Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America / Edition 1

by Felipe Hern ndez, Peter Kellett, Lea Knudsen Allen

Overview

"...a worthwhile and timely contribution to the field of Latin American urban studies, which will help to fill the current gap in literature on the Latin American city...this book's major contribution is in its exploration of the social, spatial, cultural and aesthetic processes which constitute the informal city, which is (re)presented as fluid, dynamic, and most importantly, as part of the city. This aspect should ensure its interest to scholars of space and culture; as in rethinking the informal city, we are forced to re-evaluate our understandings of the city itself." - Space and Culture

Latin American cities have always been characterized by a strong tension between what is vaguely described as their formal and informal dimensions. However, the terms formal and informal refer not only to the physical aspect of cities but also to their entire socio-political fabric. Informal cities and settlements exceed the structures of order, control and homogeneity that one expects to find in a formal city; therefore the contributors to this volume - from such disciplines as architecture, urban planning, anthropology, urban design, cultural and urban studies and sociology - focus on alternative methods of analysis in order to study the phenomenon of urban informality. This book provides a thorough review of the work that is currently being carried out by scholars, practitioners and governmental institutions, in and outside Latin America, on the question of informal cities.

Felipe Hernández is an Architect and lecturer in architectural design, history and theory at the University of Cambridge. He has an MA in Architecture and Critical Theory and received his PhD from the University of Nottingham. He taught previously in the School of Architecture at the University of Liverpool, and has also taught at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), the Universities of Nottingham, East London and Nottingham Trent. Felipe Hernández has published extensively on contemporary Latin American cities, focusing on the multiplicity of architectural practices that operate simultaneously in the constant re-shaping of the continent's cities. He is the author of Beyond Modernist Masters: Contemporary Architecture in Latin America (Birkhäuser 2009) and Bhabha for Architects (Routledge 2009) and co-editor of Transculturation: Cities, Space and Architecture in Latin America (Rodopi 2005).

Peter Kellett is senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He is a qualified architect with an M.A. in Social Anthropology and has worked and researched in Latin America for many years. His Ph.D. is an ethnographic study of informal housing processes in northern Colombia, and his research continues to focus largely on housing, particularly on understanding how disadvantaged households create, use and value dwelling environments in cities in the developing world. He has lectured and published widely, and in addition to his work in Latin America he has worked on large comparative research projects in Asia and Africa, as well as in the U.K.

Lea Knudsen Allen completed her Ph.D. in the Department of English Literatures and Cultures at Brown University. She has worked extensively on issues to do with postcolonial discourse, transmigration and cultural representation. Her doctoral thesis, entitled 'Cosmopolite Subjectivities and the Mediterranean in Early Modern England', explored these topics in the context of early modern English drama, poetry and travel literature. She has published on exoticism and international trade in the work of Jonson and Marlowe. Additionally, Allen has an interest in representations of urban and social space, a topic on which she has also published. Currently Lea lives in the United Kingdom and teaches for the Universities of Maine (USA) and Liverpool (UK).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857456076
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	03/01/2012
Series:	Remapping Cultural History , #11
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Lea Knudsen Allen received her Ph.D. from the Department of English Literatures and Cultures at Brown University. She has worked extensively on issues to do with postcolonial discourse, transmigration and cultural representation. Her doctoral thesis, entitled "Cosmopolite Subjectivities and the Mediterranean in Early Modern England," explored these topics in the context of early modern English drama, poetry and travel literature. She has published on exoticism and international trade in the work of Jonson and Marlowe. Additionally, Dr. Allen has an interest in representations of urban and social space, a topic on which she has also published. Currently, she lives in the United Kingdom and teaches for the Universities of Maine (USA) and supervises students for Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgements

Foreword
Rahul Mehrotra

Chapter 1. Introduction: Reimagining the Informal in Latin America
Felipe Hernández and Peter Kellett

PART ONE: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES

Chapter 2. The Form of the Informal: Investigating Brazilian Self-Built Housing Solutions
Fernando Luiz Lara

Chapter 3. Informal Practices in the Formal City: Housing, Disagreement and Recognition in Downtown São Paulo
Zeuler R. Lima and Vera M. Pallamin

Chapter 4. The Formal Architecture of Brasilia: An Analysis of the Contemporary Urban Role of its Satellite Settlements
Annalisa Spencer

Chapter 5. The Evolution of Informal Settlements in Chile: Improving Housing Condition in Cities
Paola Jirón

Chapter 6. Housing for the Poor in the City Centre: A Review of the Chilean Experience and a Challenge for Incremental Design
Margarita Greene and Eduardo Rojas

PART TWO: CRITICAL PRACTICES

Chapter 7. Rules of Engagement: Caracas and the Informal City
Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner

Chapter 8. Integrated Informality in the Barrios of Havana
Ronaldo Ramirez

Chapter 9. Formal–Informal Connections in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro: The Favela-Bairro Programme
Roberto Segre

Chapter 10. Spatial Strategies and Urban Social Policy: Urbanism and Poverty Reduction in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro
Jorge Fiori and Zeca Brandão

Chapter 11. Urban and Social Articulation: Megacities, Exclusion and Urbanity
Jorge Mario Jáuregui

Chapter 12. Public-city in Manifesto: The Formal City In-formed by Public Interest
Claudio Vekstein

Notes on Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

"This anthology represents a huge effort due to the diversity of realities that exist within Latin America. Cities have different dynamics according to their characteristics such as population, economic resources and territory...Therefore, the effort made by the editors to collect a group of professionals and researchers interested in Latin American cities is remarkable and mark this book as an important contribution to the knowledge of informal urban spaces in Latin American cities." - Urban Studies Journal

"...a worthwhile and timely contribution to the field of Latin American urban studies, which will help to fill the current gap in literature on the Latin American city...this book's major contribution is in its exploration of the social, spatial, cultural and aesthetic processes which constitute the informal city, which is (re)presented as fluid, dynamic, and most importantly, as part of the city. This aspect should ensure its interest to scholars of space and culture; as in rethinking the informal city, we are forced to re-evaluate our understandings of the city itself." - Space and Culture

From the Publisher