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Weaponizing Social Housing in Medellín and Rio de Janeiro

Project description

Illicit governance arrangements and social housing in Latin American cities

For several decades, Latin American countries have used housing subsidies to improve the living conditions of the urban poor. Safety, however, is another issue. The EU-funded Social Housing project will study what happens when residents are rehoused from informal settlements controlled by organised criminal groups to formal housing complexes. The criminal groups usually hold onto their influence. As such, the project will compare governance arrangements between state, market and criminal actors in formal social housing condominiums to those in informal settlements. Taking settlements in Rio de Janeiro and Medellín as case studies, the project will study how criminal gangs and militias gain and exert control over infrastructure and (protective) services. It will also review how residents protect themselves.

Objective

State-subsidized housing programs have improved the livelihood of low-income populations in Latin American cities for decades. Once inhabited, however, they do not succeed in guaranteeing these populations’ safety. When residents are rehoused from informal settlements controlled by organized criminal groups, these groups sustain influence in formalized housing complexes. What is more, new dynamics such as housing financialization increase residents’ exposure to criminal actors. This project explores such ‘weaponization’ of social housing by comparing governance arrangements between state, market and criminal actors in formal social housing condominiums to those in informal settlements. Utilizing a two-by-two ethnographic comparison, based on case studies of one informal settlement and one condominium in both Rio de Janeiro and Medellín, the project will investigate 1) how state actors redefine social housing in terms of governmental influence and private property logics; 2) how gangs and militias gain and exert control over infrastructure and (protective) services; 3) how residents protect themselves against diverse, gendered forms of violence. The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University (HU), with its renowned interdisciplinary expertise in urban governance, crime and planning provides an ideal training context for fieldwork activities and supervision (Prof Davis) of the project’s theoretical development. By bringing the Latin American perspective on the relationship between crime and housing into direct conversation with HU’s and the University of Amsterdam's research in North America and Europe, this project develops a transferable approach to urban sovereignty in the global North and South as decisive step towards an ERC Starting Grant proposal. Through dissemination of the gained knowledge, the project will bridge policy expertise between housing and crime, and support local advocacy groups’ interaction with authorities.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 253 052,16
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 253 052,16

Partners (1)

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