¿Existe algún tipo de valor en los Asentamientos Humanos Informales?, o es que son todos un costo para el Estado y una representación de la informalidad en la ciudad.

Land values are associated commonly with property rights (Roy, 2005), and determined by many factors such as location, accessibility, government regulations and so on. It reaches the city-wide, from the formal order urbanisations to the urban informalities, the second one associated with poor squatter settlements, the «unplannable» as a state of exception from the legal order urbanisation (Ibid). Thus, the value of these lands found a differentiation not only in the market but also in its perceptions and conceptualisations. According to Nezar AlSayyad (2004), De Soto consider informality as “a safety valve for societal tensions.” Pointing out that slums were undertaken by the poor with ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit (Ibid). Thus, the conceptualisation above drags new questions about land values not only questioning why the land value is high in the formal sector than in the informalities instead of how we could find value inside the informal. Hence, this essay efforts to identify this different question of urban land value considering other factors than only focusing on the physical characteristics of the land. By positively approaching the informality, rescuing the values embedded in the citizens living there through the recognition of their environment and deconstructing the assumptions and preconceptions of these informal settlements. This paper will analyse the «barriadas» of Lima- Peru, beneath the umbrella of the socioeconomics.

Squatters settlements (barriadas) are the place of many politics, technical and academic contestations in the urban growth of Lima, Peru. «Barriadas» are suburban communities formed by low-income groups in which the homes are constructed without technical expertise by the inhabitants themselves and categorised as illegal formations (Turner, 1963). In the beginning, these were occupied by citizens from the Andes and coast of Peru during the process of the massive migration due to the supremacy of the capital city of Lima. Nowadays, these rundown areas represent poverty as a result of physical geography and political elements, some of them linked to insecure of land tenure and inaccessibility to the slopes, disconnection with the formal the city. These settlements configure an invasion of the land in which people first live, then construct, then install services (Peters and Skop, 2007). Aforementioned before was defined by many scholars and national institutions, approaching «barriadas» more negatively as slums and a social issue. However, others like John Turner and De Soto found out positive views suggesting that far from being a peripheral and a drawback for the society and economy of Lima, represents an opportunity to reconstruct the city. And according to Roy (2005), It is well known that informal housing has to use not only value but also exchange value, pointing out that these urban informalities and land markets are not just the regions of the poor, but also crucial for the middle and upper class.

Clearly, the value of the land covered by Informal housing is less appreciated over the land market. However, Roy (2005) pointed out that these informal properties are related to a distinctive type of market where affordability increases through the absence of formal planning and regulation. Consequently, looking positively at this aspect, at the national level these informal lands have granted housing and shelter for millions of citizens which neither the national government nor the private sector could have provided before (Chambers, 2005). For Peru, it has been a solution to the problem of affordable housing for the poor, since, at the city level, the «barriadas» has granted millions of homes cheaply for those who moved from their original cities to the capital (Ibid). Nevertheless, according to Mike Davis (2006) on the planet of slums, these houses are deployed primarily in low-value urban land, usually in unsafety or extremely marginal locations. Likewise, made mention to the economist Eileen Stillwaggon to emphasise that permanently, squatters’ settlements occupy no-rent land, where all thing over the ground lacks worth. In that scenario, neither the land nor the properties even the poor citizens habiting in these places are high in value (Ibid). Reached this point, «barriadas» in Lima contributed to finding an affordable place for the poor that the state couldn’t before, but it is only positive perspective not indeed a change of value from the low to the high. Though, arise the questions such as, if certainly exists a high value or where could it be found over these run-down spaces.

