Geographical and geological explorations of the La Plata Museum 1884–1905

By 1852, Argentina had concluded the almost 40 years of political turmoil that followed Independence Day on 9 July 1816. Buenos Aires had 76 000 inhabitants, the country had a population of one million and more than 80% of the population were illiterate. A significant number of intellectuals who had been exiled abroad, where they had the opportunity to travel to Europe and the USA, returned to Argentina. Much of the ruling class that shaped the country in the following decades, in the so-called National Organization Period that followed enactment of the National Constitution in 1853, emerged from this group of exiles. The strong promotion of European immigration and education meant that, by 1910, the country had six million inhabitants, almost two million of whom were European, and the illiteracy rate had been reduced to 34%. During the National Organization Period, three pre-existing institutions – the Public Museum of Buenos Aires and the universities of Córdoba and Buenos Aires – acquired relevance for the first time in the promotion of geological studies.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Land conflict in peri-urban areas: Exploring the effects of land reform on informal settlement in Mexico

Peri-urban areas are often subject to intensive construction, through both formal and informal processes. As land transitions from rural to urban status, different land tenure and administration systems may come into conflict, leading to disputes, contestation and, in some cases, violence. However, little is known about the precise causes of peri-urban land conflict. In Mexico, peri-urban growth has historically proceeded peacefully, owing to the control exerted by a corporatist system of government, and the political use of land tenure regularisation. However, the effects of land reforms on transactions at the peri-urban fringe, in the context of wider processes of liberalisation, may be increasing vulnerability to conflict over land. This paper explores these issues through a case study of an irregular settlement on the peri-urban fringe of the provincial Mexican city of Xalapa, where contestations over informally developed land have escalated into violent encounters between groups of settlers and the state. The findings show that vulnerability to conflict in peri-urban areas can be attributed to the interaction of macro-level processes with local-level factors, including diverse claims, overlapping legal and governance frameworks and, critically, local power relations

Residential mobility of middle-class and popular sectors: the city of Buenos Aires as an arrival destination

El artículo reflexiona acerca de los patrones de movilidad residencial de individuos y hogares de sectores populares y medios que residen en dos zonas de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires configuradas en torno a patrones disimiles de segregación. La movilidad residencial es un lente privilegiado para evidenciar de qué modo la experiencia de la clase es producida y reproducida en los modos de habitar. Mediante un abordaje cualitativo y biográfico hemos analizado las especificidades que presentan las movilidades residenciales de los diferentes sectores sociales. Se identifican patrones en tres dimensiones de la movilidad residencial: su espacialidad, los arreglos residenciales que los hogares despliegan y las motivaciones que guían sus desplazamientos. Los hallazgos presentados dan cuenta de los efectos que produce la posición en la estructura social sobre la movilidad residencial, así como su interacción con la propia estructuración del espacio.The article reconstructs residential mobility patterns of individuals and households from popular and middle-class sectors residing in two areas of the city of Buenos Aires, configured around dissimilar segregation patterns. Residential mobility is a powerful lens to show how the social class experience is produced and reproduced in modes of dwelling. Through a qualitative and biographical approach, we analyzed the specificities presented by residential mobilities of different social sectors. We identified patterns in the three dimensions of residential mobility: spatiality, the residential arrangements that households employ, and the motivations that guide their movements. The findings show the effects that the position in the social structure has on residential mobility, as well as its interaction with the spatial structure itself.publishedVersionFil: Cosacov, Andrea. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales; Argentina.Fil: Cosacov, Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas; Argentina.Fil: Di Virgilio, María Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigación Gino Germani; Argentina.Fil: Najman, Mercedes. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Di Virgilio, María Mercedes. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Najman, Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigación Gino Germani; Argentina

Strengthening the morphological study of informal settlements

Methods of articulating the morphological structure of slums can have considerable potential in better planning for site-specific design or policy responses for these areas in the contemporary city. Although urban morphology traditionally studies landscapes as stratified residues with distinct divisions between lot and boundary, built and unbuilt, the authors find these definitions insufficient to address the complexity of slum morphology. Through this article, the authors’ identify that morphological analysis of informal settlements needs to be sensitive to the dynamics and the absence (or blurring) of physical boundaries. By analyzing the spatial impact of social, economic, and political factors, situational and site factors, building typologies, and configurations of circulation space, an attempt to articulate the morphological structure of slums is made. Aiming to overcome the current polarization in the literature between the formal and informal city, this article adds to the ongoing research on the study of challenges within contemporary cities, by providing new methodologies for studying the morphology of slum urbanization and shaping planning practice

Justice, power and informal settlements: Understanding the juridical view of property rights in Central Asia

The article examines how judges and lawyers struggle to legitimise and normalise private property rights against attempts by poor and migrant groups to politicise housing and social needs in Central Asia. It will discuss the juridical understanding of justice and equality in relation to property rights violations on the outskirts of major cities in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. It will argue that the juridical system is central in construing property rights and obligations, and in so doing social inequalities are legitimised and naturalised in a neoliberalising post-Soviet space. The article uses the concepts of 'the moral economy' and 'the juridical field' to examine how judges and lawyers justify and normalise their ways of interpreting and ordering the social world

Sustainable Energy for All 2015: Progress Toward Sustainable Energy

Sustainable Energy for All seeks to improve the lives of billions of people across the world and ensure a more sustainable future by working to achieve its three global objectives: universal access to energy; doubling of the rate of improvement in energy efficiency; and doubling of the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. Accountability and transparency are essential for tracking Sustainable Energy for All’s global progress. Doing so will clarify where the initiative stands, how various actions are contributing to the three objectives, how much remains to be accomplished, and where more action is needed to achieve Sustainable Energy For All. The first edition of the Global Tracking Framework (2013) provided a system for regular reporting, based on indicators that are technically rigorous and at the same time feasible to compute from current energy data bases, and that offer scope for progressive improvement over time. This second edition of the SE4ALL Global Tracking Framework provides an update of how the world has been moving towards the three objectives over the period 2010-2012. The report also explores a number of complementary themes. First, it provides further analysis of the financial cost of meeting the SE4ALL objectives as well as the geographical and technological distribution of the investments that need to be made. Second, it explores the extent to which countries around the world have access to the technology needed to make progress towards the three goals. Third, it identifies the improvements in data collection methodologies and capacity building that will be needed to provide a more nuanced and accurate picture of progress over time. Finally, this new edition of the Global Tracking Framework explores and introduces nexus concepts focusing on the links between energy and four priority areas of development: food, water, human health, and gender. Links between most of these areas and energy are well established, but often presented in isolation of each other