Abstract, Civic Organizations and Internet Social Networks: A Case Study in the Province of Buenos Aires

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Civic Organizations and Internet Social Networks: A Case Study in the Province of Buenos Aires
by Ana Cecilia Silva

A neighborhood assembly in a medium-sized city in the province of Buenos Aires formed in connection with a petition for designation as a historical protection area uses the Internet to generate visibility spaces alternative to those of the traditional media and install its own agenda, to include in those new spaces the voices and perspectives of new social actors, and to organize and improve its own participatory management. Its use of Facebook has acquired some of the features of “community media.” At the same time, its use of the Internet for internal communication and coordination is clearly accessory to face-to-face interaction. There is a generational difference in access to and decision making about the content to be posted in the various media, and spokespersons have become authorized voices. Appealing to both the traditional and the new media is a crucial aspect of the assembly’s positioning strategy, but the strategy is in constant revision.

Abstract, Environmental Protection, Work, and Social Inclusion: Formalizing the Recycling of Urban Solid Waste in Buenos Aires

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Environmental Protection, Work, and Social Inclusion: Formalizing the Recycling of Urban Solid Waste in Buenos Aires
by Johanna Maldovan Bonelli


The changes in the paradigms regarding urban solid waste management that have occurred in the past few decades have led to a reformulation of Argentine social, labor, and environmental policies. In the case of the city of Buenos Aires, the presence of thousands of “informal” recyclers dedicated to the recovery of recyclable materials for their subsistence has given a particular imprint to the design of these policies, the focus of which has been the social inclusion of these workers through the creation of cooperatives. An examination of the assumptions underlying the use of the concept of informality in the development of cooperatives for recycling from 2007 to 2013 shows that they are part of a complex process in which measures for increasing rights and protections are associated with various forms of labor instability.

Abstract, Environmental Protection, Work, and Social Inclusion: Formalizing the Recycling of Urban Solid Waste in Buenos Aires

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Environmental Protection, Work, and Social Inclusion: Formalizing the Recycling of Urban Solid Waste in Buenos Aires
by Johanna Maldovan Bonelli


The changes in the paradigms regarding urban solid waste management that have occurred in the past few decades have led to a reformulation of Argentine social, labor, and environmental policies. In the case of the city of Buenos Aires, the presence of thousands of “informal” recyclers dedicated to the recovery of recyclable materials for their subsistence has given a particular imprint to the design of these policies, the focus of which has been the social inclusion of these workers through the creation of cooperatives. An examination of the assumptions underlying the use of the concept of informality in the development of cooperatives for recycling from 2007 to 2013 shows that they are part of a complex process in which measures for increasing rights and protections are associated with various forms of labor instability.

Abstract, The Transition to Entrepreneurial Governance in a Middle-Sized Ecuadorian City

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The Transition to Entrepreneurial Governance in a Middle-Sized Ecuadorian City
by José Prada-Trigo


A key issue in territorial studies in recent years has been the transition in urban governance from managerialism to entrepreneurialism. North American and European cities were pioneers in this transition, and Latin American metropolises adapted their postulates to a different reality. Middle-sized cities in the region seem to have copied the intervention models of the nearest metropolis, uncritically applying them to a context characterized by important urban and social deficiencies and low standards of urban governance. The result has been a transition from no management to urban entrepreneurialism. In the case of one middle-sized city, this model has generated “islands of investment” attractive to foreign capital without resolving such long-standing problems as poverty, inequality, underemployment, and scarcity.

Abstract, The Transition to Entrepreneurial Governance in a Middle-Sized Ecuadorian City

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The Transition to Entrepreneurial Governance in a Middle-Sized Ecuadorian City
by José Prada-Trigo


A key issue in territorial studies in recent years has been the transition in urban governance from managerialism to entrepreneurialism. North American and European cities were pioneers in this transition, and Latin American metropolises adapted their postulates to a different reality. Middle-sized cities in the region seem to have copied the intervention models of the nearest metropolis, uncritically applying them to a context characterized by important urban and social deficiencies and low standards of urban governance. The result has been a transition from no management to urban entrepreneurialism. In the case of one middle-sized city, this model has generated “islands of investment” attractive to foreign capital without resolving such long-standing problems as poverty, inequality, underemployment, and scarcity.

