The Underlying Language and Meaning of Informality (original) (raw)
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UNTANGLING THE VITALITY OF PUBLIC SPACES OF BOGOTÁ'S INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS
Urban Space: Experiences and Reflections from the Global South, 2018
The implementation of sprawled car-oriented urbanism, in the global north, led designers to develop different strategies to re-activate public spaces, through incentivizing street vitality in the planned formal city. Examples of these strategies are policies focused on best practices of urban design such as the so-called Smart Growth movement, that in recent years have been disseminated globally by international organizations and multi-national urban design practices. However, public spaces designed with little oversight by urban design professionals in Latin America's informal settlements, are already vibrant and display a variety of social and cultural connections that seem to have evolved naturally. This chapter seeks to unravel the causes of this vibrancy by identifying social and cultural practices in the urban space, as well as critically evaluate the neighbourhood sustainability assessment tool LEED-ND v.4.0, via the indicators derived from Smart Growth principles that contribute to vitality in public spaces within Bogotá’s informal settlements. The explanation is conducted by using the case of a set of parks in the southern periphery of Bogotá, in areas informally developed. We use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to discover why these spaces achieve high levels of vibrancy, but we also discuss critically the pros and cons of these practices. After this introduction, the discussion of the main theoretical themes, in which this research is based on, is presented. The chapter then moves on to the explanation of the methodology and the case studies, followed by the research results in which, from the qualitative and the quantitative perspectives, the arguments about vitality are elaborated. Finally, in the concluding section, the main arguments are put together and further discussions outlined.
The Production of Informal Urban Space: the Barrios of Bogota
Chapter in Book: Researching the Contemporary City: Identitity, Envirnment and Social Inclusion in Developing Urban Areas, 2013
Open spaces and housing in informal settlements are largely produced and transformed by the users – the people themselves. But by contrast with housing, there is limited information and understanding about open space processes. This chapter examines these spaces in terms of how they are designed, built, managed, transformed and sustained, along with the role of locals and other actors. Using data from two case study barrios in Bogotá, the production of informal urban space is explored. ‘Informal settlements are by definition unfinished projects in which the agency and creativity of the occupant-builders is central’ (Kellett, 2008: 11). Kellett sums up two characteristics of these settlements: first, the production of space in these settlements is a permanent transformation process; and secondly, the involvement of local people is crucial in this production. The production of informal space is largely steered by the people. Lefebrve (1991: 286) argues that ‘space is permeated with social relations; it is not only supported by social relations but it is also producing and produced by social relations.’ Therefore ‘social space “incorporates” social actions, the actions of subjects both individual and collective who are born and who die, who suffer and who act’ (ibid.: 3). But the production of space is also mediated by consumption, as according to Harvey (1996) production and consumption processes work in a dialectical relationship. Therefore, production and consumption are part of the same spatial transformation process. Low (1996) argues that the social production of space includes more than social actions, but also economic, ideological, and technological expressions that affect the physical creation of the material setting. Harvey (1996: 21) goes further and argues that there is a reciprocal relationship between production and product; however, he advises that ‘we should focus on processes rather than things and we should think of things as products of processes’. In the same respect Lefebvre (1991: 36) states: ‘If space is a product, our knowledge of it must be expected to reproduce and expound the process of production.’ It can be argued, therefore, that the production, consumption and product of social space can be seen as interconnected elements, each being the consequence of the other (and vice-versa), all within a social, economic, ideological and technological context. Open spaces in the barrios exemplify these inter-relationships, and the chapter aims to focus on one of these elements, the production of space, however the two other interconnected elements must be kept in mind and will be referred to when necessary.
Open Spaces in Informal Settlements in Bogotá, Expressions of Attachment and Identity
Chapter in the Book: The Role of Place Identity in the Perception, Understanding and Design of the Built Environment, 2012
Urban open spaces in informal settlements, the same as housing, are largely produced by the people themselves. Similarly, these spaces are mainly used by the people who live around, with few „outsiders‟ visiting those places. The product observed is the result of people‟s needs, expectations, possibilities and symbolic constructions. This paper explores the social construction of open space in the barrios; arguing that it generates attachment and identity, along with the design language observed and the meanings behind it. Social practices are transformed to accommodate new interactions with open spaces and new and changing actors; and places change to accommodate those new and changing social practices. The paper draws on empirical data from 57 case studies of open space in the barrios of Bogotá collected between 2003 and 2007, and a further exploration of six cases carried out in 2008 and 2009. A qualitative methodology was employed, with a case study approach, and also some basic quantitative techniques for descriptive and tendency purposes.
Latinoamericana de Estudios de Familia, 2020
Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios de Familia, 13(1), enero-junio 2021, 26-45 Abstract: The purpose of this article is to analyze the particular way of residential and city production in the informal habitat interacts with the residential and domestic organization of those who inhabit it. For this purpose, different residential strategies of the population are analyzed, being cohabiting and support networks the most relevant. Through a qualitative approach, applied to two informal-origin neighborhoods in Bogotá, it is found that the flexibility offered by informal housing allows shaping certain forms of residential organization that complicate the formulation of domestic agreements. Simultaneously, these residential organizations are conditioned by the networks of relationships that they establish outside the dwelling which facilitate or hinder the development of life in this context. It is concluded that the relationship between households, dwellings and families in informal conte...
