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Housing with the idea of one’s presence in a place and
with the concept of inhabiting, understood as
ANGELA GIGLIA the social relationship of human beings with
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico
their environment, and the social production
of domesticity and spatial order by means of
HOUSING, URBAN SPACE, AND SOCIAL daily practices.
ORDER Housing is also the center from which the
inhabitants express an important part of their
The most common idea of housing is asso- personal identity, social position, and sense
ciated with the notion of a built space that of belonging to a certain territory. In sum,
fulfills a protective function, a place in which housing is not only a shelter but also a place
to feel safe from inclement meteorologi- for living, a central reference for individual
cal conditions and threats posed by one’s and social life, a starting point in urban daily
surroundings. In this sense housing is syn- life, and an indicator of the social position
onymous with feeling protected and safe, of the dweller in the context of a specific
feeling at home. Nevertheless, this kind of social and spatial context. The dweller’s social
definition is not sufficient. It is worth asking position is linked not only with a certain
what type of protection is possible when the kind of housing – for example, cheap social
material conditions of the house are very housing versus a big private residence – but
precarious, or when being in one’s home does also with a certain kind of neighborhood
not protect one from the noise made by one’s in which the housing is located. In general
neighbors, or from the air pollution of the terms, the liveability of housing is not only
city, or when permanent residence in the based on the house itself but is the result
house is threatened by possible eviction. In of the neighborhood’s characteristics, its
these cases, housing is not synonymous with facilities, and its connections with the urban
shelter, certainty, or security; therefore this environment, especially the areas where labor
definition is incomplete. opportunities and services are located. In this
A wider definition of housing is not exclu- sense the study of housing is inevitably linked
sively related to a roof over your head but with the study of the urban environment.
refers to the idea of a place for living and for In general, people living in the same city
the reproduction of living, not necessarily share the same representations of urban
in the best conditions, but in the context of order and the social and economic hier-
specific social and cultural constraints and archy of territories. They identify which
possibilities. It is also linked with the idea is the most expensive locality and/or the
of a location in urban (or nonurban) space poorest neighborhood, which areas are the
associated with a particular address, a spe- safer and more peaceful place to live, and
cific organization of territory, and a spatial which areas are supposed to be the hum-
order. In spite of its physical characteristics, blest or the most dangerous. These collective
no matter whether it is a luxury house or a representations constitute an important
precarious one, housing is a fabricated space part of urban culture and generate tangible
with an important social meaning, linked effects on residents’ practices, for example

The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies. Edited by Anthony Orum.
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2019 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142
 10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142 by Consorci De Serveis Universitaris De Catalunya, Wiley Online Library on [26/12/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
2 HOU SI NG

in their residential choices about where to ancient Rome, where condominiums were
live, especially when they have to do with conceived as multilevel constructions in
stigmatized neighborhoods or slums, such the city center, frequently overcrowded and
as favelas in Brazil, ciudades perdidas in insanitary, rented by the working classes.
Mexico, or banlieues in France, even when Up to the present day, the single house and
these urban spaces may be less dangerous collective housing are the two most common
than their bad reputation suggests. Housing architectural types for living.
as a social phenomenon implies not only the During the medieval era and in the
relationship between needs of habitability modern age, in many European capitals,
and habitable material products, but the the presence of overcrowded housing was
relationship between dwelling and housing very common, due also to the mishmash
as a cultural question that involves different of spaces for repose and spaces for work.
meanings in different societies. For example, Working-class houses – especially in the
the social meaning of renting versus owning case of artisans – were more than anything
a place is not the same in different countries, working spaces, with a reduced place for
because the rights of owners and tenants relaxation and sociability and without a
are different in different societies. Thus, the clear difference between spaces for rest and
study of housing has to take into account spaces for productive activities, or between
its relationship with society, culture, law, adult spaces and children’s spaces. In the
economy, market, and territory in the context contemporary age, housing has become an
of a specific place and time. industrial product that results from the com-
Throughout the history of humankind, plex history of architectural design and urban
different societies have developed particular
planning, linked with the evolution of the real
forms of housing in relation to their environ-
estate market and specific public policies on
mental and geographical context, particular
social housing and urban life. In the design
culture, and socioeconomic characteristics.
and production both of housing real estate
In this sense housing is not only a social
development and of social housing develop-
product that reflects a particular worldview
ment, the crucial question is the concretion
and social organization, but also an important
and reproduction of a certain social order
factor in the reproduction of social order. For
through the production of living spaces.
example, the Kabyle house in Algeria was a
visibly gendered space, with a clear distinc-
tion between female and male spaces, which HOUSING ECONOMY AND REAL
are separated and hierarchized with respect ESTATE MARKET
to each other (Bourdieu 1979). In the same
way, throughout Western history, housing In the industrial era, with the abandonment of
has been a marker of dwellers’ social position. the countryside and the growth of cities and
In ancient Rome, approximately two thou- industrial production, working-class urban
sand years ago, poor people used to live in a housing came to be a social question that
condominium (a collective building of three required special solutions and financing, both
or more flats) and rich people in a domus (a private and public. When working people
single house for one family and its servants). tried to establish themselves in urban areas
The social organization of collective hous- close to the factories, they were faced with the
ing – that is, the idea of a shared domain impossibility of getting acceptable housing
or a shared property – thus originated in at a price they could afford. Throughout the
 10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142 by Consorci De Serveis Universitaris De Catalunya, Wiley Online Library on [26/12/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
HOU SI NG 3

