MSc Building and Urban Design in Development

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.

Lecturer: Collin Marx

Student: Sebastian Troncoso

Date: 21.03.14

Words: 2789

(1+1=3) SOCIAL LAND READJUSTMENT: AN INSURGENT PRACTICE TO RESHAPE THE CITY.

Can we still see the city as a place for a hopeful politics?

Amin, A.

1. INTRODUCTION.

Efforts to build a more equitable and inclusive city always seem to have as a limit what has

been established by the dominant neoliberal model. “Deregulation, privatization and

withdrawal of the state from many areas of social provision” (Clarke, 2008, p.137) have been

the unchanging script with which cities have been developing lately.

Current trends in terms of urban planning do not seem to try to put pressure on the model

when re thinking cities, but rather are positioned within the neoliberal logic precluding

substantial changes. Assumptions like "neoliberalism seems to be everywhere" (Peck & Tickell,

2002; Clarke, 2008), prevent even thinking of possible alternatives for the growth dynamics,

concentration of poverty and spatial segregation, which the cities have.

“By 2030 the urban population will be five billion, two billion will be poor, and a third of

whom will be living in marginal and informal settlements in areas barred from the

opportunities cities offer”(Verb Crisis, 2008, p.161). The problem becomes of unmanageable

dimensions assuming that the city continues to grow as before.

What to do?

Today, it is fundamental to look again at the processes of growth and land use of cities looking

for ways to intervene and modify spatial and social processes.

The right to the city and more specifically the right to centrality, that includes social housing,

emerge as a demand that must be approached from the various disciplines involved in the city

to reduce the spatial concentration of opportunities and break the relationship between

location and quality environment, being one of the determinants of the quality of life.

However, the reality in this sense is conclusive. Social housings in developing countries are not

able to be positioned in the centre of the city, due to the market logic that governs them. The

search for new tools that strain existing frameworks around social housing and allow the

generation of a new city are urgent.

It is of interest of this essay to explore the possibilities of Land Readjustment, as an insurgent

tool, in the sense of changing installed logics of property, the role of state, partnership, capital

gain, institutional frame, densification and gentrification in relation to the location of the social

housing within 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 government’s 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.

1 Translation by the author (TBA)

2 TBA

3 TBA

4 TBA

The centrality and the Periphery.

The city has had since its beginnings; subjects that have been included and excluded in its

conformation. Subjects with a possibility to choose and others condemned to remain outside.

It seems to be in the DNA of human settlements to gather and differentiate through spatial

distance. It is this concentration and dispersion which has shaped, over the centuries, the

unequal and unjust city.

The notion of centre and periphery conceptualize spatially the idea of existence and the

subsistence within the city. The centre exists as a place and the periphery as a non-place.5 In

the centre are the possibilities, services, and networks; outside the cheap labour that sustains

the living in the centre.

“The right to the city becomes the right to centrality, the right to not to be excluded from

urban form, if only with respect to the decisions and action of power” (Lefebvre 1996 p.194).

Omnipotent Neoliberalism.

If we cannot imagine the possibility of being outside of the model or attempt to dismantle it,

all actions, including those related to the city and inequality continue perpetuating it. Cities for

the rich and cities for poor.

“It therefore seems appropriate to study neoliberalism not as a ‘culture’ or a ‘structure’ but as

mobile calculative techniques of governing that can be decontextualized from their original

sources and re-contextualized in constellations of mutually constitutive and contingent

relations”. (Ong, 2006, p13; Clarke, 2008, p.138).

Stopping of assume the neoliberal model as an indomitable force that is everywhere is perhaps

a good way to begin. Trying to identify which places are not fully dominated or maybe there is

certain variant running is an important first step to thinking possible alternatives (Clarke, 2008,

138). With this it is not saying that the task is simple, only emphasizes the fact that it requires a

paradigm shift to produce a radical change.

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).

5 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:

• Requires a strong state intervention.

• Requires a good level of coordination of the land owners.

• Lack of updated information on the status of the properties and the possibility

of fusion.

• Lack of awareness population about the benefits of (LR).

• The "Land Holding" of owners seeking to maximize profit, making the

operation more expensive.

• Lack of resources and capacities within institutions to quickly resolve the

different stages of LR.

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:

• Encouragement of community ownership in urban redevelopment.

• Stakeholder direct participation.

• Effective engagement with land owners, civil society, academia and public and

private sector property developers and financial institutions.

• Encouragement of the inclusion of vulnerable groups, such as women, youths

and the poor.

• Strengthening appropriate governance, legislative and regulatory mechanisms

to better facilitate planning, participation and land value sharing.

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.

6 http://www.gltn.net/index.php/resources/publications/publications-list/finish/3-gltn-documents/5-participatory-

and-inclusive-land-re-adjustment-eng-2013

Fig 1: By the author

B. La Legua Emergencia Neighbourhood, San Joaquin district, Santiago, Chile

La Legua Emergencia (the Emergency League7) is the epicentre of drug trafficking in the capital.

It presents a spatial condition of closure, a blind passage, which encourages illegal activities.

Despite the daily violence it maintains good levels of organization.

After years of social pressure the State decided to radically intervene expropriating land

adjacent to the northern boundary (companies) in the neighbourhood, which is to be merged

to build roads, public spaces and social housing.

It is a high impact urban project, where the State takes the role of planner. The homes will be

paid through subsidies. It is currently running at the first stage.

Fig 2: By the author

7 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.

8 http://www.archdaily.com/270039/ad-interviews-alejandro-aravena-elemental-venice-biennale/ 9 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development http://vozciudadanachile.cl/estamos-realmente-mal-

segun-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 field-

As 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, Nº 13, 2375-

2400.

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 revolución 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, Nº6 architecture boogazine.

Web Pages

UN-HABITAT 2013 http://www.gltn.net/index.php/resources/publications/publications-

list/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-con-

mas-inequidad-del-planeta/ Accesed 20.03.14

http://www.archdaily.com/270039/ad-interviews-alejandro-aravena-elemental-venice-

biennale/ Accesed 20.03.14

Fig 1 By the author

Pictures in the Fig 1:

http://www.theclinic.cl/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/terremoto-reconstruccion.jpg

Accesed 20.03.14

http://www.agenciadenoticias.org/?p=14063 Accesed 20.03.14

http://www.ceut.cl/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Captura-de-pantalla-2013-06-07-a-las-

17.55.58.png Accesed 20.03.14

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralismo_en_Chile

Accesed 20.03.14

Fig 2 By the author

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralismo_en_Chile

Accesed 20.03.14