Políticas hacia villas y casas tomadas de la ciudad de Buenos Aires: Tensiones entre la inclusión y la exclusión

Abstract

This paper addresses the distinctive characteristics of policies focused on illegally occupied villages and dwellings in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, over the 1950-2002 period. It also analyzes the implementation of a certain set of housing initiatives in successive authoritarian and democratic eras, which ranged from establishment/eradication and inclusion/exclusion. The objective of this research is to provide further insights into the 100-year-old history of policies oriented towards popular sectors who live in illegally occupied villages and dwellings in Buenos Aires and whose prevalent hallmarks are vagrancy, partiality and violence. This study argues that housing policies are constantly displacing vulnerable social groups according to the premise that the “natural” place of residence of these groups can be found outside the capital city.