Chapter 7 Segmented Cities with Fuzzy Walls: Changes in Informal Settlements as Seen Through a Multiscale Analysis

Abstract

This chapter aims to discuss the segmented city in the less developed world, focusing on its informal settlements. The main assumption is that the walls of informal settlements change from rigid to fuzzy ones, as they are analyzed using finer scales. In order to show this change, this chapter is divided into four sections. The first section analyzes the changes in two types of urban structure model: the segregated city model and the segmented city model. The second section describes the changes in governmental intervention models for informal settlements in Latin American cities, emphasizing what has been happening in the city of Recife, Brazil. The third section investigates the fact that, despite the changes in terms of governmental intervention models for informal settlements, there are still limits on the official city maps that effectively impede any appropriate representation of them. In order to show the gaps between the official cartographic representations and the reality of informal settlements, the last section of this chapter analyzes in more depth the walls of one specific informal settlement in Recife called Brasília Teimosa. This finer scale analysis allows us to see that its walls are even more fuzzy and permeable than the walls of the many formal settlements.

Citation

Normando Macêdo Barros Filho, M. and Gama Monteiro, C.M. (2011), "Chapter 7 Segmented Cities with Fuzzy Walls: Changes in Informal Settlements as Seen Through a Multiscale Analysis", Perrone, C., Manella, G. and Tripodi, L. (Ed.) Everyday Life in the Segmented City (Research in Urban Sociology, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 143-167. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1047-0042(2011)0000011010