Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Social memory and political culture are studied to understand the appropriation of public space and the right to the city. This right goes beyond the distribution of public goods and services and includes the acknowledgment of difference, participation, and the possibility of producing space through the act of inhabiting. A qualitative methodological approach is taken, to study two public spaces in Cuenca, Ecuador. The analysis shows that centrality, identity and belonging, elements linked to memory, stimulate social interaction. Meanwhile, a political culture characterized by marked hierarchies, paternalism, and weak empowerment affects the social organization; such culture contributes to tame conflict, avoiding the configuration of a collective actor, and reinforcing institutional dependencies.

Social mix, in general terms, denotes the social diversity of a certain geographic area, being this economic, racial, ethnic, cultural, etc. Social mix is an old and persistent ideal of planning (marked by normative pretensions), has been achieved through different means, has been proposed to reach a wide variety of goals, and has been used interchangeably to refer to concepts like 'integration', 'mixed-income communities', 'poverty deconcentration', 'balanced communities', etc. There has been abundant literature from the 1990s, to the extent that it is one of the most researched topics in urban studies. At present, the discussion on social mix revolves around five key concepts: contact hypothesis, social networks, social control, role models, and geographies of opportunity. In Chile, from 2006 there have been social mix policies, with the expectation that physical proximity between different social groups could facilitate integration. In this article we review the concept of social mix from a historical and comparative perspective, and then we study Chilean policies under the five mentioned concepts, showing the low efficacy that these projects have had in meeting the proposed goals.

This paper questions the effects experienced by traditional neighborhoods located in the peri-urban area of Greater Santiago as the result of their recognition as Traditional and Scenic Area –as laid out in the National Monuments Act [MINEDUC Act 17,288], which is intended to preserve the historical, aesthetic and architectural features of specific areas. This work specifically seeks to identify if these neighborhoods have undergone processes of deterioration or valuation. To this end different tools of information production are used in order to evaluate the condition of these areas from different perspectives. This research gathers opinions from heritage activists and local inhabitants and analyzes the results of survey of a representative sample of residents from the five typical areas under review. Lastly, it examines the evolution of property prices within and around these areas to identify a possible gentrification process.

Advances in urban development goals can be measured through indicator systems. The Chilean National Council for Urban Development (CNDU) has proposed a set of indicators to monitor the progress of Chilean cities towards the goals proposed by the National Urban Development Policy, incorporating issues associated to urban green spaces (UGS) in two areas of evaluation: access urban amenities, and urban environmental quality. This article aims to contribute to the analysis of the processes of information collection, data processing and construction of updated indicators of urban development in Chile by identifying the challenges posed by the implementation of a complex system of urban development monitoring. The study focuses on identifying, analyzing and comparing the UGS cadastres of the AMS generated by public institutions, to assess whether they can feed evidence-based design processes for public policy, and the development of a monitoring system of the advances in urban development. Analysis is based on the UGS cadastres carried out in the Metropolitan Area of Santiago between 1992 and 2016 by identifying the responsible institutions, the sources of information and the data obtaining and validating methods. Results show that these cadastres are not comparable to each other, as they use different criteria for the UGS identification and classification, different data sources and collection methods. The fragmentation of decision-making regarding UGS generates inconsistent information, hindering the evaluation of public policy results. The effective implementation of the system of indicators proposed by the CNDU will require the generation of a solid, up-to-date and transparent information basis, prepared by relevant institutions, and validated by proper procedures.

This paper analyzes the processes of urbanization, organization and resistance taking place in urban areas developed through popular intervention in Asuncion, Paraguay. To this end, this study collected data from official institutions and conducted qualitative research through observation and in-depth interviews with 30 local community leaders. According to those surveyed, the popular urbanization process dates back to the colonial period, focusing on the riverside area of Asuncion, then expanded to other municipalities within the metropolitan region of the city. Local communities built these popular neighborhoods through the elaboration of organizational networks and solidarity initiatives. While mechanisms of occupation and resistance included street mobilization, community organizations still rely on institutional management to achieve better citizen participation.

