Movilidad social espacial en los asentamientos informales de Buenos Aires

Abstract

As in most Latin American cities, in Buenos Aires one of the most usual ways low income families can access to land and housing is through the creation of informal settlements. This article examines the development of urban informality, patterns of social mobility and residential trajectories into and between informal settlements in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires during the last decades. Using quantitative information (generated with own surveys) and qualitative (obtained through in-depth interviews, supplemented by field observation) we intend to show the existence of a considerable variety in the perspectives and strategies that social actors use to build tenure security of their homes. On this basis, additionally the text discusses how public policies and legal frameworks not only constitute a condition for the development of informality as a phenomenon, but even influence the shape and characteristics acquired.