Regarding the city informalities, peripheral land and slopes are high in value over the market, due to these low-income settlements on the urban edge, actually runs by an invisible real estate market. Likewise, David (2006) pointed out that a better depiction for these illegal urban areas should consider these as extra-legal rather than illegal since many low-income and middle-income families, rejected by the formal market, acquired lots from entrepreneurs without corresponding to zoning laws, subdivisions regulation or service provision standard. However, with the compromise to develop the land and upgrade their homes. The inhabitants put their physical and financial resources into developing their land, they have enhanced the value of the real state in the city of Lima and encouraging the implementation of services industries, most recently in the northern and southern of Lima (Chambers, 2005). Other authors were unequivocal, the «barriadas» seen by the government and planners as a problem, are instead the solution to the urban poor, based that the place absorbs vast amounts of migrants; secondly, the topography characteristics provide space and opportunity to develop a new housing typology. And thirdly, the acquiescence of the national administration to the invasion and consolidation process (Chambers, 2005).

Considering the urban dynamics over the land, the citizens manage the construction and development of the land, implanting in these a value over the informal market. In that sense, a different way to think informality is first to recognise its condition, understanding the implications embedded in who habit these squatter settlements (Marx and Kelling, 2018). This condition is exemplified in Peru by its workforce, in which seventy-three per cent remains in the informal economy (CEPLAN,2016); however, these activities contribute to Peru’s GDP in nineteen per cent (Ibid). Moreover, over the last decades and specifically from 2002 to 2012 the nation doubled the size of its economy and reached among the highest GDP growth rates in Latin America (CEPLAN,2016). Aforementioned before is depicted by Nezar AlSayyad (2004), when it refers that De Soto viewed the informal economy as the umbrella of all extra-legal activities, either in the market or over the subsistence production. Overall, an economist like him considered that the spread of informality is due to the excess of governmental regulations, instead of the dynamics of the labour market (Ibid). Indeed, he saw informal activities as a means and ways to breaking down legal barriers, as well as, pointed out that these illegalities were a natural response to real market forces, and not to the emerge of unemployment context (AlSayyad, 2004). Moreover, the citizens performing these activities were informal entrepreneurs, heroes who managed to success surrounded by an environment constantly controlling by rules and laws (Ibid). Thus, these informal citizens contributed to developing a competitive capitalist economy, either reducing the imports and by supplying goods and services.

Nevertheless, and considering to the above, the land hosting the informal housing over the slums is linked by Hernando de Soto (2001) with the term “Dead capital” to define an asset challenging to sell, buy, value or taking into account for investments. However, despite the poverty within the informal sector, he claims that even those residents possess a high value and capital, that no one noticed before, although, these possessions are illegal and not backed by any entity that could make these an asset or real value for the poor. In other words, as a legalist, he determined that without the right to the formal property, no matter how many assets the poor might accumulate or how brilliant they could result, most of them will not be able to prosper in a capitalist society (De Soto, 2001). On the other side, Turner reflects that the success of the «barriadas» relay when dwellers take control of the majority of decisions in their communities and freely use their expertise in the process of design, constructions and management over the ground, this process create both, individual and social well-being (Chambers, 2005). From this different perspective, the success to the positive development of a community implies built spiritual and material aspects, achieved their goals, and viewed themselves and their futures positively, producing either physical or social success over the «barriadas» of Lima (Ibid). In that setting, the value remains in the human-environment relations. Taking into account the conceptualisation of the movement, environmental justice, Taylor (2000) pinpoint that exists in the environment different forces related to the human-human and human-nature relationships, hence is a valid position to recognise that a high value could be in the people and not only in its physical context.

Other writers and organisations in Peru frequently understand the positive and mainstream impacts that the «barriadas» can have on solving Lima’s issues of urban sprawl and its consequences. This process implies nowadays that the periphery of Lima is becoming itself to a formal city, in which some parts have converted themselves from dormitory cities to satellite cities, all these processes guided by the initiatives of the residents (Chambers, 2005). At this point is understood that throughout the recognition of the condition of these informal settlements and its values related to the characteristics of its habitats great assets could be found in these places and the amount of the land might increase via attracting investments of the private sector.

