Race, Space, and Urban Informality in Latin America

For this paper, please use the collection Cities from Scratch to consider what informal settlements can tell us about wealth and poverty in the Americas. The premise of this collection has been that local circumstances make each of the informal settlements discussed unique, while the prevalence of urban informality across the region indicates that such communities must also share a great deal in common.

For this paper, please compare these communities using one or more common themes of your choosing. For example:

Individual initiative
Government intervention
Community solidarity
Social revolution
Economic competition
Crime and violence

Make sure and discuss how your comparison relates to historical understandings of these communities through ideas about the culture of poverty, sites of resistance, and entrepreneurship.

Additionally, based on what we’ve learned, do you think it is appropriate to consider these communities as “marginal” to the societies they inhabit? Or do you think they form an integral part of such societies? Do you think the situation of informal communities in Latin America is fundamentally different than the situation of impoverished populations in the United States shown in The Pruitt-Igoe Myth?

Please use ONLY these reading: (I already attached the pdf)
Cities from scratch 1, Brodwyn Fischer, Brazil.
Cities from scratch 2, Edward Murphy, Chile.
Cities from scratch 3, Bryan McCann, Brazil.
Cities from scratch 4, Dennis Rodgers, Nicaragua.
Cities from scratch 5, Emilio Duhau, Mexico.
Cities from scratch 7, Sujatha Fernandes, Venezuela.
Cities from scratch 8, Mariana Cavalcanti, Brazil.
Cities from scratch 9, Javier Auyero, Argentina