| Most housing, and indeed cities themselves, are produced through "self-help" or informal housing and settlement processes, especially in the developing world. For most low-income households, this housing provides not only their shelter, but also their most valuable and productive asset. Access to land is often the most difficult part of this informal settlement process, and in general, the land affordable to the urban poor is often remotely located. The study explores how more peripheral locations undermine the productive potential of housing, especially among women whose mobility is limited by their dual roles in productive and social reproduction activities. Using a comparative mixed-methods case study, this study compares the impact of location on housing-work connections in two informally-settled communities in Mexico City, Ampliacion San Marcos and Copilco el Bajo. Though settled at different times in the city's history, these communities are now relatively consolidated. They are, however, located in different parts of the city: Copilco el Bajo is situated in a relatively central and heterogeneous part of the city, and Ampliacion San Marcos is located in the more homogeneous periphery within the ambit of the city's poorer south-eastern section. The findings illustrate the limitations of the prevailing policy focus on in-situ or place-specific upgrading activities. They also highlight the importance of situating housing in a broader socio-spatial context which emphasizes not only access to land, but also access to the city more broadly, based on a better understanding of the linkages among land, shelter and livelihoods for the urban poor. |
