Environment and Urbanization

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Social movements and the production of housing in Buenos Aires; when policies
are effective
Mariano Scheinsohn and Cecilia Cabrera
Environment and Urbanization 2009; 21; 109
DOI: 10.1177/0956247809103007

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Mariano Scheinsohn is
a sociologist and urban
and regional planner.
He is a researcher at
the Higher Institute of
Urbanism and Environment
(ISU) of the School of
Architecture, Design and
Planning, University of
Buenos Aires, and also at
the Centre of Studies of
Population, Employment
and Development (CEPED)
of the School of Economics,
University of Buenos Aires.
He is Assistant Professor
in the Master’s programme
of Urban and Regional
Planning of the School of
Architecture, Design and
Planning, and also at the
School of Social Sciences,
University of Buenos Aires.
He has worked as a senior
consultant for Buenos Aires
City Hall.
Address: Paraguay 1327,
7º A (1057), Buenos
Aires, Argentina; e-mail:
marianoscheinsohn@yahoo.
com.ar
Cecilia Cabrera is an
architect and urban and
regional planner, and
is currently working on
her thesis for a Master’s
degree in Planning. She is
a researcher at the Higher
Institute of Urbanism and
Environment (ISU) of the
School of Architecture,
Design and Planning of
Buenos Aires University,
and is Assistant Professor
in the Master’s programme
of Urban and Regional
Planning of the School of
Architecture, Design and
Environment & Urbanization Copyright © 2009 International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
Vol 21(1): 109–125. DOI: 10.1177/0956247809103007
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Social movements and the production
of housing in Buenos Aires; when
policies are effective
MARIANO SCHEINSOHN AND CECILIA CABRERA
ABSTRACT This paper highlights some emerging issues that are critical to the
popular housing development carried out within the context of political movements
in Buenos Aires in recent years. We analyze the role of the political dimension – in
terms of participation in the public domain and of the relationship with power
structures – in generating efficient conditions for housing development. This
kind of undertaking, framed within a politically organized social movement, has
significant capacity for dialogue with the state. On the one hand this allows for
mediations that operate as control guarantees, but on the other it generates power
and public presence inequalities among active members. Another purpose of this
paper is to analyze the potential capacity of this kind of social movement to go
beyond the micro and sector levels in their activities, and generate economies of
scale in their participation in urban development.
KEYWORDS exit strategies / housing production / political action / social
movements / voice
I. INTRODUCTION
Until the end of the 1970s, social housing policy in Argentina – implemented
through the Fondo Nacional de Vivienda (FONAVI)(1) – was organized
with the state as provider, construction firms being responsible for all
construction work and lower-income communities merely the recipients.
Since the late 1980s, and throughout the 1990s in particular, under
policies financed by multilateral financial institutions, the state shifted
its role to one of mediation between the construction firms and a diverse
array of NGOs, professional associations and social organizations, whose
participation paved the way for a wider range of housing interventions
(such as infrastructure, urban upgrading, land tenure regularization).
Since the 1980s, popular housing production in Buenos Aires has
consisted mainly of self-construction processes (both spontaneous and
planned) and, to a lesser extent, the application of focused social policies,
usually financed by international organizations and the state. During
this period, especially in Buenos Aires, housing conditions of the most
vulnerable social sectors not only failed to improve but also deteriorated
within a context of generalized impoverishment(2) (Figure 1).
During the 1990s, NGOs, cooperatives and grassroots associations were
some of the principal leaders in the production of housing by non-state
actors, and their activities evolved in response to changing circumstances.
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Planning. She has worked

for the last 10 years as
a consultant in urban
planning for Buenos Aires
City Hall.

Address: Paraguay 1327,

7º A (1057), Buenos
Aires, Argentina; e-mail:
ceciliac1@yahoo.com

1. Argentina’s National Housing

Fund (Fondo Nacional de
Vivienda – FONAVI) was created
in 1972 as a revolving fund
for financing the large-scale
construction of new social
housing. Within a centralized
management structure, the
National Secretariat of Housing
and Urban Planning (Secretaría
de Vivienda y Urbanismo de la
Nación) set out the regulations
and defined programmes
and general criteria for the
selection of beneficiaries, while
implementation was delegated
FIGURE 1 to provincial agencies. For an
Population living in very low-income informal settlements account of the evolution of
FONAVI, see Cuenya, B (2005),
in Buenos Aires “Cambios, logros y conflictos
en la politica de vivienda en
SOURCE: Produced using data from the General Directorate of Statistics and
Argentina hacia fines del siglo
Censuses (Dirección General de Estadísticas y Censos), Buenos Aires City Hall. XX”, Boletín Ciudades para
un Futuro más Sostenible
No 29/30, Departamento de
Urbanística y de Ordenación
After the 2002 economic crisis, changes in the process of popular del Territorio Escuela Técnica
housing production began to be evident, framed within the context of Superior de Arquitectura de
overstretched public institutions, delegitimized political parties and the Madrid, http://habitat.aq.upm.
es/boletin/n29/abcue.html.
rise and consolidation of new social players.
Subsequent years saw the reinvigoration of the housing construction 2. According to data from the
2001 national census, 106,940
market, which became one of the key drivers of the economic revival.(3) As people lived in low-income
a result, the state – at both the national and the local levels – repositioned informal settlements, which
itself by making relevant changes not only to housing-related public was double the number
recorded in the previous
policies but also to the range of social actors involved in the social housing
census in 1991 (52,608 people)
sector.(4) and almost triple the number
As part of the process of restoring social consensus and institutional recorded in the census before
legitimacy following the economic crisis, the state started to open up that, in 1980.

