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Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

En la metrópoli de México, como en otras partes, la movilidad residencial intraurbana es un motor importante de la reconfiguración de la división socioespacial. En las colonias populares la pobreza es predominante; sin embargo, esta característica resulta insuficiente para explicar dichos espacios. El objetivo del artículo es comprender los mecanismos de los anclajes residenciales, así como las recomposiciones socioespaciales que éstos implican. A través del análisis de datos censales y encuestas exploratorias, se pone énfasis en la articulación de los lugares y la variedad de las experiencias de sus habitantes, volviendo obsoletos los enfoques únicos en términos de relegación-consolidación sistemática, o fragmentación.

Because housing quality varies significantly in informal settlements, participatory slum upgrading must be based on fine-grained empirical analysis of design, structural quality, and materials used in self-help housing. Slum severity indices drawing on indicators defined by UN-Habitat have served to map precarious communities in large Global South cities. However, these assessments cannot capture the heterogeneity of self-built homes within consolidated informal settlements. Building on a case study of a consolidated informal settlement in Mexico City, this research presents a replicable model to measure the range of variability of housing quality by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. We used architectural observations and household surveys to construct a qualitative database of housing quality indicators identified by self-help builders. This fine-grained database allowed us to develop a housing quality index that revealed the heterogeneity of housing quality. We then conducted in-depth interviews that illuminated factors beyond household income that shape the consolidation of self-help buildings, including participation in community-based self-help efforts, apprenticeships, incorporation in social networks, and government assistance. By providing fine-grained documentation of self-help housing heterogeneity based on local knowledge, we contribute a globally applicable model to inform more empirically informed and locally appropriate approaches to participatory slum upgrading in informal settlements. [Display omitted] • Consolidated informal settlements display great heterogeneity in housing quality. • Slum upgrading must be based on participatory assessments of housing quality. • Housing quality assessments should couple ethnography with statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos is the property of El Colegio de Mexico AC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Trace: Travaux et Recherches dans les Amériques du Centre is the property of Centro de Estudios Mexicanos & Centroamericanos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aims to characterize urban resources in the context of Mexico City. Through six portraits of six women which migrated to Naucalpan, an industrial suburb of Mexico city, we expect to show how migrant families face the challenge of settling in the metropolis and of building sustainable access to the main resources. The interviews reveal two ways of considering the urban environment, as a constraint and as a potential resource, in order to develop a midterm and long-term family project. More specifically, these women had to organize child care, crucial for their access to employment. The first strategy, classic in the literature, is the anchorage, where solidarity can be reconstituted to deal with situations of vulnerability, the second relies more on the couple centrality-mobility through an intelligence of the urban configuration that make resources available.

Este trabajo se enfoca en el estudio del proceso de densificación habitacional en el con- texto de las colonias populares, con la finalidad de conocer las transformaciones que se generan en este ámbito particular de las ciudades. Se parte del análisis de los factores que impulsan la dinámica de consolidación y posterior densificación de las colonias populares; mismos que permiten entender las transformaciones socio-espaciales que se generan, entre las que se encuentran la aparición de nuevos modos de producción de la vivienda y la llegada de nueva población, impulsando una profunda transformación de los espacios en los que tiene lugar la densificación.

Given the implications of energy use in housing units for global warming, life cycle assessment (LCA) has been used to examine greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although informal settlements, currently known as colonias populares, or barrios, house most of the urban population in Latin America, there is a poor understanding of how people in these communities use energy and contribute to GHG emissions. This investigation provides a comprehensive analysis of resource consumption in Mexico City's colonia popular, including self-help housing, household energy consumption, and transportation. As there is no spatially specific data on energy use, the author conducted field research in the informal community of Isidro Fabela, founded in the 1960s. Isidro Fabela is an illuminating community that helps understand the energy use of informal settlements at advanced stages of urban consolidation. A mixed-method research approach served to collect empirical data through observations, household surveys, and in-depth interviews. Research sheds light on the efficient and sustainable ways in which families use energy, materials, and resources during self-help construction, and through their daily lives, in their community. The community-based LCA assessment finds that the contribution of Isidro Fabela to GHG emissions is 50% of the average impact in Mexico City. Natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumption for water heating is the most significant contributor to GHG emissions because families use inefficient heaters. Interestingly, by using public transportation and even walking, residents moderate the contribution of work commutes to GHG emissions. Therefore, climate change policy should enhance low-energy practices in informal settlements, by improving access to energy-efficient technologies and public transportation, to help families contribute further to GHG mitigation in Mexico City and elsewhere in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for affordable housing in major cities is a familiar challenge worldwide. Mexico City's poorer residents have demonstrated true ingenuity and flexibility in meeting it - as Andrea Martin and Jorge Andrade, cofounders of the housing research collaborative Taller de Vivienda at the Metropolitan University of Mexico, explain. They outline how the form of subdivided urban colonial mansions known as vecindades has influenced that of the randomly planned self-built neighbourhoods termed colonias populares, and examine both: from initial settlement, through expansion and densification, to saturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]