De steden en de bouwers

Abstract

Cities and builders. Changes in social housing and social shifts in Riobamba and Cuenca, Ecuador This study concerns the experiences of popular-neighborhood inhabitants and architects in the creation of housing in Ecuadorian cities. More specifically, it concerns the ways in which residential areas are created in intermediate cities. Analytically, the approach in this study is based on Setha Low’s concepts of social production and social construction of space, by which she refers respectively to the physical creation of the material setting and to the experience of space in everyday life. For these purposes, the city is regarded as a social and symbolic arena. By focusing on the discourse and actions of both professionals and neighborhood inhabitants, with their respective roles and social identities, I try to interpret contemporary socio-spatial developments in both cities. The aim of this study is to interpret current socio-spatial changes in intermediate cities within the context of a globalizing world. In the conclusions, I assert that in theories about vernacular architecture, the commonly used disciplinary and categorical dichotomy between so-called high architecture and so-called vernacular or popular architecture has become obsolete. By focusing on the actors in house-building and on their interactions, instead of on societal types or on morphological characteristics of buildings (as is often done in vernacular-architecture studies) I have tried to make clear that popular-neighborhood inhabitants increasingly work as independent agents. Further, I assert that through the model of the city as a symbolic arena, it has become clear that inhabitants of suburban popular neighborhoods in their different roles of builders, inhabitants and consumers have increasingly made themselves visible in urban space. Moreover, I try to show that professionals form a rather diverse group, as do popular-neighborhood inhabitants. The ways in which individuals from both groups physically produce and socially construct urban space are often interconnected. I therefore suggest that habitat anthropology should contribute more extensively to the interdisciplinary field of housing studies to explore the validity of existing academic categories and taxonomies, and to sketch a more balanced image of the local impact of globalization.