channels of dialogue with certain social movements that had become 3. According to the 2001
important during the period of turmoil, namely picket movements national census, the total
number of dwellings in the
(piqueteros) and human rights organizations. city of Buenos Aires was
In the face of a growing social demand for housing as a result of the 1,350,154, an increase of
impoverishment of a large number of low-income people, and in the light 24.1 per cent since 1980. Even
though this increase, when
of the greater openness of government institutions to public participation, compared to the increase in
organized social movements developed a range of different projects to Greater Buenos Aires (36.9
produce housing, taking advantage of any available opportunities. Those per cent), is relatively small,
it is still, in itself, a significant
social and political movements that were directly involved in the pro- increase over a period of 21
duction of social housing, achieving an important public presence, years. See Vaccarezza, L (2007),
became significant and strong organizations. The experiences of two “La situación habitacional en
Argentina, año 2001 –
particular organizations, the Movimiento Territorial de Liberación (MTL) ciudad de Buenos Aires”,
picket movement and the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Association will be Undersecretariat for Urban
considered here as exemplars of this new trend. Development and Planning,

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 SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND HOUSING IN BUENOS AIRES

Ministry of Planning, Buenos A relevant point here is that at the local level, the scale of these housing
Aires, February.
projects has by no means been small. In the final years of social housing
4. Some studies refer to the production by local governments, the number of housing units produced
changes in the role of the
averaged no more than 290 per year (Figure 2). The social organizations’
state during this period as a
“re-centralizing” of housing- projects achieved more significant results:
related public policies. See
Rodríguez, M C, M M Di Virgilio • for the period 2006/2007, the MTL’s Monteagudo project alone con-
et al. (2007), “Producción social structed 326 units;
del hábitat y políticas en el área
• during 2007, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Association completed
metropolitana de Buenos Aires:
historia con desencuentros”, 48 units in Villa 15;
Documentos de Trabajo No 49, • in 2008, a further 24 units were under construction in Villa 15;
Instituto de Investigaciones
• in 2008, 105 units out of a planned 432 were nearly finished, as part
Gino Germani, Centro de
Documentación e Información, of the project in Barrio Los Piletones; and
Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, • in Villa 20, more than 1,300 housing units are planned for the
UBA, Buenos Aires. first phase of a project (2008–2010), with even more planned for
subsequent phases.
It is important to consider the implications of the evolution of these
social movements towards particular approaches in urban habitat pro-
duction. The political dimension of their actions becomes key to under-
standing their efficiency in promoting urban housing for the most
underprivileged sectors. However, these two experiences do not represent
a homogenous set of actions and practices. Although in both cases
activities were undertaken by organizations with a strong public presence
5. The Monteagudo project
(MTL) was funded through
but that had not previously dealt with housing, the two projects were
the self-managed housing also characterized by a number of differences, both in relation to their
fund of the Buenos Aires city sources of finance(5) as well as their reasons for intervention and political
government Housing Institute
(IVC). This programme was
engagement.
created as a result of Law The following section describes the actual experiences in housing
341/00 and its amendment production of the two organizations, and analyzes the processes that
(Law 964/02), which permit the
allocation of finance both to
individual recipients as well as
organized cooperatives. These
laws were passed following
pressure from a range of NGOs,
grassroots organizations and
cooperatives that had been
undertaking housing-related
projects during the 1990s. This
occurred within a wider context
whereby the local government
took on a greater presence
following the consolidation
of the IVC, with a supposedly
greater degree of autonomy
compared with its predecessor,
the Municipal Housing
Commission. In contrast, the
Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Association’s projects were
financed through the national
government’s Federal Housing
Construction Programme,
which is administered by FIGURE 2
the Undersecretariat of
Urban Planning and Housing Number of social housing units produced in Buenos Aires every
of the Federal Ministry of year by the Buenos Aires city government Housing Institute
Infrastructure and Planning (Instituto de la Vivienda – IVC), 1998–2006
and which allocates funding for
the implementation of housing SOURCE: Data from the Buenos Aires city government Housing Institute (IVC).
projects through the IVC.

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transformed the creation of popular housing production through their

political action.
This analysis makes use of Hirschman’s concepts of “exit” and
“voice”,(6) which prove useful to an understanding of the development of 6. Hirschman, A (1977),
these new popular housing production approaches. Exit, Voice and Loyalty:
Responses to Decline in Firms,
Organizations and States,
Harvard University Press,
II. THE STATE, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND HOUSING PROBLEMS Cambridge, Mass, 176 pages.

