Social housing and the urban matter. Thoughts on the analysis of housing policies

This article aims to explore the inter-relations between habitat and city in order to provide some theoretical insights for the study of habitat-related public policies. For that reason a review of the literature on the classical debates is carried out regarding the problem of housing, urban issues, and theories of the Latin American city, after which it is postulated that the contradictions inherent to the access to urban space are not alien to the capital-labor tension. It is stated that in the Latin American context, the study of the dynamics of land markets has been neglected as an explanatory variable of this problem. In addition, it is necessary to deconstruct the "viviendista" or sectorial discourse, part of the dominant ideology of housing policy. It is also argued that the notion of localization is an important perspective to assess habitat policies. Finally, we arrive at the conclusion that one of the main priorities of the policy in relation to the issue of habitat should be the real estate market regulation and the punishment of urban speculation.