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the This analysis of the housing question is still
first collective housing for industrial workers pertinent for the current situation of many
was designed and produced by the company cities in the world, faced with the problem
owners, who were motivated by hygienic known as gentrification (Smith 1987), which
and paternalistic purposes. This housing was produces the progressive expulsion of poor
located near the industries and provided households from central and/or well-served
inhabitants with better living conditions than neighborhoods. A few years after the publi-
previous workers’ housing, but at the same cation of The Housing Question, the United
time this particular spatial order facilitated Kingdom Parliament passed the Housing of
owners’ control over the work process and the Working Classes Act (1885), a law that
the daily life of the workers. made it illegal for an owner to let unhealthy
In 1872 and 1873 Friedrich Engels pub- housing, and restricted private property
lished a series of three essays on The Housing rights in favor of the working classes. In
Question, which are still a point of reference fact, these restrictions are still function-
on this topic and its relations with the current ing in many countries, especially to avoid
capitalist system. Engels pointed out the dras- unfounded evictions from rental housing,
tic deterioration of housing conditions for thus protecting the lodger’s right to dwell.
the working class and the petty bourgeoisie, At the present time, housing is a central
due to increased rents and the substitution element in the dynamics of real estate devel-
of lower-class housing in the downtown opment and its impacts on the transformation
with new and expensive public buildings, of living space all over the world. The cycle of
a process that is still taking place now in production and sale of real estate goods – that
all the most important cities in the world. is, housing and other buildings for services
Engels illustrated the relationship between and consumption – continues without inter-
the housing question and the urban question, ruption and with increasing profits to allow
understood as the result of capitalist logic restarting the cycle and the accumulation of
applied to ground rent, that is, the assump- wealth (Harvey 2012). Real estate capital is
tion of ground and space as commodities. deployed in the territory, occupying more
This led to speculative tendencies based on and more space and generating a constant
the rent gap, which is the difference between and unstoppable urbanization that generates
negative effects on the environment and
the present rental income of a building, or
the quality of life of urban settlements. The
a portion of urban ground, and the future
most recognizable damage has to do with
augmentation of that rental income after the
increasing distances and mobility difficulties,
construction of a new building for wealthier
gaps in water supply and other infrastructure,
inhabitants (Engels 1872–1873). This is the
and a loss of green areas, all of which reduce
reason that
housing quality and liveability.
the workers are forced out of the center of In many countries, the deployment of real
the towns towards the outskirts; that work- estate capital generates a supply of housing
ers’ dwellings, and small dwellings in general, that is not related to existing demand. In
become rare and expensive and often altogether
recent years, based on outsize expectations
unobtainable, for under these circumstances
the building industry, which is offered a much of the appreciation of house prices, recurrent
better field for speculation by more expensive crises in the housing market have promptly
houses, builds workers’ dwellings only by way of reflected the intrinsic instability of the cur-
exception. (Engels 1872–1873) rent capitalist system linked with speculative
 10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142 by Consorci De Serveis Universitaris De Catalunya, Wiley Online Library on [26/12/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
4 HOU SI NG