WITHIN THE CRISIS CONTEXT(7) 7. Scheinsohn, M et al. (2006),

“Constructing from within
In Argentina over the last 30 years, the combined effects of bureaucratic– a social movement: self-
management of large building
state terrorism (1976–82) and the subsequent adoption of neoliberal enterprises”, in M Balbo
economic adjustment policies brought about, among other significant (editor), Promoting Social
consequences, a deep delegitimization of the state and the political ap- Inclusion in Urban Areas:
Policies and Practice, Instituto
paratus as a whole, together with the disintegration of social bonds. Universitario di Architettura di
The gradual dismantling of pseudo-Keynesian policies and the blocking Venezia, N-Aerus Conference
of the “integrating” social pact associated with them generated an increase 2005, Venice, SIDA/ HDM–
University of Lund.
in demand for spaces of political and identity mediation and socialization
beyond formal channels. In this scenario, new political expressions, related
to the (predominant) social sectors that were most severely affected by
these combined policies and crises, emerged and eventually, over the
years, tended to expand and consolidate
A significant feature of these new modalities of social demand, which
began to appear at the beginning of the 1980s and became generalized
and consolidated between the mid- and late-1990s, is the “territorialized”
mode in which protests were expressed. These territorialized conflicts only
became predominant during the 1990s, as a result of the accelerated process
of economic reform – deregulation, privatization of public services and
state reform – and the subsequent generalized structural unemployment.
In this context, the piquete took on wide visibility within the reper-
toire of collective actions. This repertoire basically consists of the inter-
ruption of vehicular transit (or traffic in general) on the main roads and
communication arteries (streets, avenues, highways, bridges); it tends to
mobilize a significant number of people around “strategic” sites; and it has
become the main demand and protest instrument of the marginalized,
pariahs and impoverished, those excluded from the traditional state
mediation spaces.
Facing a state with all its institutions in crisis and a delegitimized
traditional political praxis, some of these organizations tended to re-
inforce and consolidate their self-managing capacities. When, starting
about 2003, the government began to put into practice a number of
cooptation mechanisms, social activists, in turn, were inserted by their
leaders into governmental public roles. This became a way of representing
the “urban poor” in the political realm, as labour positions and official
promotion policies were offered in exchange for the abandonment of the
8. This situation still goes
street struggle. on although these picket
These organizations, in creating a movement that began as a marginal, organizations have become
informal and delegitimized player, have taken on legitimacy and political weakened through a
process of fragmentation,
importance alongside the very process in which the state has lost its with a subsequent loss of
legitimacy.(8) The welfare programmes that emerged over this period to social legitimacy due to the
face the deepening of the social crisis turned out to be an effective means restoration of the traditional
political organizations and the
through which the state tried, on the one hand, to restore its legitimating legitimating capacities of the
capacity and on the other, to restrain the social movement that had state.

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9. The sources for this section
are from a work co-authored
by Scheinsohn, Mariano, Cecilia
Cabrera, Ernesto Pastrana
and Beatriz Rajland (2007),
“Un particular conjunto de
vivienda popular en Buenos
Aires. Análisis socio-urbano
del proyecto Monteagudo”,
Paper presented at the XXVI
Latin American Sociology
Association Congress (ALAS),
August 2007, Guadalajara,
Mexico.
10. It is important to remember
that as this project was
financed by the self-managed
housing programme of the
Buenos Aires city government,
the formal constitution of a
cooperative was required.
11. Buenos Aires city
government Housing Institute
(IVC).
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND HOUSING IN BUENOS AIRES
already brimmed over and was seriously threatening the survival of the
whole political structure (political parties, unions, etc.).
As a response to these welfare policies, the piquete organizations
tended to differ regarding their tactics and strategies for confronting the
state. Some of them, as described, became immersed in the public state
sphere, both as beneficiaries and as privileged mediators of social policies.
Other organizations turned to using state welfare resources as well as the
public acknowledgement generated by these state policies to produce
self-managing processes that sustained their political independence from
the state.
Within those organizations that adopt the latter political strategy,
the situation allows for the emergence of a profuse diversity of productive
microenterprises and the phenomenon of the “social economy” –
organizations and transactions including barter clubs, low-scale craftwork
production for informal markets, and so on.
Within this context, the MTL emerged in the city of Buenos Aires
through the struggle and resistance of low-income residents facing eviction
from buildings between 2000 and 2001; these were issues on which the
state either had no explicit policies or had policies that were inadequate
to the scale of the problem. Meanwhile, the MTL has tended to evolve as
a piquete organization, according to the previously described patterns.
The organization has adopted a double action tactic: producing
labour possibilities by means of promoting and organizing productive
enterprises, and demanding at least minimum aid programmes from state
institutions.
This characteristic two-fold approach, common to a sector of the picket
organizations, offers on the one hand a permanent dialogue with entities
within the state and on the other allows it to maintain a certain degree
of independence from traditional political institutions (governments,
political parties, unions, etc).
III. THE MTL AND THE MONTEAGUDO PROJECT(9)
In the context of the evolution of this experience, the MTL decided to
become involved in housing production, to which end it established a con-
struction cooperative (EMETELE). In the beginning, the cooperative was
considered by the MTL to be merely a bureaucratic requirement because
the heart of the endeavour was the movement’s political–administrative
structure itself.(10)
This situation did not evolve smoothly; as Carlos “Chile” Huerta
(a member of the MTL executive board) explained:
“… we were ready to begin when some people from the institute(11)
turned up with the proposal of a construction company to carry out
the work. We told them we were going to construct it on our own by
undertaking it as a business company. They answered we were totally
insane. […], that it would be impossible. They told us that we would
not be able to cover everything in the construction of 326 dwellings
and 10 retail stores overlooking the street. […] That was the moment
of greatest struggle and many pressures. And this is exactly what we
are now doing. This is our responsibility and we are showing them
that it is possible. And this way we know that in the purchase office
nothing goes ‘under the counter’…”
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E N V I R O N M E N T & U R B A N I Z AT I O N Vol 21 No 1 April 2009

