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The City and its Relations: Context, Institutions and Actors in Urban Development Planning
(1+1=3) Social Land Readjustment: An Insurgent Practice to Reshape the City.
2. FRAMEWORK.
Through various concepts related to access to the city and the forces that shape it, spatial and
economic, it is intended to find ways to localize social housing in the heart of cities using the
Land Readjustment tool.
Urban Sprawl and Gentrification.
The growth of urban populations, along with more transport infrastructure, has expanded the
city geographically. The upper class has abandoned the centre to move to the outskirts of the
city, escaping the congestion and pollution. Some economic activities and related services also
are moving, like the middle class trying to be same as them (Hernandez, F., Kellet, P., Allen, L.,
2010, p. 94). The city has changed and still is changing.
On the other hand, social housing continues to grow inordinately in the periphery, consuming
more and more land. The process of deterioration and the abandonment of city centres leave
large quantities of underutilised urban assets, including infrastructure, roads, public spaces,
and public and private buildings (Ibid, p. 95).
There are central governments attempt to reverse these dynamics regenerating the centres of
the cities. Most of the time this involves the gentrification of these areas, meaning changing of
the actual residents, without the ability to pay, with emerging classes who choose to be in the
centre due to connectivity and the existing services, and distance to jobs.
The right to the city
The creation of new urban geographies under capitalism inevitably means displacement and
dispossession (Harvey, 2012, p.39).1
Then the right to the city is the ability to choose where to live, is the freedom to access the
benefits of the city such as: quality services, public spaces, good infrastructure, to have clean
air, bike paths, work close to home, etc. In short, the possibility of being part of a system that
allows you to develop and transcend individually and collectively. This is the "Freedom to make
and remake ourselves and our cities (Harvey 2013, p.20).2
In terms of housing this means the possibility of a decent roof live in, but also a suitable
environment to develop, but the model has a method to solve in their own way, the problem
of housing, that is, of solve it in a way of perpetuate it, and that is called Haussmannizacion
(Engels 1935; Harvey, 2013, p.38).3
There is an "intimate connection between the development of capitalism and urbanization."4
(Harvey 2013, p.22) which makes the right to the city even more a utopia that a right, or could
be the right for a few, the privileged: The minority.
3. LAND READJUSTMENT.
Traditional urban renewal methods may be insufficient to promote redevelopment in inner
city areas (Turk & Altes, 2010, p.326). Through these four points of the framework to re look
at the processes related to Land Readjustment so attempting to use this urban operation in a
more radical way is intended.
Land Readjustment is a tool for the coordinated implementation of Land Assembly in which
the landownership within an area is distributed to original landowners, with public
infrastructure cost borne collectively by the increase on development value, on pro-rata basis
(Adams et al.,2001; Turk, S. & Altes, W., 2010, p. 327).
Marc Auge writes about non places as a place without identity, with no history and without relations.
The over modernity as a producer of those places. (TBA)
The Land Radjustment is widely used in the cities in real estate projects, public infrastructure,
including social projects in these cases, but it is not being used to break logical of property or
stimulate collective action by, for example, to improve the location of social projects.
There would have to be a differentiation between Land Readjustment of different scales and
involving different actors, bringing with them different principles.
Public projects: These generally tend to be of a larger scale requiring a major role of the state.
The most commonly used tool is the expropriation and the gain is not always the center of the
operation.
Public-Private projects: This mixed system has gained ground due to the withdrawal of the
state in urban planning of cities. The public sector has become more interested in enabling
development rather than in providing development directly, and in stimulating development
rather than in regulating development (Healey. 1997; Korthals Altes, 2002; Adams et al., 2001;
Turk, S. & Altes, W., 2010, p. 328). Therefore, the profitability of the project here plays a more
important role, reducing the possibility of locating social projects in the center.
Private projects: Here the market dominates the transactions, so the level of profitability of
the project is essential. The cost of land in the inner areas does not seem to accommodate
social housing projects, if feasible for other economic sectors, such as is often seen in
gentrification processes that have been carried forward in the regeneration of urban centres.
Owner projects: This alternative has potential however it does not have good levels of success
due to the complexity of the processes associated and the degree of organization required
between landowners. There is a positive experience when there is active collaboration of
public and private actors.
The big issue is the cost of the projects even though the participation of original landowners
in the Project is common, consequent elimination of land acquisition cost, and also sharing the
cost and benefits by the project participant, (Turk & Altes, 2010, p.328). It is a good
alternative to relocate family of the owners, but it has a low impact in terms of quantity of
people.
There has been limited success in using it to produce sustainable pro poor and inclusive
outcomes, particularly in developing countries. (UN-HABITAT, 2013, p.2) So we see that the
possibility of the existence of social areas in the inner city without a strong state intervention
and a significant degree of community organization is unworkable because:
How Insurgent?
A new look at the Land Readjustment is being proposed by UN-Habitat proposing PILar, a
Participatory and Inclusive Land Readjustment as an effective method of urbanization, re
urbanization and slum upgrading based on the fair redistribution of land value changes among
land holders (UN-Habitat6, 2013, p.3).
The key points in PILar are:
This idea is a good starting point to go further, because this tool does not leave the limits
established in the sense of breaking the logic of production of the city such as centre and
periphery or promote rights or urban guarantees wider. Before turning into the proposals we
will review two cases of Land Readjustment in Chile that can shed some light on what could be
the emphasis to move beyond Land Readjustment.
4. TWO EXAMPLES
A. Social Project in the centre of Talca, Chile:
This project was promoted by a NGO and a university of the area, in the post-earthquake
context, the aim was to apply Land Readjustment in the plots in the downtown of Talca that
had been affected by the earthquake.
Work was done on the strategy to merge plots and generate new projects within the
framework of housing subsidies delivered by the Chilean State, giving the right incentives to
owners and to those who gave their land.
