Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Construction of place: social and institutional drivers of informal settlements’ public realm in Caracas

2023; Taylor & Francis; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17549175.2023.2262437

1754-9175

Gabriela Quintana Vigiola,

Place Attachment and Urban Studies

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the [construction of the] public realm in informal settlements in Caracas, Venezuela and the social and institutional drivers underpinning its development. Public spaces in informal settlements are usually conceived and constructed by residents, sometimes with the help and support of diverse institutions. These places created by people can be considered public realm from their genesis, as the community have built and experienced them since their staFrt. A qualitative study with a case study design informs this paper. In-depth interviews, mapping and a photographic survey were carried out. The focus on the physical space, religious activities and psychosocial meanings in an informal settlement in Caracas led to understanding the constituents of the public realm and their drivers. The community’s solidarity and collaboration and their religiosity shaped the construction of the public realm. Simultaneously, governmental and ecclesiastic institutions played a fundamental role in its development. The paper adds to the knowledge about the creation of the public realm in informal settlements by discussing residents’ stories related to this process. The public realm in informal settlements is created through resident-driven approaches founded on social aspects and influenced by institutional factors that go beyond the design and construction of the physical space.KEYWORDS: Public realm in informal settlementsinstitutionsplacebarriosbottom-up approachesculture, Catholicism and religiosity Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. For example, see the case of Xapala in Mexico (Lombard Citation2014), or Caracoli in Colombia (Calderon and Hernández-García Citation2019b)2. Rancho is the initial shack built out of leftover materials. Ranchito is a small rancho.3. The Metropolitan Clinic is an important private clinic located in the same municipality.4. Faith and Joy - an international non-profit organisation linked to the Jesuits (Catholic Church), focused on education and development.5. Word game with the shortened word of “indocumentado” (undocumented), and hindú that is the Spanish word for Hindu.6. Idem.7. In Venezuela there are two major political forces. The chavistas comprise Chavez’s followers and political associates; they are also commonly referred to as the government because they have been in federal power since 1999. The maduristas are embedded into that same group as they refer to those who support Maduro, Chavez’ successor who follows the chavista ideology. The second group is called the opposition, which regardless of whether they were in government or not, they are referred to that way, because they opposed the chavistas.8. The topic of criminal violence shaping the meanings and use of the barrio urban space are developed in Quintana Vigiola (Citation2020).