Abstract, The Occupation of the Parque Indoamericano in Buenos Aires: Discourse Dynamics and Stakeholder Practices

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The Occupation of the Parque Indoamericano in Buenos Aires: Discourse Dynamics and Stakeholder Practices
by Corinna Hölzl                                         


In 2010, some 13,000 people occupied the second-largest park in Buenos Aires, located in the most deprived area of the city. The city and state governments reacted with violent repression leading to three deaths. After government officials promised that a housing program would be provided, the problem was viewed as “solved.” However, four years later not a single home had been built. Interpretive frames and political practices in Buenos Aires were influenced by the conflict, and this ultimately strengthened the positions of the national and local governments. This, in turn, intensified structural discrimination against lower-income groups in Buenos Aires. Thus, far from bringing about sustainable housing solutions, the occupation reinforced policies of security and sanction.

Abstract, Struggles against Territorial Disqualification: Mobilization for Dignified Housing and Defense of Heritage in Santiago

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Struggles against Territorial Disqualification: Mobilization for Dignified Housing and Defense of Heritage in Santiago
by Nicolás Angelcos and María Luisa Méndez                                              


A critical analysis of two conflicts associated with the displacement resulting from gentrification in Santiago, Chile, reveals that this displacement affects both the urban poor and the middle classes and that the common adversary is the real estate sector. The subjective experience of the groups involved can be understood in terms of the concept of territorial disqualification, a threat both to their positions in the social structure and to the recognition of the identities, personal and collective, that have been constructed about particular neighborhoods. The subject defended in struggles against territorial disqualification is the community. While class positions, specific demands, and territorial claims differ significantly, the structural framework in which neoliberal urbanism develops makes possible a confluence of class organizations that are susceptible to generating interclass strategies of opposition.

Abstract, “A New Poblador Is Being Born”: Housing Struggles in a Gentrified Area of Santiago

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“A New Poblador Is Being Born”: Housing Struggles in a Gentrified Area of Santiago
by Miguel Pérez                                                     


Since the early 1990s, Chilean democratic governments after Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship have made an effort to allocate publicly subsidized housing to the lower classes. Nevertheless, the dominance of market principles in urban policies has contributed to the formation of highly segregated neighborhoods and the gentrification of peripheral neighborhoods. As a result, Chilean public opinion is witnessing the rearticulation of what in the mid-twentieth century was known as the pobladores movement—social mobilizations demanding housing solutions for the poor. In the old working-class municipality of Peñalolén, severe gentrification since the late 1980s has triggered the appearance of autonomous grassroots organizations such as the Movimiento de Pobladores en Lucha (MPL). The movement has been able to fight social and spatial injustice in Santiago through a subversive appropriation of state policies. Its experience reveals the potentialities of such mobilizations for democratizing cities under a neoliberal regime.

Book Review, Revisiting the Politics of Planning and Action in Latino Urban America

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Revisiting the Politics of Planning and Action in Latino Urban America

by Erualdo R. González                


In Latino Urbanism: The Politics of Planning, Policy, and Redevelopment, editors David R. Diaz and Rodolfo D. Torres offer a range of scholarship examining the way socioeconomic and political change and urban policy interventions influence the nature and functioning of cities with large Latino populations. They argue that the volume blends traditional critical urbanism perspectives with varied theoretical perspectives on political and policy interventions. The volume has three themes: (1) the limits of popular community development models in neighborhood and commercial spaces, (2) urban living experiences and the role of market-driven and racialized public policy, and (3) community organizations and change. Scholars with varied disciplinary backgrounds provide a mix of contemporary and historical case studies and essays.