urbanism. The overexpansion of credit for The architectural movement that invented
housing and the lack of truly affordable the first prototypes of modern housing is
housing for broad segments of potential buy- known as functionalism, according to which
ers has led to what are known as real estate the design and construction of built spaces
bubbles, that is, periods in which housing should serve to satisfy a set of functions
prices first increase quickly and then suddenly and precise needs, based on the principle
drop, generating huge financial losses and that “form follows function.” Born in the
social costs: millions of consumers who can- second decade of the twentieth century,
not pay their mortgages, millions of victims functionalism in architecture had no doubts
of evictions, and millions of built houses left about the possibility of achieving the goal of
functional housing for everyone. Reaching
unsold. In this context, several countries have
this goal was a part of a much wider vision
not been able to resolve the housing needs
of social progress, made possible by using
of the poorest in spite of the construction
new techniques and principles of rationality
of a great number of new houses, which are
for the transformation of society. In this
left empty, abandoned, or illicitly occupied perspective the form of space needed to
by people who cannot afford the price of reflect the function performed. Domestic
a mortgage or paying a rent. This scenario spaces had to be functional with respect to
became especially evident after the financial the solution of basic needs, considered as
and housing global crisis in 2008. As a result fundamentally homogeneous for all human
of this long-lasting incapacity of the market beings. The most important exponents of
and housing policies to provide affordable architectural functionalism were Walter
housing for all the people and especially Gropius and Le Corbusier, who first applied
for the poorest families, in many countries, the principles of mass industry to housing
not only in the Global South, the scarcity of construction, using new materials, such as
cheap housing has led to the construction reinforced concrete, and designing the first
of self-help housing in informal settlements great modern buildings of collective multi-
under illegal and precarious conditions. family housing. Le Corbusier’s vision exalts
the supposed functionality of a building
that brings together several hundred cells
PUBLIC SOCIAL HOUSING
(departments) built in series and provided
with a set of common services. His ideas have
Throughout the last two centuries, labor
been put into practice in many cities around
movements and other social organizations
the world, where multihousing projects were
have fought for housing to become a basic
proposed by the middle of the last century as
right for all workers and indeed for all people. the ideal solution for urban housing. Starting
In many countries of the Western world, from functionalism in architecture, a series
different policies on public housing have of supposed universal criteria of habitability
been implemented to produce cheap housing embodied in housing prototypes have been
through different types of subsidies, from implemented in housing developments all
public or private sources. The domain of over the world.
public housing has produced a series of inter- In the present day, large-scale housing
esting solutions for working-class housing, projects still represent an unsolved challenge
collective urban housing, subsidized housing, for architecture, which aims to order social
and cooperative housing. reality and human relations on the basis of
 10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142 by Consorci De Serveis Universitaris De Catalunya, Wiley Online Library on [26/12/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
HOU SI NG 5

the design of living space. It is common to population, of immigrant or ethnic origin.