To this end, the movement leaders had both the will and the express inten-
tion of creating an employment relationship, with members participating
in the work, based on the grounds that in most cases, members of
grassroots movements had no formal labour experience and therefore
this could become good training towards incorporating them into the
“work culture”, so as to finally allow them to become “working class”.
That is, it would be a way to reduce their “disaffiliation” levels.(12) For this 12. Castel, Robert (1993),
reason, the cooperative, formally, and the MTL, specifically, became the “Los desafiliados: precariedad
del trabajo y vulnerabilidad
employer of the construction workers (all of them movement members) relacional”, in Revista Topía
who worked at the site. Nowadays, there are 700 workers. No 3, pages 28–35.
Another peculiar characteristic of this project is its large scale. It
covers 18,000 square metres – almost two hectares – and the construction
of 326 apartments in two- and three-storey buildings takes place inside a
zone with compact and consolidated land use conditions.
The Monteagudo project design also includes a multiple-use room;
a complex of 10 business premises for commercial and service micro-
enterprises, with the intention of creating more jobs; a space for a child
day care centre; a space for a public square – transferred to the city of
Buenos Aires municipal government for its administration – and several
open spaces destined for use by community residents.
It is important to point out that while the Monteagudo housing
project is operationally “self-managed” by the social movement, it does
not represent a self-construction process; rather, it undertakes a large-
scale construction project as a business enterprise, although under an
autonomous social and political administration.

PHOTO 1
View of the corner of Monteagudo Street and José C Paz Street
© Mariano Scheinsohn and Cecilia Cabrera

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13. This piece of land was
formerly occupied by an
abandoned paints factory
associated with an important
multinational corporation
(Bunge & Born), which
was discontinued some
20 years ago.
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND HOUSING IN BUENOS AIRES
PHOTO 2
View of the public square developed as part of the Monteagudo
project © Mariano Scheinsohn and Cecilia Cabrera
This complex has been structured as two linked condominiums,
each corresponding to one of the two city blocks of the project layout.
An unusual characteristic relative to other popular housing projects is its
location inside the central city rather than in an area more typical of a
residential development of this kind. Its setting is that of a traditional
working class (clase media trabajadora), residential neighbourhood
(barrio) – Parque Patricios – already consolidated since the mid-twentieth
century.
Originally, this was an industrial neighbourhood. A decline in activity
from the 1970s left a considerable number of derelict or idle factories,
warehouses and industrial buildings. It was always a lower-middle/working
class residential neighbourhood with a low-density population. For this
reason, in recent decades there was sizeable demand for housing, both
because of the lack of residential units and the low number of multi-
family dwellings adequate for the new generations who wanted to live in
the area.
The district is located in the southern sector of the city (this area has
a lower level of development and quality of life than the northern sector)
and is close to the main downtown area, with very good public trans-
portation, urban services and facilities.
The new enterprise is located four blocks away from a large park and
the main commercial and transportation sectors. Its immediate sur-
roundings consist of factories and warehouses fallen into disuse or with
some degree of obsolescence. This was one reason why such an extensive
plot of land was available within a consolidated residential zone.(13) This
setting is not accidental but was explicitly intended by the MTL leaders.
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E N V I R O N M E N T & U R B A N I Z AT I O N Vol 21 No 1 April 2009

As Carlos “Chile”, one of the more senior heads of this organization,

points out:
“...what we wish for is that this complex (of dwellings) of Monteagudo
Street be not transformed into a concentration of the poor. On the
contrary, our aim is to incorporate it into the neighbourhood, to put
a lot of social life into it. The idea is that the people may be able not
only to have access to housing but also to help change it throughout
a process that, of course, […] is interrelated with the country’s
realities.”
For this reason, the organization looked for an area in a neighbourhood
or sector that was not typical for social housing but, rather, had a setting
that from the beginning would stimulate the socially heterogeneous inte-
gration of the housing project’s future residents with the population of
a traditional neighbourhood of the city. Part of the development plan
was to incorporate the opening up of a street (José C Paz) that divides
the complex into two halves and preserves the continuity of the existing
urban square, an essential condition for its integration, at least physically,
with the rest of the neighbourhood.
One of the ideas behind the project was that it should not be shut off
from the neighbourhood. On the contrary, it should contain and recreate
public and community spaces as a way of integrating into the surround-
ings, to avoid the enclave mindset that usually prevails in popular housing
complexes.

