Vivienda y estrategias familiares de vida en barrios populares consolidados en Bogotá

Abstract

This paper questions the way in which household owners, residents in consolidated working-class neighborhoods, mobilize their houses in their strategies for family life. This study was conducted in five informal neighborhoods in Bogota, applying 355 surveys and 29 in-depth interviews using a biographical approach. The results show the economic centrality of housing for these vulnerable households. They confirm that their houses are increasingly important to contain crises and in good times the house is the first to be invested in. In terms of social mobility, in some cases, the house has allowed for children to study, but in others its construction has provoked disinvestment in human capital. In short, for these households, owning a house has a role in containing the insecurities –typical of current capitalism and the neoliberal state– of the social system.