admit that in housing projects many inhab- Especially in France, where this kind of
itants use the domestic spaces in a different housing has been developed massively since
way than the architects had planned. The the middle of the twentieth century in all
discrepancies in terms of the appropriate use the most important urban areas, the current
of these buildings by the inhabitants – that is, image of multifamily housing developments
the use conceived of by the architect – and the is associated with the stigma of the banlieue
difficulties in avoiding deterioration in com- as a place of relegation. Since the 1980s,
mon spaces for a mostly poor population, can they have been the scenes of recurrent and
transform functionalist housing into a very extended urban riots, especially in autumn
problematic urban space. In fact, in many of 2005 (Espaces et sociétés 2007). In some cases,
these multifamily buildings it is possible to the numbers of social problems in functional-
observe a dramatic contradiction between ist buildings has led to their demolition, even
the apparent rationality of the project and the in spite of their architectonic merit, as hap-
reality of the inhabitants’ alienation, stigma- pened in the case of the famous Pruitt–Igoe
tization, and segregation in their relation complex (United States), which had received
with housing and urban space. First-hand an award from the Architectural Forum when
research has shown the cultural distance it was inaugurated, and had to be demolished
between the vision of space and inhabiting of in 1972.
the people who design this type of habitat, on
the one hand, and the expectations, needs,
and practices of the people who live there, SELF-CONSTRUCTED AND INFORMAL
on the other (Amendola 1998; Giglia 2000). HOUSING
A set of factors, such as the conditions of
access to housing, the forms designed for On the other hand, linked with the reconsid-
their use, and the poverty of the dwellers, eration of functionalism in public housing,
tend to generate a way of living with its own different studies of informal settlements
characteristics, especially in terms of prob- have shown that, under certain conditions,
lems and conflicts over the use of communal this kind of habitat is capable of improving
spaces and services. As regards the issue of its habitability and the general quality of
self-management, intended to achieve the its environment, along with the improving
satisfactory functioning of the services and circumstances of its inhabitants. In terms
shared spaces, large-scale housing projects of urban liveability, efficiency, and eco-
represent a huge challenge to the civic culture nomic costs, informal housing is not the
of inhabitants and policy-makers. Their very best solution. Nevertheless, due to the lack
character as machines for living means that of decent and affordable housing solutions,
any particular flaw has repercussions for the informal housing has become an enormous
quality of the whole, and their large scale phenomenon that must be studied in a com-
makes collective self-management of shared parative point of view, to understand the
spaces almost impossible. complex meaning of housing and its relation
In many developed countries, multifamily to urban space in different societies.
buildings tend to be abandoned by residents In many cities in the Global South, the
who are able to move to individual houses, dominant form of urban space is made up of
and the shared buildings are converted into self-constructed housing in informal neigh-
places mostly inhabited by a marginalized borhoods. With the lapse of 20 or 30 years,
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6 HOU SI NG

these settlements may become a quite satisfac- fences and gates. This process does not have
tory urban place for their inhabitants, that is the same duration in every house and this
to say a poly-functional and poly-meaningful is reflected in the state of consolidation of
space. Starting from a total lack of services each property. After 20 years some properties
and suitable spaces for living, irregular set- have two or three floors completely built,
tlements are converted into habitable spaces while others are still in a precarious condition
through collective efforts. Twenty years from with only a one-story building and without a
the beginning, people proudly declare that complete external fence.
“we lack nothing in the neighborhood now.” It is important to stress that the infor-
In fact, meanwhile the settlement has become mal production of urban space is not an
a part of the city, by the day-to-day process exclusive phenomenon of popular sectors or
of domesticating the surroundings: removing underclass populations. In many cities of the
plants, clearing the land, carrying water, world, urban expansion from the city center
digging a rudimentary septic tank, erecting a has been carried out in irregular conditions,
tin roof, accumulating or collecting different without formal rules for land-use planning.
materials for building, laying out the streets, Just think of the city of Naples in Italy in
establishing the communication routes to the the 1950s, as illustrated in the movie Hands
rest of the territory, introducing oneself to over the City by Francesco Rosi. Informal city
the neighbors, creating street markets and construction goes beyond the slums. It also
schools, and so forth. By means of individual covers the types of spaces built by wealthy
and collective efforts, the inhabitants have sectors, which choose the gradual building
to achieve the minimum services and infras- of domestic space in a peripheral location.
tructure needed for the liveability of the site,
Without forgetting their obvious differences
because they come to inhabit a context where
in terms of assets and possibilities, poor
there was no previously defined public space
settlers and rich settlers share a similar vision
depending on a public authority. During this
of inhabiting. They share the propensity
long and collective process, shared rules and
to accept going to settle in an unfinished
relationships are generated regarding the uses
or incomplete environment in terms of
of space and the relationship between private
infrastructure because they share the same
and common spaces, producing a collective
expectation regarding the growth of urban-
order, commonly identified as an informal
ization: that it will connect the isolated places
city, which is different than – but related
where they are to live with the rest of the
to – the legal and public order of the formal
metropolitan territory, involving an increase
city (Duhau and Giglia 2008).
Especially in the early years, the fluidity in the value of their properties (Varley 2013).
of space is the dominant characteristic of the
way of living, especially with regard to the HOUSING AND LIVEABILITY, PRESENT
limits of the property, which are not drawn AND FUTURE
firmly and definitively, and therefore can be
breached or pierced especially by children In relation to urban liveability and the pro-
and pets, freely moving between the various duction of a social and spatial order, there
properties. Following improvement in the are some interesting differences between the
families’ circumstances, savings gradually evolution of big social interest projects, on
permit the building of the house, so the the one hand, and informal and progressive
grounds are enclosed by the construction of housing, on the other hand. In the first case it
 10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142 by Consorci De Serveis Universitaris De Catalunya, Wiley Online Library on [26/12/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
HOU SI NG 7