PHOTO 3
José C Paz Street, which was opened as part of the development
plan of the Monteagudo project. It divides the complex into two
and preserves the continuity of the existing urban square
© Mariano Scheinsohn and Cecilia Cabrera

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14. Under the provisions of
Law 964/02, which amended
Law 341/00.
15. These amounts are
significant considering that
the National Statistics and
Census Institute (Argentina)
established, for the second
semester 2006, that a typical
household (two adults and
2–3 children) is considered
poor if the monthly family
income is $arg. 978 (pesos) or
less (the poverty line).
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND HOUSING IN BUENOS AIRES
PHOTO 4
The complex is integrated into the surroundings to avoid the
enclave mindset that usually prevails in popular housing complexes
© Mariano Scheinsohn and Cecilia Cabrera
Housing unit allocation to families was and is one of the most prob-
lematic aspects of the project. It is interesting to note that workers’ par-
ticipation in the construction did not imply the allocation of a unit, as
this is not a self-construction process, and workers are in an employment
relationship with a salary paid by the cooperative. In short, two somewhat
independent processes were established: construction and allocation.
As pointed out by some of the professionals in the technical support
team, two basic indicators were taken into account when selecting the
families: the degree of participation and commitment to the movement;
and each family’s capacity for living in community with other families.
The allocation process took place through an assembly of all of its
members (3,500 families).
In the light of the financing terms offered by the Buenos Aires city
government Housing Institute (IVC), it made sense for the units to be
allocated as individual properties to each family.(14)
In short, the actual allocation process had to take multiple criteria
into account: degree of political militancy; family structure; capacity to
live together; degree of necessity; and ability to pay the mandatory in-
stalments to the Housing Institute over 30 years, the amount of which
should not exceed 20 per cent of the family income. To meet the criteria,
beneficiaries’ average income had to range between $arg. 1,200 and
$arg. 2,000 (pesos) per family group.(15)
The allocation process involves a complex mix of factors. On the one
hand, it implies each household unit’s responsibility for the debt as a con-
dition of allocation but, on the other hand, the MTL takes on the political
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E N V I R O N M E N T & U R B A N I Z AT I O N Vol 21 No 1 April 2009

and social responsibility of generating sustainable feasibility conditions

for the project in the long term by selecting beneficiaries according to
political and social criteria. The social movement thus establishes itself as a
“political” mediator(16) between the families and the state, and determines 16. A concept understood, in
a “regulatory” and social control framework for the incorporation of the a broad sense, as mediation
through power structures and
family process into the whole. potential for dialogue with the
Some members already living in some of the units point out that they state.
have yet to sign the sales agreement and therefore “…we are all behaving
well and we live together in peace, because if any problem arises, they still can
‘throw us out’.”
The housing construction process and its impact on the neighbour-
hood may be one of the most interesting aspects of the Monteagudo
project, located as it is in a traditional Buenos Aires neighbourhood with
a strong identity and a long history but with marked signs of decay in
its physical stock and a very low density (sometimes only two or three
families lived on a block). A series of interviews with neighbours and
shopkeepers close to the project site showed that people who have been
living in the area for several years have changed their perception of this
undertaking since it began.
When they learned that a housing complex for a piquete group would
be built in the old facilities of the former Bunge & Born paints factory,
most of the neighbours reacted negatively. The situation reflected, in a
somewhat typical way, the classical conflict between established and
marginalized(17) people with regard to the settlement of a new social 17. Following Norbert
Elías’ figurative model
group considered alien to a neighbourhood. From a social standpoint,
of established and
there was a stigma attached to the Buenos Aires urban pariahs: the marginalized people, where
movimiento piquetero. he states that “…mere
residential permanence in
Remarkably, once the work was underway and the complex consolid- that place, with all it implies,
ated, some of the neighbours’ perceptions began to change. As a lady may generate a degree of
living across from the undertaking pointed out, she now thinks that: group cohesion, collective
identification and common
“… it is a good contribution to the neighbourhood, it lifted it, it has rules, adequate to generate
in some people the gratifying
made it livelier, but it all depends on the people that come to live here... euphoria linked to the sense
The complex is nice – nearby houses are older – no new constructions of belonging to a superior
had been made in the neighbourhood for a long time.” group and the concomitant
contempt for other groups.”
The fact that the project design had included the opening of a street, “Thus, marginalized exclusion
and stigmatization become
thus integrating the block consistently with the surroundings, and the powerful weapons if used by
construction of community facilities open to the neighbourhood at large established people to maintain
(such as the square on the intersection of Monteagudo and José C Paz their identity and reaffirm their
superiority so as to firmly keep
streets, the child day care centre and the medical assistance centre) allowed others in their place.” See
the neighbours to consider the positive impact on the neighbourhood’s Elías, N (1998), Ensayo Teórico
sobre las Relaciones entre
dynamics. Establecidos y Marginados,
Some also valued the fact that sidewalks had been repaired and that Norma, Buenos Aires.
an old industrial buildings area, integral to Parque Patricios’ identity, had
been restored and made functional again.
To some extent, the way the project was handled made it possible to
reverse the neighbours’ biased perception of the social group carrying out
the work. The general perception is that the MTL, as a relevant political
player, gives the upper hand, relatively speaking, to those implementing
the project on behalf of newcomers, a fact that some established neigh-
bours have reservations about, feeling that the group’s greater access to
the state might adversely affect them. At the same time, this project fosters

