La lucha por un lugar en Buenos Aires. Crisis de la vivienda y boom inmobiliario (1990 - 2010)

Abstract

In the framework of the Metraljeux program of study on four metropolises in Latin America, this work is based on the idea that in Buenos Aires, as in other cities in the region, governance models are the product of the political and institutional logics that characterized the trajectories of the metropolis as well as their insertion in globalization.

The proposed analysis, developed as a result of fieldwork in the cities of Mexico and Buenos Aires in the years 2008-2010, will allow to understand the modes of housing governance in Buenos Aires, paradoxical with respect to the other metropolises of Latin America.

In the first place, the new forms of precariousness and vulnerability of housing in the City of Buenos Aires in the 2000s are established, in a historical perspective. Then the focus is on the gap between the right to housing recognized by the Constitution of the Autonomous City (CABA) and the policies implemented to respond to the pressing housing demand, privileging the analysis of political and institutional logics. Finally, it shows how the concentration of social housing programs, most of them confined to the South of the city, deepens existing segregation processes, toughens the borders between different neighborhoods and exacerbates tensions.

In short, the article argues that the question of who takes ownership of space is key to making the dynamics and possibilities of metropolitan governance intelligible.