“Wealthier-but-poorer: The complex sociology of homeownership at peripheral housing in Cartagena, Colombia” draws on an investigation of the living conditions in a large-scale housing project on the outskirts of Cartagena, Colombia. Based on research conducted by RCHI team members starting in 2017, the article demonstrates that this ambitious housing venture reflects more than simple processes of impoverishment for relocated families. This case reveals how this type of public policy systematically complexifies daily life, indicating a new kind of peri-urban poverty in the global South. The study found that the majority of the families deploy informal practices to retrofit their livelihoods into the more austere conditions of formal mega-projects, suggesting that the ‘informalization of formal housing’ is a central city-building practice but previously understudied. 

The informalization of formal housing as an economic, physical, and institutional practice is the focus of my dissertation work in Colombia, Argentina, and South Africa. Given the repetition of these kinds of policies and housing projects all across Latin America and Africa, this case challenges the theoretical assumptions and inherited practices on which low-income housing policy is created to ensure housing justice.

The final version of the article on ScienceDirect is accessible here: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1dScviuWn7cb3