Illegal urbanizations in Spain: Between the capitalist production of space and the Social Production of Habitat

Abstract

The way cities have grown in recent decades has resulted in a profound transformation of their urban structure. In Latin America, this process has been marked by the predominance of self-construction and informal developments under different models, including the Social Production of the Habitat. In Spain, this growth has manifested itself through processes of urban dispersion with the particularity of having welcomed, together with planned developments, others carried out outside the planning. Associated with these, the illegal urbanizations had a special incidence in the seventies and eighties of the last century. In this context, the objective of the article is to establish an analysis two forms of city
production that, although manifested in different spatial and socioeconomic contexts, present certain common elements. Methodologically, the research is presented from a double perspective; of a theoretical nature, from the analysis of secondary sources putting in dialogue two conceptual traditions of similar processes in different regions. And the second of an empirical type, focused on the study of the spatial scope of illegal developments in Spain. The results suggest that they maintain a significant presence in the peripheries of the country’s main cities. And, secondly, that the changes of model have turned it into a mode of production of space outside the official channels and, in a sense, not alienated by the State, traits that bring it closer to the Social Production of the Habitat.