starts with self-sufficient units, like separate urbanization, and the uncertainty and con-
cities, with all the urban services imposed fusion about land property certificates and
according to an ordering rationality, often property rights. These settlements start from
alien to the culture of the residents, who may a nonofficial order in which even the legiti-
have different ideas about how their liveable macy of the occupation of space is insecure,
space should be. Nowadays, the requirements and they reflect the state of lasting shortages
for habitable housing that were set almost and precariousness of their residents. How-
a century ago by functionalist propositions ever, not only do material conditions usually
have shown their historical character, linked improve but also the legal relationship with
to the social situation of a certain time, and property can change. From a situation of
therefore their variability and impermanence. illegality, many settlements are regularized
In fact, in the history of collective social hous- by land titling, and people can obtain in
ing, the general criteria and parameters of this way not only a house but also a full
functionality, based on the division of space, property that can be sold or inherited. This
ventilation, lighting, hygiene, size, sanitation, kind of settlement, which in a megalopolis
and so forth, are very far from being uni- like Mexico City represents more than half
versally fixed and perpetual. For example, in of the habitable space, tends to become an
social housing in Mexico the minimum area urban place in the full sense of the term.
An important part of the process consists in
required in habitable single social housing
achieving connections with the rest of the
has gone from more or less 60 square meters
urban area.
in the 1990s to the current 36 square meters.
The different kinds of housing, such
This difference is not the result of a different
as self-built settlements, planned housing
way of inhabiting or a different size of family
projects, or real estate developments, are
that is supposed to be capable of living in
among the most important types in a vast
the housing in question. In the definition
range of different housing possibilities, which
of what is the minimum size of habitable
includes very different kinds of liveable
housing, the calculation of economic benefit spaces. These types of housing do not just
prevails, and not the consideration of the respond to a different social logic of produc-
supposed “universal criteria” of habitability. tion, but are also associated with different cul-
The result is that the definition and social tures of inhabiting: different forms of relation-
production of a certain kind of habitability ship between the residents and the habitable
are not the same in different societies and at space, which result in important differences
different moments of time. In the history of in the way of producing, belonging to, and
planned housing, dwelling can be studied as appropriating the housing and its surround-
an intercultural process – and housing as an ings. An important challenge for housing
intercultural product – the study of which decision-makers is to encourage the explo-
allows researchers to see the contrast and ration and implementation of new models in
hybrids between the imposed or dominant both the form and the function of housing, in
order and the order produced by the residents order to avoid the imposition of a small num-
in the process of inhabiting. ber of built types and permit the satisfaction
Progressive housing in informal settle- of a wider range of needs. Another important
ments tends to follow a different path. It challenge is the fight against the increasing
starts from the disorder of multiple indi- scarcity of cheap housing. In the world today,
vidual initiatives, the absence of planned there is a growing amount of homelessness,
 10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0142 by Consorci De Serveis Universitaris De Catalunya, Wiley Online Library on [26/12/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
8 HOU SI NG

which contrasts with the amount of unsold REFERENCES

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SEE ALSO: Eviction; Gendered Space;
Homelessness in Developing Countries. London:
Gentrification; Informal Settlements; Le
Routledge.
Corbusier; Liveable Cities/Urban Liveability; Turner, J. F. C., and R. Fichter. 1972. Freedom
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International Comparative Perspective; Real New York, NY: Macmillan.
Estate Development; Rental Housing;
Residential Choices; Slums and Shanties;
Speculative Urbanism; Urban Culture; Urban
Planning