The cities of today are confronted with ever-increasing numbers of informal settlements. Notwithstanding four decades of national and international efforts to reverse the distressing state of affairs, slums have become the main housing type worldwide -slum formation nothing but increasing. The undermined and untapped potential that urban informality represents critically hinders human progress. Narrow approaches to slum upgrading and to informal dwellers produce insufficient and unsustainable results. The few comprehensive, multidimensional, and integral slum upgrading programs attest that a change of perspective is very much needed. To this effect, we have conceived a pyramid on the indispensable elements of slum upgrading: to illustrate our proposed methodology for attaining more sustainable, comprehensive, and humanized solutions vis-à-vis urban informality. Urban development; human development; slum upgrading; social urbanism; placemaking. Desarrollo urbano; desarrollo humano; mejora de asentamientos informales; creación de lugares. Autor Abstract Comillas Journal of International Relations | nº 15 | 099-119 [2019] [ISSN 2386-5776] 99Las ciudades de hoy día se enfrentan a crecientes tasas de asentamientos informales. A pesar de las cuatro décadas de esfuerzos a escala nacional e internacional para revertir esta preocupante situación, los asentamientos informales se han convertido en el tipo de vivienda más extendido, y la formación de esta clase de barrios no ha hecho más que crecer. La informalidad representa un potencial socavado e inaprovechado, lo que supone un obstáculo tremendo para el progreso humano. El enfoque restrictivo que se tiene de las técnicas de mejora de asentamientos y de sus habitantes solo puede dar lugar a resultados insuficientes e insostenibles. Los pocos programas de mejora de asentamientos informales que son exhaustivos, multidimensionales e integrales dan testimonio de lo mucho que se necesita un cambio de perspectiva. Con este fin, hemos compuesto una pirámide sobre los elementos indispensables en la mejora de asentamientos informales, con el fin de ilustrar nuestra propuesta metodológica para alcanzar soluciones más sostenibles, completas y humanas frente a la informalidad urbana.

In Latin America, accessibility is increasingly becoming a priority in urban planning. Yet, looking closer and multidimensionally, its application tends to perpetuate socio-economic-spatial imbalances and segregation in the region by concentrating in few cities only. In addition, accessibility research and literature at the global scale usually over-focus on spatial and statistical analysis to the disregard of the concept’s social and intangible dimensions––as is digital accessibility. Through the case study of the social housing complex of Ciudad Verde, Soacha––to the southeast of Bogotá, Colombia––, I contribute qualitative depth to the ‘accessibility’ concept by looking at it through its intersection with sustainability and the ‘formality-informality’ continuum (Lévy, 2020). Within the framework of a larger research project on urban sustainability in Ciudad Verde (which conducted focal group interviews and map-based surveys), I also place due attention on digital accessibility through Facebook. I recognize the platform as an accessibility tool for residents and use it as a research methodology. This diverse range of evidence revealed limbic elements hindering accessibility in Ciudad Verde. By using the resulting accessibility limbo as an analytical lens, this dissertation extracts lessons on how the Colombian complex can unleash its accessibility and sustainability. I argue that local (in) formal practices of access hold the clues for this; since they point at the missing pieces from a multi-scalar and multidimensional standpoint.

Since the creation of UN-Habitat in 1978, development agendas have shown an increased global focus in cities and urban challenges. Fast-growing urbanization rates the world over, urban challenges, and in particular slums, critically hinder human progress. Despite the international recognition, conventional approaches to the slum question fail to accomplish solid results. Evidence has it that Latin America has become the world's signpost in integral, inclusive urban development. The few comprehensive, yet crucial, slum upgrading programs being implemented in the region attest to that. We see the potential in this region to lead to a better future for slum upgrading--ergo, for human development. For that purpose, we have selected ten representative Latin American slum upgrading programs to help us illustrate our proposed methodology for achieving more comprehensive and sustainable results in slum upgrading practices.