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18. Palermo is a traditional
Buenos Aires neighbourhood
that fell into disrepair some
decades ago and that in the
last 20 or 30 years has gone
through a renewal process
(almost a gentrification
process), becoming a site for
specialized and sophisticated
service activities linked to
design and communications.
This significantly important
consumption node has been
renamed by many as the
“Buenos Aires Soho”.
19. The Madres de Plaza de
Mayo Association is a highly
relevant, internationally
renowned, social and political
organization with a long
history of dealing with human
rights problems and devoted
(during the last three decades)
to claims for justice and a
clarification of the genocide
that took place during the
last military dictatorship
(1976–1983).
20. According to the General
Directorate of Statistics and
Censuses of the Buenos Aires
city government, Villa 15 has a
population of 9,874 inhabitants
and Barrio Los Piletones 2,645
inhabitants.
21. This situation continues
to be problematic, above all
because the current local
government administration
(under Mauricio Macri) is led
by the opposition party at the
national level (under President
Cristina Fernandez). These
circumstances have led to a
bitter dispute between the
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND HOUSING IN BUENOS AIRES
the implementation of work that had been demanded by neighbours for
many years:
“They opened the street that we had asked for many times, and this
integrates the neighbourhood… They repaired the front sidewalks
and the public space in general… We now have a small public park
here.”
In short, once the initial distrust was partially overcome, at least by some of
the neighbours, the MTL was perceived as an organized political mediator
not only between the new residents and the state but also for the people
already living in the surroundings. The permanent surveillance carried out
by group members around the housing complex is worth mentioning
as a sign of organization and order by new neighbours that is positively
valued by old established residents.
It is also interesting to note that expectations about the neighbour-
hood’s future dynamics are highly optimistic. Some residents pointed out
that the neighbourhood “would improve”. “In the future, it might turn into
another Palermo(18) because Palermo used to be like this too, just houses and
warehouses...” So, while the strong capacity for dialogue with the state on
the part of this politically organized social movement generates power
inequalities with respect to old established neighbours, it also guarantees
a certain level of control for all.
IV. MADRES DE PLAZA DE MAYO ASSOCIATION AND THE VILLA
15 AND LOS PILETONES NEIGHBOURHOOD PROJECTS
Other relevant construction projects are those being carried out by the
Madres de Plaza de Mayo Association(19) in the Villa 15 slum and Los
Piletones neighbourhood.(20) Both undertakings are located around Villa
Soldati in the southwestern sector of Buenos Aires, one of the city areas
with the highest poverty levels.
These initiatives are managed jointly by Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Association and neighbourhood housing cooperatives, which, hand in
hand with the Corporación del Sur and the Ministry of Human Rights of
the Buenos Aires city government, represent an example of articulation
between popular organizations and the state.
The finance for these projects comes from the national government
through the Federal Housing Construction Programme, administered
by the Undersecretariat of Urban Planning and Housing of the Federal
Ministry of Infrastructure and Planning, which channels the funds
through the IVC.(21)
As with the Monteagudo project, these projects do not involve self-
construction processes. All of the workers are “hired” by the cooperatives
and receive a salary, technical training and all the necessary materials to
carry out their task.
The construction uses a dry building technique with light and pre-
fabricated panels, all of which allows work to be carried out by both men
and women.(22) Pilot training on housing construction using this tech-
nique is underway. Forty per cent of workers in these projects are women
and furthermore, some are the first female union delegates to the national
construction union (UOCRA).
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In the case of the Villa 15 project, neighbourhood families and social Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Association and the Buenos
organizations participating in the undertaking decided that the first Aires city government over
36 units would be allocated to people who had been made homeless by a both the diversion of national
fire in December 2005. The remaining 36 units would be for families on resources to the local (city
government) level and the local
the IVC waiting list.(23) government’s attempts to exert
In March 2007, an agreement was signed between Madres de Plaza de control over the development
Mayo Association, jointly with the cooperatives, and the Urban Territorial of the association’s projects.
As an interview with Sergio
Policy Coordination of the city government for the development of a
Schoklender (project director
factory to manufacture the panels necessary for housing construction. The for the Madres de Plaza de
factory would also receive the advisory services of a group of architects Mayo Association’s projects)
in the Diario Perfil on 9 March
and engineers who would work with the cooperatives. It is estimated that
2008 reveals: “…Towards the
the plant production capacity would allow at least 5,000 units a year to end of January, Hebe Bonafini
be built. [the head member of Madres
The factory is now operating in an old rehabilitated Barracas de Plaza de Mayo Association]
staged a protest in Buenos
neighbourhood warehouse, an example of early twentieth century Aires Cathedral because of
industrial architecture (1921). It is jointly managed by the Buenos Aires the IVC’s failure to release
city government and the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Association. Twelve funding to the value of 3.4
million pesos for construction
people work there per shift, producing 4,500 square-metre panels a day. work in informal settlements,
It is now providing the panels for the Los Piletones neighbourhood and demanded the prompt
construction project. settlement of this outstanding
payment.” Schoklender later
The first phase of the Los Piletones project (105 units) began in confirmed that the payments
February 2007 and is nearly completed. It is mainly made up of 36 three- had been released but that the
storey buildings with 12 units per level. The buildings have internal IVC still owed them 5 million
pesos.
open spaces and low-density condominiums; they are located on Ave.
22. The panels are machine-
made using “EMME Due” Italian
technology.

