The City of Fury: Affordable housing in uncertain and informal Buenos Aires

Abstract

The thesis submitted by Marcin Sliwa is an ethnographic study of the relationship between uncertainty and informality as they are expressed in urban planning. Based on physical and digital fieldworks in informal settlements and shantytowns in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sliwa identifies different dimensions of uncertainty and analyses how they are experienced. His analysis focuses on how uncertainty impacts on housing access and affordability for marginalised communities, and discusses the implications for urban planning. In this study, uncertainties related to insecure tenure, economic instability and political decision-making are experienced as most pressing for local communities. Sliwa shows how bottom-up planning initiatives led by community leaders and activists are often motivated by the fact that engagement with or imitation of formal planning regulations and codes increase the perceived tenure security in these settlements. If and when security from eviction is achieved, however, or when households who occupy these lands do not aspire to stay there in the long-term, planning efforts might be ignored or even rejected. In such situations they may refocus their priorities on livelihood strategies and savings. The thesis also documents the role of community leaders as political actors and de facto planners, who attempt to address tenure and economic insecurity in their areas of influence. Sliwa’s findings support the idea that, as the practice of urban planning is meant to respond to uncertainties and formalise informalities, it often does the opposite: magnifies the existing and creates new uncertainties and informalities. Informal practices develop when planners have little to no control over the planning process, lack sufficient resources or disagree over goals and means. Planners and policymakers can learn from informal planning processes, while planning cannot be a tool to address uncertainty and informality unless it engages with these phenomena in a manner that is meaningful to communities. Participation and community empowerment should be central in such planning efforts. The thesis concludes with policy recommendations to different levels of government in Argentina and Buenos Aires.