2020
Petr Vašát (PV): Maria, first of all, thank you for meeting with me. For our interview, I have prepared questions spanning from informal urbanism to building techniques to politics. Some of these questions are more related to research, while some are more about urban development. However, let’s start with your beginnings. I have discovered that you started to study informal urbanism in Montevideo in the 90s, 1997 to be exact, which is a pretty long time ago. So, how did it all begin? Why did you start studying informal urbanism? María José Álvarez Rivadulla (MJAR): I was studying Social Work at the time, and we had to conduct fieldwork in a group of squatter settlements that had just been formed and which were just beginning to emerge. We started in three neighborhoods. I was taking classes both in Social work and Sociology at the time and couldn’t make up my mind between the two. I liked Social Work more because we did much more fieldwork. So I started going to these neighborhoods ...
Indian Journal of Science & Technology, 2018
Objectives: To investigate the urban consolidation processes of the municipality of Santiago de Cali, as well as the transformation patterns of urban surfaces to recognize specific phenomena. Methods/Analysis: Communes as urban surfaces with administrative and territorial elements (therefore, common attributes) are the basis for contrasting specific phenomena that mark the links with the population determinants that transform the territory, which accounts for informality (phenomenon of interest) as a particular way of urbanizing. In this sense, the surface/population relationship produces indicators that, recognized from the present, allow connecting sequentially and temporally with the origins of the process, understanding it as a " cause and effect " relationship that can be structured and systematized in matrices of data that allow to visualize the relationship scenarios. Findings: This vision of formality (on the process of urbanization) has not been characteristic, since the acceleration of many of the determinants that generate it as population growth or economic cycles have distorted how it is seen, while other phenomena have occurred where urbanization outside the perspective of the State became informal, demonstrating the low capacity for intervention. The scenarios of public policies that sought to ensure those minimum urban conditions were blurred with the increase of that informality, becoming one of the issues that the State must face; and in the case of the municipality of Santiago de Cali, there are particularities that have manifested this informality in scales that allow understanding and studying the different aspects that produce it and, at the same time, to characterize it. Application/Improvement: The development of the present investigation allowed observing particular conditions in the design of planning instruments that start from the recognition of this informality as another form of city construction and that complement the study of this type of relations in the territory.
Production, Use and Language of Open Spaces in Popular Settlements, Two Case Studies from Bogota
Forum Ejournal, 2009
Open spaces in popular settlements, like the housing stock, are to a large extent the product of local self help and self managed processes. It can be argued that these spaces play a significant role in the physical and social dynamics of the barrios. The aim of this paper is to discuss ideas of production and consumption of these places in relation to the people. The subject is explored under three themes: the production of informal urban space; the uses and connections; and the language of the place. Two case studies were chosen to explore the subject and present preliminary findings. A qualitative approach was employed and a range of methods for data collection. The paper concludes by reflecting on open spaces as physical and social tools used to connect people with the city and the urban life, mechanisms to interact with wealthier groups in society, and alternative spaces developed by locals to express their needs and expectations.
THE TERRITORIAL DYNAMICS OF THE FORMAL AND INFORMAL ACTORS IN BOGOTÁ (Atena Editora)
THE TERRITORIAL DYNAMICS OF THE FORMAL AND INFORMAL ACTORS IN BOGOTÁ (Atena Editora), 2022
El interés por explorar los procesos que asocian el comercio formal con el informal en la ciudad de Bogotá, en especial el que se desarrolla en el occidente de esta ciudad capital, se vincula con el hecho de que el fenómeno globalizador ha exacerbado la presencia del capital, lo cual ha incidido en las relaciones que se han redefinido entre ambos sectores desde 1990. La localización de las actividades económicas contribuye a estructurar la organización del espacio y esta se puede explicar desde la teoría de la localización clásica en concordancia con la realidad de cada momento histórico a partir, entre otras cosas, de la formalidad económica, social y territorial. Sin embargo, a esto hay que agregarle que existen actores, tan importantes en el proceso de organizar el espacio urbano, relacionados con el sector informal de la economía que, por lo general se localizan en áreas periurbanas o periféricas de una ciudad. Estos procesos son explicados desde la teoría de la localización clásica. Sin embargo, la informalidad comercial no necesariamente responde a una localización en la periferia. Así, como parte del desarrollo de la investigación titulada “Tendencias en la Localización Formal e Informal, del Occidente de Bogotá. 1990-2020”, se analiza a partir de información primaria y secundaria esa sinergia espacial en la ciudad de Bogotá, en particular en el occidente, que desde 1990 evidencia un acelerado proceso de ocupación territorial involucrando actores formales como informales, a partir de las áreas de influencia de las grandes superficies comerciales para demostrar no son exclusivas de áreas periurbanas o periféricas, sino que hoy día está integrada al actual entramado económico, que le permite estar presente en la libre circulación del capital, además de la prestación de servicios a todos los habitantes de la ciudad.