 76.
28. Coulomb, René (1993), "La participación de la población en la gestión de los servicios urbanos: privatización o socialización?" in Azuela, A and E Duhau (coordinators), Gestión urbana y cambio institucional, Autonomous University of Mexico Press, Mexico.
29. The Buenos Aires city government's legislative body has recently approved a law that proposes, among other options, the possibility of regularization of tenure under certain conditions relating to the suitability of both the occupied areas and also of the occupant families. However, the city government has yet to decide what position to take.
30. See reference 27.