An example to the above is what Bill Chambers (2005) depicts in the process of the development over informal areas in Lima, where no longer is squatter settlement or working-class suburbs, these places are converting the incentive for the renaissance of Lima. He drags the case of Mega Plaza shopping mall, set out at the intersection, of the land that once was the «barriada» of Comas, with the district of San Martin de Porres. He pointed out that one approach for Lima’s development is to encourage investment away from the traditional, triangular or city-centre, shaped by the central districts, which are habited by the middle and upper class. Megaplaza produced sales of approximately 130 million in 2003 (Chambers, 2005). This mall classified as a globalised and middle-class shopping centre runs in the middle and on the periphery of the most impoverished squatter settlements, and it is maybe the product of the informal economy which allows no formal contribution to Peru’s fiscal system. It is not clear the origin and justification of this mall; however, it has stimulated the growth of a new class of entrepreneurs (Tapia, 2004). Those who established many industries around the area, developing the «barriadas» guided by their criteria, they have incorporated the informal land into the mainstream city. In general, during the early stages, these new entrepreneurs undertook repair shops for motorcycles, radios, cars and tricycles. Also, other residents run artisanal workshops producing steel frameworks, and others own stores in clothing.

Thus, De Soto and Turner positively approach are finding solid cases to depict their statements about the entrepreneurial skill of those dwellers who managed the land by themselves. In that setting, to shape a new question related to the value of the land first is necessary to understand the condition of both, the physical aspect and human nature. Moreover, recognising its environment and questioning where the assets and values over these informal settlements are. Following those mentioned above, De Soto (2001) pointed out that in every country that he researched the informal city, the entrepreneurial originality of the poor has been created wealth from the worthless land, a new value in a big scale

— introducing wealth that also constitutes a potential capital of human beings, finding assets not only in the physical context. On the other hand, other authors emphasise that the formation and continue sprawl of squatter settlement is exacerbating the problems of deprived areas, as well as, they are releasing of its obligations and responsibilities of the government. Finally, neither the organisations nor the communities are addressing inequality and land tenure (AlSayyad, 2004).The fact is that everywhere in the Third World, informal housing and land tenure has been a problem that the public and private sector cannot resolve. As David (2006) consider, John Turner is the «anarchist architect», who focused in depicts the housing cost, tenure security, journey to work and quality of shelter. He pointed out that most of the dwellers prefer to choose a near job, either in a produce market or over the streets as informal vendors, which is more critical for them than to have a roof (Ibid).

Moreover, for other dwellers worth have to take a long distance from the boundaries to the centre only with perusing the idea to own a free or nearly free land. Finally, according to (David, 2006) these informal settlements, are bad located, which generate expensive municipal services and represents a tremendous amount of government expenditure. In that sense, probably this urban informality causes only expenses and not revenues, then lack some value. This paper has depicted the statements and preconceptions above about the slums and its function in the urban land dynamics, trying to reframe a question capable of identifying value and assessments inside these marginal neighbourhoods. However, the most crucial factor in finding a different question is first to understand these places and its dwellers through the lenses of social justice. It is clear that exists many issues linked to the social injustice and inequality allowed by the government that has been promoting the proliferation of these informal areas. However, as Fraser (1998) pointed out if the state and society implement the practice of redistribution of resources and the recognition of the human status over the cities, it could promote equal rights among citizens, and empower the communities. Thus, to find a value over these slums, first, practitioners have to recognise human nature and its culture, as De Soto and Turner tried to emphasise the strengths of people who undertook their homes with ingenuity. In this way, this approach helps to identify a different question for urban land value, one that considers value as an asset of a human being understanding its skills and aptitudes to change and develop its environment, rather than focusing only in the physic and legal features of the land.

CARLOS ANTONY MUÑIZ VELASQUEZ

MSC. URBAN DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

Bibliography

AlSayyad N (2004) Urban informality as a ‘‘new’’ way of life. In: Roy A and AlSayyad N (eds) Urban Informality: Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia. Oxford: Lexington Books, pp. 7–30.