Christien Klaufus

Watching the city grow: remittances and sprawl in intermediate Central American cities

The largest share of Latin American population lives in cities with less than half a million inhabitants. Since the publication of the Brundtland Report in the 1980s, small and intermediate cities have been regarded as places that hold out a promise for sustainable urban development. This paper explores current urbanization trends in intermediate cities in Central America. It describes the construction boom of gated communities for the middle class, in majority people with access to migrant remittances. It is argued that sustainable urbanization is challenged by the privatization of urban planning. The lack of strong governmental coordination of the housing market along with urban growth puts pressure on natural resources and on the livability of cities that used to be characterized by their human scale and rich natural environment. It is suggested that the market of existing housing should be made more attractive in order to control urban growth and prevent an oversupply of new expensive middle-class homes in the periphery, paralleled by a large number of abandoned existing houses in the urban core.

Dwelling as representation: Values of architecture in an Ecuadorian squatter settlement

This article presents the results of a case study about values of house-building and dwelling in a squatter settlement in Riobamba, Ecuador. The objective is to understand the influence of cultural dynamics on the change in dwelling preferences in a specific context. The case study focuses on how the inhabitants express their socio-cultural identity as individuals and as a group in modern, vernacular, self-built houses. The process of identification, communication, and stratification through architecture and interior decorating is analyzed by looking at diverse aspects of dwelling. Specifically, the following aspects are examined: the characteristics of the housing construction as observed by the researcher; the values and significance that the residents themselves attach to various parts of their dwellings; and the manner in which the residents evaluate each others dwellings, including the indicators they use and the stratification they apply. In a country where the government is concerned only with reducing the quantitative housing shortage, anthropological research on changing dwelling preferences could contribute to a more adequate policy on the quality and values of dwelling.

Globalization in Residential Architecture in Cuenca, Ecuador: Social and Cultural Diversification of Architects and Their Clients

Over the last century, the city and rural surroundings in the canton Cuenca in Ecuador have been physically constructed in a social setting where an elite group of architects, policymakers, and wealthy citizens have made decisions on architecture, urban design, and land use. They introduced international avant-garde influences in urban residential architecture and considered vernacular architecture appropriate in the countryside. However, massive transnational migration of lower-class and middle-class residents and subsequent architectural opulence have transformed both the city and rural villages in the canton, and have affected the elites monopoly over the production of the built environment. Many established architects criticize the new ostentatious architecture from a professional and ethical point of view, but on the other hand younger architects see new professional opportunities. Whereas the professional debate focuses on opulent architecture in rural areas and on the preservation of the historical inner city, there is no public debate on the changing cityscape, because it is regarded as an issue too sensitive to discuss openly. In this paper I analyze the professional debate and describe how new sociocultural differentiations in Cuenca change the professional stance as well as the social status of architects.

Deathscape politics in Colombian metropolises: Conservation, grave recycling and the position of the bereaved

Colombian metropolises face a rapid transformation of public and private death spaces because of land scarcity, a demographic transition and a changing market for dead-disposal services. Based on case studies conducted in Bogotá and Medellín, within a Latin American context, this paper analyses the interplay between local governments and enterprises in the deathscape transformation process. The aim is to assess the effects on cemetery users, particularly the bereaved. Analytically, the paper differentiates between publicly and privately governed cemeteries and between older, inner-city graveyards and newer, suburban park cemeteries. The paper sustains that the old dichotomy of elite versus pauper cemeteries is replaced by a contrast between monumental cemeteries that are used for cultural events and suburban cemeteries that function as efficient repositories. In both cases, efficient management of the physical structures, whether as heritage or as recyclable repositories, seems to prevail over the demand for sensory connections between the dead and the living. ‘Time’ might still distinguish those illustrious dead – who are not allowed to be removed – from those who are removed or recycled. Even their relatives are gradually relegated to ephemeral space as tourist events take over. Hence, regardless of the differences between public and private cemeteries and between inner-city and suburban typologies, the rationalisation process affects the bereaved. They become bystanders in the new temporal-spatial patterns that govern Colombian metropolitan deathscapes.

Informal housing: Latin America

The Latin American countries constitute one of the world’s most urbanised regions. Over the past two decades, the absolute figures for poverty and extreme poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean substantiate the thesis that poverty has become a principally urban phenomenon. Approximately a quarter of the urban population in the region lives in informal housing, with a total slum population of 117 million people in 2008. This article addresses the complexity of the analytical formal–informal divide and gives an overview of policy debates and institutional approaches.

Land in urban debates: Unpacking the grab–development dichotomy:

On the heels of the rural ‘land grab’ debate, the ongoing urban transition combined with large-scale urban infrastructure investments and land scarcity forces us to also pay more attention to issues of land in urban discussions. Yet how can we conceptualise land-related problems in order to connect and integrate rural and urban debates in overarching discussions of development? In this commentary, we argue for moving beyond the directly visible outcomes and presumed ‘culprits’ of land investments by critically analysing indirect and long-term effects of land acquisitions on people’s livelihoods as well as the differentiation of these effects for different actors. We propose three specific arguments to disentangle the grab–development dichotomy: 1) placing a focus on the sequential chain of effects of displacement; 2) paying more attention to the ambivalent roles and contradictory interests of different actors; and 3) taking the three-dimensional aspects of land development into account.

Colombian deathscapes: Social practices and policy responses

ABSTRACT This article analyzes social practices in Colombian deathscapes in light of cemetery modernization plans, based on fieldwork in Bogotá and Medellín. Using a performative approach it analyzes the antagonistic aspects of 2 sets of events articulating social inequality and violence: sanctification rituals and conflict-prone funerals. The case studies suggest that social practices enacted in sanctification rituals and “hot services” are simultaneously constructive and destructive; they mediate vulnerable populations’ urban realities while limiting the public character of cemeteries. I conclude that deathscape studies should pay equal attention to positive and negative sentiments in place-making. Additionally, I conclude that the current Colombian policy paradigm, which centers on attractive and ordered public cemeteries, fails to acknowledge the relevance of existing social practices. Evaluation of performances at cemeteries could contribute to the construction of more socially inclusive public spaces. Such planning considerations are relevant for unequal societies and public deathscapes more generally.