Stability and Change in a Shanty Town: A Summary of Some Research Findings

Abstract

The existence of large numbers of shanty towns in Latin American cities raises problems as to the nature of urban integration. In this case study of an Argentine shanty town it was found that in spite of a situation of collective marginality vis-à-vis the city, there was an internal system of differentiation created by a process of status mobility and residential movement. This process culminates in the collective upgrading of fringe areas of the shanty town and finally the movement of individual families away from it. As such, the process of internal mobility can be identified as a form of urban integration. Integration into the wider society however is achieved at the expense of the group, which is internally fragmented by status competition and the loss of potential community leaders to other areas of the city.