23. The first 24 units were

allocated in October 2007; the
other 24 units were allocated
in June 2008. See www.
madres.org/scompartidos/
villa15ciudadoculta/villa15.html.

PHOTO 5
The Madres de Plaza de Mayo Association completed 48 units
in Villa 15 © Página 12 Newspaper, 8 June 2008

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 SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND HOUSING IN BUENOS AIRES

PHOTO 6
The first 24 units of the Villa 15 project were allocated in
October 2007 © www.madres.org/scompartidos/novedades/
novedades.html

Castañares, across from Parque Indoamericano. Construction costs were

considerably lower than the costs of traditional techniques.
Construction of community facilities, such as a school, a child
day care centre and shops, as well as parks, lighting and street opening
developments, are still in process in 2008. Besides, the city government
will open a district office (local authority management and participation
centre – comuna) in the neighbourhood.
The Los Piletones project enabled the creation of 400 jobs, 90 per
cent of which were for unemployed people living in the neighbourhood
and belonging to some of the organizations linked to this undertaking.
These people receive a salary and are legally employed.
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PHOTO 7
Near-completed buildings in Barrio Los Piletones
© http://www.madres.org/SCOMPARTIDOS/galeriafotos/
GFOTOSPILETONES/ATS00000.htm

As to the location of these projects, in contrast with Monteagudo,

they are based in a city area where poverty is more general and consistent
and where environmental conditions leave people more vulnerable. Part
of the neighbourhood consists of irregular and informal settlements
developed some decades ago, precisely those that will be upgraded and
formalized.
It is interesting that in the last two or three years, the Madres de Plaza
de Mayo Association has started to alter its traditional protest pattern.
One of the documents describing the housing projects underway declares
that these projects are considered “…a strategy to put an end to [social]
exclusion regarding the right to decent housing and urban space.”(24) 24. See http://www.madres.
According to Sergio Schoklender (executive director of the project), org/asociacion/showit.
asp?act=570.
the origin of these projects:
“… was during the occupation of land in Villa 20. […] We went to
support the families. We were already familiar with the system of
construction using panels from experience in Cuba, and we proposed
this technology to the government under [Jorge] Telerman. In Villa
20, construction couldn’t start until the police car junkyard had been
cleared. So the government proposed that we start construction in
Villa 15, where a group of families had been affected by a fire.”(25) 25. Interview with Sergio
Schoklender in Diario Perfil,
In this paper, we cannot analyze in detail the roots of the dynamics of September 2006.
organizational change within the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Association.
But it is important to note that this political player – with a strong presence
at national and international levels – is turning into an urban player and,

