ABSTRACT

A recent report by the Latin American Development Bank (CAF, 2017) estimated that around 20–30% of the population in Latin America live in informal settlements, compared to a global average of around 10%. Thus, according to the authors of the report, urban growth in the context of informality represents a challenge as much as an opportunity for Latin America. Such concerns are not new. There is a long tradition of research on informal settlements in Latin America, since the phenomenon of rapid urbanization was first observed in the region in the 1950s (see e.g. Lewis, 1952; Mangin, 1967; Portes, 1972; Turner, 1972; Montaño, 1976; Lomnitz, 1977; Durand, 1983; Peattie, 1990; Azuela and Tomas, 1996; Hernández, Kellett, and Allen, 2010). From early responses of eviction and displacement, based on notions of a “culture of poverty” which blighted these apparently transient communities, to the ideas of “self-help” and the “myth of marginality,” ideas about such places have evolved in tandem with the physical and material evolution of cities.