- Poverty Spaces and Urban Informality: Effects of Urban (Dis)Integration    586 kb by    Sugai, Maria Inês & Peres, Lino Fernando Bragança | misugai@mbox1.ufsc.br    Short Outline The study aims to understand the poverty and informality correlation, the social-spatial segregation phenomenon and how these elements contribute to the social and space disintegration process in urban land. Abstract This work is part of a joint research effort carried out by the so-called INFOSOLO network which is investigating the informal housing market in metropolitan Brazilian and Latin American areas. The study of this kind of market and of the land access by people in poverty conditions, taking into account economical, social and spatially issues, aim to contribute to the understanding of the poverty and informality correlation, as well as to the social-spatial segregation phenomenon. The poverty and informality are the result and concequence of capital acumulation and globalization process in the peripheral countries. These elements contribute for the social and space disintagration process in urban land. In Brazil, severe conditions of social contrasts and poverty contribute to enlarge social exclusion and to increase informality levels, which, in turns, push more people to poverty (Smolka, 2003). Preliminary results of the ongoing research are the outcomes of land occupation conditions and mobility analysis of low income people. The focus of the investigation are the cities that assemble the conurbation area in Florianopolis, south Brazil, in which more than 20% of head of families earn up to 240 US dollars monthly and 14% of the inhabitants live in precarious settlements. Theoretical and design aspects of the settlements arrangements are discussed. Introductory studies indicate a dynamic housing market, showing correlation among quantity of offers and locality. There is also some link between the aggregation of professional activities and position and consolidation levels of settlements. There is also some indication of a meaningful relation of urbanized land costs different from the regular market. Violence statistic indicators, government investments on urban equipment and transport have been used as a guidance to understand the informal land occupation process. This research aims to give basis to urban and housing policies as well as to urban land legal instruments. Keywords urban informality, poverty spaces, social-spatial segregation Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper