Abstract

ZULUAGA, Lina María  and  VARGAS, Adolfo Grisales. Spatial (In)justice and the Social Production of Informal Settlements in Colombia. Cuad. Geogr. Rev. Colomb. Geogr. [online]. 2020, vol.29, n.1, pp.118-132. ISSN 0121-215X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcdg.v29n1.73099.

In the context of social injustices, "informal settlements" arise in Colombian urban space as a result of the planning policies implemented according to the capitalist mode of production and the neoliberal model. On the basis of critical theory, the article analyzes the specific urban configurations produced by capital and provides a reflection on how these forms give rise to a control of space that generates injustices. In Colombia, cities are the result of social relations that create abstract spaces in which the monopoly of control allows for the maximization of profit. Urban planning, as a technical and scientific type of knowledge, is used by the hegemonic powers to control space, thus turning it into an ideology for its organization. This leads to a relation between knowledge and power that entails the production of social inequalities and polarizations, as well as an incorrect recognition or invisibilization of the different ways of producing space. Thinking in terms of justice grounded in social and political action can contribute to the redistribution of resources for "informal settlements" and to their recognition as spaces belonging "others".

Main Ideas: Reflection paper on the urbanization process and territorial planning in Colombia, where capitalism has fostered the commodification of land and generated injustices reflected in the urban space through the so-called "informal settlements".

Keywords : informal settlements; social inequality; urban space; social exclusion; justice; spatial segregation.

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