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26. Both picket and human
rights organizations – especially
the Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Association – carried out strong
public action from the very
beginning, mainly intended
to make socially visible the
problems and demands that
the state, and more precisely
the establishment in
office, systematically tried to
overshadow, hide and silence.
27. “Disappointed consumers
have another option:
raising their voice and thus
participating in various actions,
from strictly private complaint
to public action for the benefit
of everybody’s interest.” See
Hirschman, A (1982), Shifting
Involvements. Private Interest
and Public Action, Princeton
University Press, Princeton,
USA, page 74. Continuing the
activity, but adopting a critical
attitude in an attempt to obtain
improvements from within, see
Revilla Blanco, M (1994),
“El concepto de movimiento
social: acción, identidad y
sentido”, in Zona Abierta
No 69, México.
28. See Scheinsohn, M &
Cabrera, C, Más allá del Capital
Social: la producción de habitat
popular en Buenos Aires.
¿Puede considerarse el “capital
político” como un recurso
valioso inexplorado para las
políticas urbanas de reducción
de la probreza y desigualdad?,
9th N-AERUS Annual Workshop,
12 December 2008, Edinburgh,
Scotland. Web page: http://
www.n-aerus.net/web/sat/
workshops/2008/Edinburgh/
papers/NAERUS_2008_
Scheinsohn_Cabrera.pdf
29. See reference 27,
Hirschman (1982), page 74.
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND HOUSING IN BUENOS AIRES
together with the state, is beginning to participate in popular housing
production based on a wider understanding of human rights.
It is also important to emphasize that the Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Association’s express intention is to develop gradually a series of pilot
experiences in order to replicate them with the purpose of generating –
jointly with the state – a specific public policy for urban social housing.
The Espacio Madres housing cooperatives have even proposed that the city
government create a popular housing ministry, which would become the
public agency responsible for developing this policy. From this perspective,
it could be said that these projects, together with Monteagudo, represent
the most significant popular housing production, in terms of both scale
and quantity, within the city of Buenos Aires in the last 10 years.
V. SOCIAL MOVEMENT AND POLITICS: AN EFFICIENT MIX FOR
POPULAR HABITAT PRODUCTION
The experiences described here have some common features that are
indicative of new trends in popular housing production in the city of
Buenos Aires. These undertakings are developed by social organizations
located within political movements with a strong demand tradition in
the public sphere. In recent years, through changes in their orientation
and approach, they are establishing this new intervention modality.
A distinctive feature is the strong political imprint given to their
social action in housing production. This might relate to the fact that,
as social organizations developed within a convention of public sphere
demands and protests, they have the state as privileged interlocutor and
“opponent”.(26) This situation has allowed them to build up a tradition
of political participation in the public opinion that, over the years, has
granted them – in both cases – a significant social legitimacy as a politically
non-partisan player.
It is then possible to state that, in Hirschmann’s words, these picket
and human rights organizations have built a symbolically significant
“voice”(27) for their constituencies regarding the problems they face, and
that this has progressively led them to participate in popular housing
production. The political dimension of these actions becomes key to
understanding the conditions allowing for the realization of these housing
projects.(28)
It could be posited that when popular housing production is carried
out by social organizations, cooperatives or NGOs that are not members
of a wider political movement or any federation, they tend to build up
their actions around exit-type strategies. As described by Hirschmann,(29)
they react to a deceitful experience, such as the economic and social
impossibility of obtaining housing through the market or as beneficiaries
of government public policies, by looking for a different source of supply,
usually self-construction or international financing. In the 1990s, most
popular housing production in Buenos Aires – self-managed by social
organizations – fitted this pattern.
The projects described in this paper are certainly a departure from
this modality, developed as they were with a stronger emphasis on voice,
which provides them with significant potential for dialogue with both
the state and public opinion. This dialogue, in turn, confers legitimacy
on these political players, guaranteeing a level of control and social order
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E N V I R O N M E N T & U R B A N I Z AT I O N Vol 21 No 1 April 2009

both within the organizations and in their external dealings, which gives
credibility to the continuity and completion of undertakings. This is an
important consideration given the lengthy timeframe of housing produc-
tion and the need for financial guarantees.(30) 30. MTL’s political guarantee
The implementation of these projects – by acknowledging the regarding Buenos Aires city
government has operated as
importance of voice – has the advantage of generating stronger loyalty the financial guarantee for the
among movement members (although not without conflict), because money lent to the movement
it links the expectation of improvement to staying in the organization. by the Banco Ciudad (under the
Buenos Aires city government
As stated by one of MTL’s active members, who participated in the administration); this financing
Monteagudo project and is now living in one of its units: represented the initial
capital for carrying out the
“Before, I used to live in a slum, I was a slum dweller, I am not ashamed Monteagudo project.
of that but after five years participating in the MTL, just see how
much I have improved. Now I have a good house for my children, in
a good area and they can go the neighbourhood school.”
Similarly, it is not by chance that these projects go beyond the small scale,
differing in this way from the self-construction modality. The prospect for
an efficient use of voice in the public (social and state) sphere means that
the use of exit-type strategies tends to decrease. These social movements –
through their political leadership – reorient themselves, with the expect-
ation of becoming integrated into the formal socioeconomic sphere. This
is clearly indicated by the “social” enterprise(31) creation process, public 31. Madres de Plaza de Mayo
works implementation, social policies management, etc. Association developed the
panel factory for housing
A more detailed analysis of the dynamics of these social movements in construction in the Barracas
the present Argentine context would be useful but goes beyond the scope neighbourhood. The MTL
of this paper. It is clear, however, that their process is markedly different created a building enterprise
that is now participating
from the popular habitat production processes of a decade ago. These in public works tenders
social players fully assume their political capacity (in a broad sense(32)) and is developing a mining
through an efficient use of their voice, and build up a level of strength undertaking in the province of
Catamarca.
linked to their social legitimacy, to their members’ loyalty and to the
potential for dialogue with the state. In a similar way, by incorporating 32. Not only through
the political dimension into the development of undertakings, they create participation in the public field
but also in connection with
an alternative to technocratic approaches, whether in design, setting or power structures.
allocation of housing units to families, giving the projects a higher level
33. Understood as collective
of social and symbolic sustainability. construction, beyond the
It is still too early to predict how these popular housing production “clientele policy” (practice of
modalities will evolve and to what extent they will go to scale. Neverthe- obtaining votes with promises
of government positions, etc.)
less, they are indicative of an emerging process in Buenos Aires that applied by traditional political
highlights the political possibility of housing production for the most parties and some social
underprivileged social sectors.(33) organizations.

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