Annual RC21 Conference 2011

The struggle to belong. Dealing with diversity in 21st century urban settings
Amsterdam (The Netherlands), July 7-9 2011

Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research – Urban Studies
University of Amsterdam – The Netherlands

24. Housing and belonging in Latin American cities

Almost eighty per cent of the Latin American population lives in cities and metropolitan areas. The continent boasts some of the world’s most populous metropolises, but also rapidly growing secondary cities as well as newly founded urban areas. Contemporary urban life in Latin America cannot be studied without taking the influences of globalisation into account. Local manifestations of global development appear in terms of survival strategies such as massive transnational migration and remittance sending, but also in changing lifestyles and narratives of self, high levels of social inequality, and new forms of social cohesion. The everyday struggle to improve livelihoods and self-esteem, fight poverty or adapt to cosmopolitan lifestyles has engendered new meanings to urban life.

CEDLA’s research project ‘Managing everyday life in an urban context’ focuses on daily activities of urban dwellers in Latin American cities. It addresses inhabitants’ identifications with urban and global ways of life and their strategies to improve the standard of living. This CEDLA-hosted session invites papers that address the various aspects of dwelling, housing and feeling at home in urban settings in Latin America. It encourages contributions that elaborate on the cultural processes and meanings of social life in globalising Latin American cities as places of residence. Papers about new forms of social interaction and social cohesion in residential settings are equally welcomed.

Session organizers:

Christien Klaufus
Assistant professor of Human Geography
CEDLA Center for Latin American Research and Documentation
C.J.Klaufus@cedla.nl

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