Description
Book SynopsisOffers a collection of essays that challenges long-entrenched ideas about the history, nature, and significance of the informal neighborhoods that house the vast majority of Latin America's urban poor.
Trade Review“The present compilation is an indispensable work for scholars, students, and those who are generally interested in urban themes for Latin America and, most especially, in matters involving the development and consolidation of informal neighborhoods there. … One of the strengths of this work is to bring together historians, sociologists, and anthropologists, thus allowing for a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue. … It is worth mentioning the compilation’s excellent editing and production, which lend an organic quality to it that respects the diversity of ideas and theoretical options.” -- Rafael Soares Gonçalves * Hispanic American Historical Review *
"
Cities From Scratch is an extremely useful effort, both for the detailed case studies it contains and for the wealth of conceptual and analytic ideas that should provide fuel for much new work." -- Henry Dietz * Latin American Politics and Society *
"
Cities from Scratch provides a timely addition to our understanding of how urbanization and informalization processes play out over time in various Latin American cities." -- Janice Perlman * Planning Perspectives *
Table of ContentsIntroduction / Brodwyn Fischer 1
1. A Century in the Present Tense: Crisis,Politics, and the Intellectual History of Brazil's Informal Cities / Brodwyn Fischer 9
2. In and Out of the Margins: Urban Land Seizures and Homeownership in Santiago, Chile / Edward Murphy 68
3. Troubled Oasis: The Intertwining Histories of the Morro dos Cabritos and Bairro Peixoto / Bryan McCann 102
4.
Compadres,
Vecinos, and
Bróderes in the Barrio: Kinship, Politics, and Local Territorialization in Urban Nicaragua / Dennis Rodgers 127
5. The Informal City: An Enduring Slum or a Progressive Habitat? / Emilio Duhau 150
6. The Favelas of Rio de Janeiro / Ratão Diniz (with captions by Bryan McCann) 170
7. Informal Cities and Community-Based Organizing: The Case of the Teatro Alameda / Sujatha Fernandes 185
8. Threshold Markets: The Production of Real-Estate Value between the "Favela" and the "Pavement" / Mariana Cavalcanti 208
9. Toxic Wasting: Flammable Shantytown Revisited / Javier Auyero 238
Bibliography 263
Contributors 285
Index 287
