Large cities in Latin America share characteristics such as the precarious conditions of their built environment and urban infrastructure, which result from the process of self-construction of low-income housing. In a comparison with the low-income level of most of the local population, the provision of housing facilities by the State has always been deficient. On the other hand, the “spontaneous” solutions occurred in the form of invasions or occupations of land lots, or through specific laws covering uni-functional housing developments in areas located away from the consolidated urban mesh. Both solutions led to highly precarious settlements built by the dwellers themselves. Many of the public actions oriented to the construction of low-income developments in the region have been, and still are, the result of original settlements, in order to give way to roads or urban improvements that overrun the right of original communities to remain there.

However, such cities have shown to fertile when it comes to social movements, governments, and professionals that strive to fight against that excluding urban reality by means of several actions, each one making use of their own means. Hence, the undeniable result of this process is that, for at least 50 years, substandard settlements in the subcontinent have been the object of public policies that vary from urban and/or land regulation of low-income settlements to the offer of lower standard housing oriented to poorer families.

These policies appeared as almost insurgent, theoretical, and practical tests in the 1960’s and 1970’s as a result of popular urges for the right to housing, settlement, and location. Such policies were reinterpreted in the 80’s, when some political-institutional initiatives were tested, particularly in the municipal sphere. They were later institutionalized in the 1990’s, when they reached different levels, levels of government and territory, and several social players. Also, laws were passed and voluminous budget funds have been granted. Finally, they got to reach the level of large urban projects in the 2000’s.

In addition to the actual experiences, it is possible to point out that the legacy of this process, as in an indisputable result, the 21st century presents a systematized knowledge of such settlements based on data, maps, and several fields of knowledge. Thus, one must question about the future of these locations.

The current political conjuncture demonstrates a reflux of institutional actions oriented to the improvement of low-income housing involves an urgent contemporaneous need to question the trends of the several players involved in it. After all, when it comes to a time of setback in sectoral housing policies and a return to neo-liberal hegemony, how would any discussion be carried out about the destiny of substandard settlements? In view of the present scenario, where the regulation and deregulation of social relations, legal and illegal economy, urban formality and informality have been considered and fostered, which approaches should be taken when it comes to these locations, dwellers, and users? Would it still make sense to keep treating substandard settlements as exceptions of an specific status, as something that could distinguish them from the formal spaces of cities?

In a response to this invitation to join a reflection in this intriguing theme, volume 15, n°3 of 2018 of the magazine named “Oculum Ensaios” has gathered works from Latin American researchers that make use of different perspectives to discuss recent approaches to substandard settlements in the region, as well as their impacts and their future trends in the 21st century. The organization of this report included Dr. Miguel Ángel Barreto as an international associate researcher, who also wrote the editorial in which he describes the history of the public measures oriented both to the urban integration of substandard areas and the challenges and contradictions of the provision of housing to the low income population displaced by the recent public policies.

The report is comprised of ten works by Brazilian and Argentinean researchers. Some of them describe this process in Latin America with no particular attachment to any program or action, while others prioritize specific matters associated to the formation of substandard areas, including environmental issues, actions focused on risk prevention, or analyses of national policies from a critical perspective to the results that could lead to improvements. These works also illustrate the different scales involved in this theme, ranging from the project or intervention in a given locality to the challenges faced in the metropolitan reality.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank researchers Maria de Lourdes Zuquim and Yvonne Miriam Martha Mautner, from Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Universidade de São Paulo (FAU-USP), as well as Laura Machado de Mello Bueno and Jonathas Magalhães Pereira da Silva, from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas (PUC-Campinas), for their active participation in this project.

It is a great honour to have to opportunity to invite you all to read the work presented in this report.

Author notes

Correspondência para/Correspondence to: M.C.S. SCHICCHI | E-mail: <cristina.schicchi@puc-campinas.edu.br>.