The Andalusian Housing and Rehabilitation Plan, as a framework for the municipal housing and land plans, points towards the activation of housing and vacant land as one of the priorities of housing policy. Andalusian towns such as Bormujos or Bollullos de la Mitacion (Seville), with unfinished suburban projects, property developments and unfinished or empty housing, face the challenge of answering the demands of access to housing of citizens through the support of actions to use this vacant stock. To this end, the draft phase of plans for housing of both municipalities involves the development of a participatory process to ensure consensus between institutional and social actors and design lines of action on different situations of identified vacancies. The purpose of this paper is to extract key factors from this participatory process through the study of comparative cases and tools of Participatory-Action-Research. Based on the results obtained we define the main conclusions of this research to determine how a participatory process contributes to the design of activation strategies of empty housing and vacant land at municipal level.

The article analyzes the three housing complexes built by the Sugar Refinery Company of Viña del Mar (CRAV) in the city of Penco, in the Bío-Bío Region of Chile, which are today considered part of the architectural and historical heritage of that locality. Namely the CRAV Campus, Desiderio Guzmán and Villa Los Radales. The paper describes urban-architectural principles present in these groups, their programs, types of housing, surface and materiality. Additionally, the devices of social control deployed in order to discipline workers in their living spaces are also described. These three developments were part of a larger industrial area that defined the manufacturing character of the metropolitan area of the city of Conception, constituting a housing area adjacent to the production facilities of the CRAV-Penco. Furthermore, they provided workers with living standards associated with modernity, through access to quality housing and multiple urban facilities that fostered the creation of the so-called refining family. The CRAV Campus operated as a closed site subject to greater corporate control than the other two groups analyzed. Currently, these housing complexes constitute a recognizable industrial district in the town and is part of its tangible and intangible heritage.

This paper analyzes six vertical social housing developments built in Ciudad Juárez over three periods –1950s-1970s, 1980s and 1990s: FOVISSTE Burocrata (1956), FOVISSTE Sur (1975), FOVISSTE Chamizal (1980-1984), INFONAVIT Casas Grandes (1980s), INFONAVIT Eco2000 (1992-1993) and INFONAVIT Solidaridad (1990-1993.) This research conducts a physical-spatial analysis at two different scales: one, the urban-territorial dimension, which refers to the location of land suitable for urban densification within the urban sprawl, and; two, the urban-community dimension, which is associated with housing developments and the percentage of vacant dwellings. Geostatistical data are included to examine the extent to which these vertical developments favor habitability and sustainability both in location and design terms. This paper also offers a series of strategies intended to transform these dense developments into more balanced communities with the capacity to meet local needs. The final section provides conclusions on density criteria in favor of vertical housing and offers elements that may enable future developments to create inhabitable communities.

Different international studies have classified Bogota, Colombia, as one of the cities with the highest density in the world. However, in the interior, this density is nuanced by the differential characteristics of the housing built landscape. To understand and quantify this phenomenon, this study proposes as a methodology a classification of landscapes through a spatio-temporal projection analysis of morphology and density. To identify the types of landscapes spatial databases and GIS software were used, parametrizing and quantifying the morphological and demographic differences at the scale of the block. This resulted in the identification of thirteen types of landscapes that represent diverse qualities of agglomeration regarding the patterns and morphological continuities, or ruptures, at each normative moment of urban design and planning in the history of the city. These results indicate how city high densities are related to the prevalence of informal urbanism and the introduction of a growth perimeter since 1980. In addition, the unbalanced distribution of densities and large inequalities in housing space per capita across the city was observed.

The objective of this paper is to identify areas of high social vulnerability in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, in 2010. The methodology consists in the elaboration of an index of social vulnerability through the use of principle characteristics, exploratory analysis of spatial data and the creation of a spatial regression model. Variables were developed based on information from the XIII general population and housing census conducted in 2010 and subdivided according to geostatistical areas (AGEB). The results show the presence of highly vulnerable social groups (high-high) around the central and northwest areas of the city, with sociodemographic variables acting as the main drivers for vulnerability. These findings may serve as a powerful tool for the generation of public policies as it identifies highly vulnerable areas, thus enabling the proper implementation of social programs.