Abstract, Criminals in Our Midst: Middle-Class Reactions to Representations of the “Ordinary” in a Buenos Aires Shantytown

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Criminals in Our Midst: Middle-Class Reactions to Representations of the “Ordinary” in a Buenos Aires Shantytown
by Jacob Lederman                                      


Building upon the concept of moral indignation, an analysis of the social reaction to a Buenos Aires shantytown shows how discourses that emphasize the criminality of its inhabitants are mobilized to explain the economic and ontological instability experienced by the local middle class. The media’s use of rhetorical frames that highlight the lack of boundaries between the middle-class readership and the residents of the shantytown produces indignation directed against the urban poor. The newspaper’s readership reconstructs social difference through discourses that frame the shantytown’s inhabitants as predatory, undeserving, and dangerous.

Abstract, The Occupation of the Parque Indoamericano in Buenos Aires: Discourse Dynamics and Stakeholder Practices

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The Occupation of the Parque Indoamericano in Buenos Aires: Discourse Dynamics and Stakeholder Practices
by Corinna Hölzl                                         


In 2010, some 13,000 people occupied the second-largest park in Buenos Aires, located in the most deprived area of the city. The city and state governments reacted with violent repression leading to three deaths. After government officials promised that a housing program would be provided, the problem was viewed as “solved.” However, four years later not a single home had been built. Interpretive frames and political practices in Buenos Aires were influenced by the conflict, and this ultimately strengthened the positions of the national and local governments. This, in turn, intensified structural discrimination against lower-income groups in Buenos Aires. Thus, far from bringing about sustainable housing solutions, the occupation reinforced policies of security and sanction.

Abstract, Struggles against Territorial Disqualification: Mobilization for Dignified Housing and Defense of Heritage in Santiago

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Struggles against Territorial Disqualification: Mobilization for Dignified Housing and Defense of Heritage in Santiago
by Nicolás Angelcos and María Luisa Méndez                                              


A critical analysis of two conflicts associated with the displacement resulting from gentrification in Santiago, Chile, reveals that this displacement affects both the urban poor and the middle classes and that the common adversary is the real estate sector. The subjective experience of the groups involved can be understood in terms of the concept of territorial disqualification, a threat both to their positions in the social structure and to the recognition of the identities, personal and collective, that have been constructed about particular neighborhoods. The subject defended in struggles against territorial disqualification is the community. While class positions, specific demands, and territorial claims differ significantly, the structural framework in which neoliberal urbanism develops makes possible a confluence of class organizations that are susceptible to generating interclass strategies of opposition.

Abstract, “A New Poblador Is Being Born”: Housing Struggles in a Gentrified Area of Santiago

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“A New Poblador Is Being Born”: Housing Struggles in a Gentrified Area of Santiago
by Miguel Pérez                                                     


Since the early 1990s, Chilean democratic governments after Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship have made an effort to allocate publicly subsidized housing to the lower classes. Nevertheless, the dominance of market principles in urban policies has contributed to the formation of highly segregated neighborhoods and the gentrification of peripheral neighborhoods. As a result, Chilean public opinion is witnessing the rearticulation of what in the mid-twentieth century was known as the pobladores movement—social mobilizations demanding housing solutions for the poor. In the old working-class municipality of Peñalolén, severe gentrification since the late 1980s has triggered the appearance of autonomous grassroots organizations such as the Movimiento de Pobladores en Lucha (MPL). The movement has been able to fight social and spatial injustice in Santiago through a subversive appropriation of state policies. Its experience reveals the potentialities of such mobilizations for democratizing cities under a neoliberal regime.

Abstract, Urban Policy, Social Movements, and the Right to the City in Brazil

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Urban Policy, Social Movements, and the Right to the City in Brazil
by Abigail Friendly


Brazilian urban social movements have played a key role in bringing about change in urban policy since the 1980s and in light of the widespread protests across the country in June 2013. This insurgency and the urban reform movement of the 1980s and 1990s exemplify waves of mobilization and demobilization, signaling positive change at the level of praxis. More recent events have highlighted challenges for Brazil’s political left.