Materiality of Precarious Housing and Its Relationship with Perception in Society: Case Study in Municipality of Pinal de Amoles

Abstract

This paper shows the importance of using interpretative, hermeneutic methods in research related to precarious housing, taking as a case study the municipality of Pinal de Amoles, Querétaro, Mexico. Firstly, the phenomenon is characterized through the use of natural semantic networks, where a degree of knowledge of society about the phenomenon is appreciated. Secondly, the perception of the population regarding the causes and those responsible for the problem is compiled to make sense of these independent variables deductively. Finally, through the theoretical analysis of precariousness and poverty measurement, it is revealed that the related studies approach the phenomenon from the perspective of materiality and not the person and his or her technical–cognitive capacities. In conclusion, there are gaps between the knowledge of the causes from which the conditions of precariousness originate and the perception of individuals to the conditions of habitability in precarious housing.