This low scale regeneration project was not successful mainly because the project did not
come from the community and the bureaucratic obstacles in the merger of the land.
http://www.gltn.net/index.php/resources/publications/publications-list/finish/3-gltn-documents/5-participatoryand-inclusive-land-re-adjustment-eng-2013
Was formed initially with an occupation of land. It is called like this because it is one league from the centre of
Santiago.
4. PROPOSALS.
The architect Jorge Aravena8 established the concept "the magnet and the bomb" to describe
the duality of the city, which attracts people on the one hand and on the other hand creates
ghettos and destroys the city. Using this metaphor Social Land Readjustment is proposed as an
insurgent tool, in the sense of a force that allows staying within the city and the bomb as a
method of organization in the sense of being able to generate pressure to stay (time bomb).
The Social Land Readjustment, as tool of urban acupuncture to regenerate the centres of the
cities, because it can respond effectively to three big problems: Urban Decay, Gentrification,
Lack of densification.
1 - Urban Decay land: with the right incentives and information management it can revitalize
decayed plots merging and creating new projects within them, including more uses and
residents. Organization is the key among neighbours.
2. The Social Land Readjustment allows the weakest to have chances to stay in their homes
when facing the gentrification processes. Associativity and creativity to find alternative plot
assembly, along with the use of state subsidies, increasing the chances to stay in the centre.
3 - The deterioration of the centre is uneven, so densification is not easy. This implies a variety
of actors and projects working together. If it is promoting policies that encourage such projects
it can strengthen the decayed urban fabric. A good example is what is happening in Brazil with
the ZEIS, Zones of Social Interest that reserve for social housing.
5. CONCLUSION.
Chile is the model of the Neoliberal model. All areas: health, housing, education, and work,
respond to market logic. According to an OECD9 study Chile is the 4th most unequal country in
the world and the most unequal in the OCDE outperforming Africa and Asia.
In relation to the city it is essential to shift the way that has been occurring. More integrated
cities without high concentrations of poverty, with vigorous recovery processes of historical
centres, social housing built in the different areas of the city, with levels of densification to
human scale, are the challenges for which we must work.
The Social Land Readjustment seeks to dismantle the neoliberal model from below, recovering
plots to reuse for the common good. The Social Land Readjusment stresses the model
releasing land that no longer responds to the market. The development of this tool is the small
scale expression of the breakdown of the model limits, proposing new forms of tenure.
The culture of the common good does not exist in Chile as it exists in other places like Japan,
so the Social Land Readjusment also stresses a logical functioning of society.
http://www.archdaily.com/270039/ad-interviews-alejandro-aravena-elemental-venice-biennale/
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development http://vozciudadanachile.cl/estamos-realmente-malsegun-ocde-chile-es-el-cuarto-pais-con-mas-inequidad-del-planeta/
However, the proposed new land management tool must be supported by a strong state with
the capacity of management and execution. The subsidiaries housing policies do not address
the underlying problems but rather perpetuate them. It is essential that the state goes beyond
and begins to promote rights rather than subsidies.
New approaches to regeneration processes are situations that generate gains to all
stakeholders. Enhance pictures by local governments; improve the inner workings of
institutions, open new business niches in the construction fieldAs in Chile the Social Land Readjustment model can be applied to other places with similar
characteristics, particularly in developing countries with the same problems such as countries
in Africa and Asia. In Africa, in particular, there are similarities between some countries like
South Africa that have used social policies, housing and human rights by reference.
Rethinking models governing the production of the current city it is more necessary than ever
if you want to break at some point, the cycle of inequality and social injustice involved urban.
6. REFERENCES.
Articles.
Amin, Ash, The Good City: Can we still see the city as a place for a hopeful politics? This article
is an edited version of The Good City, Urban Studies, 43, 5/6, 2006.
Clarke, J., 2008, Living with/in and without neo-liberalism, Focaal-European Journal of
Anthropology.
Gilbert, Alan and Crankshaw, Owen, 1999, Comparing South African and Latin American
Experience: Migration and Housing Mobility in Soweto, Urban Studies, Vol 36, N 13, 23752400.
Hong, Yu-Hung, Needham, Barrie, 2007 Analyzing Land Readjustment, Economics, Law and
Collective Action, Lincon Institute of Land Policy.
Mathur Shishir, 2013, Self-financing urbanization: Insight from the use of Town Planning
Schemes in Ahmadabad, India, Cities 31, 308-316.
Turk, S. & Altes, W., (2010), How suitable is LR for renewal if inner city areas? An analysis for
Turkey, Cities 27, 326-336.
Books.
Auge, M., 2000, Los no lugares, Gedisa, Barcelon. The non places
Harvey, David, 2013, Ciudades Rebeldes. Del derecho de la ciudad a la revolucin urbana, Akal.
Original title: Rebel cities. From the right to the city to the urban revolution, 2012.
Hernandez, F. Kellet, P. Allen, L. (2010) Rethinking the informal city. Critical perspectives from
Latin America, Berghahn Books.
Lefebvre Henri, 2003, The Urban Revolution, Minnesota.
Verb Crisis, 2008, Actar, N6 architecture boogazine.
Web Pages
UN-HABITAT 2013 http://www.gltn.net/index.php/resources/publications/publicationslist/finish/3-gltn-documents/5-participatory-and-inclusive-land-re-adjustment-eng-2013
Accesed 19.03.14
http://vozciudadanachile.cl/estamos-realmente-mal-segun-ocde-chile-es-el-cuarto-pais-conmas-inequidad-del-planeta/ Accesed 20.03.14
http://www.archdaily.com/270039/ad-interviews-alejandro-aravena-elemental-venicebiennale/ Accesed 20.03.14