Land Use Regularization as Social Policy in Mexico City

• In Event: National and Sub-National Innovations in Social Policy in Mexico: Evaluation and Analysis

Abstract

Property or land regularization represents a longstanding issue of social importance and a major focus of state intervention in Mexico. Access to land, and by default housing, both reflect and reinforce patterns of inequality. More recently, land use regularization is emerging as a prominent social issue, especially in Mexico’s capital city. In the Federal District, new spatial technologies (e.g. geo-referenced surveys and digital mapping) used to map housing, households and communities are now widely integrated into urban policy and planning practices, including those governing land use regularization in informal settlements. While these approaches continue the enduring practice of state intervention in regularizing informal settlements, they also introduce new elements to regularization processes. Based on interviews with city planning officials and local leaders and residents of various informal settlements conducted between 2011 and 2014, this case study explores the governance of informality as a significant policy focus of the local government in the Federal District. The research highlights the importance of spatial calculation not only for tenure security, but also for gaining access to urban services and programs. The research underlines how land and housing policy is closely linked to social policy in the Federal District, as well as to broader questions of citizenship and socio-spatial inclusion. The paper questions the troubling emphasis on “propertied citizenship” (Roy, 2003) for obtaining tenure security and access to social programs, undermining more inclusive notions of citizenship and communal conceptions of land.

Author

• Jill Wigle, Carleton University