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D. Vanegas and M. Bose
1 Introduction
In endeavoring to create sustainable urban environments, cities around the world
need to draw on extensive research in adapting their policies and subsequent planning efforts. In the face of rapidly growing low-income urban populations, providing
a high-quality urban environment constitutes a significant challenge, which sustainability research is called on to help address. Cities in developing countries provide
a rich and complex field for sustainability research where environmental, economic,
and social aspects intertwine with urban phenomena such as informality, expressed
through living environments referred to as slums, favelas, or shanty towns. Such environments are defined by poverty and may also be present in other urban contexts. For
Latin American cities, 20–70% of urban land has been informally developed to provide housing for the lowest-income urban populations (UN Habitat 2004). A small
percentage of low-income housing has been built through formal housing delivery
processes by governments and more recently through private–public partnerships
(Ruiz 2006). Interest in the difference between planned (formal) and unplanned
(informal) neighborhoods and the residents’ perspectives on these is what drives the
present research.
An extensive body of literature has been published on informally produced residential environments (Amin 2014; Dovey 2016) based on the well-established connections between the social and physical manifestations of cities (Tonkiss 2014).
Even though the social aspects of residential environments have been acknowledged
as key contributors to sustainability, research on the linkages between residential
environment features and sustainability has been characterized as limited (Dempsey
et al. 2011). A recent study considers residential satisfaction (RS) along with social
capital and a sense of community as crucial social outcomes contributing to social
sustainability.
It is our contention that low-income residents of neighborhoods of formal origin
and low-income residents of neighborhoods of informal origin differ both in terms of
their perceptions of the residential features of their neighborhoods and in terms of the
residential features that contribute most to a sense of RS. This study focuses on RS,
particularly on the views and experiences of residents of formal origin neighborhoods
and likewise of residents of informal origin neighborhoods. Based on this usercentered approach, we are able to advance the field’s understanding of objective
measures of residential environments such as density, tenure, and mix of land uses.
2 Background
2.1 Residential Satisfaction
The field of RS research emerged as a scientific response to assumptions made about
the quality of residential areas provided for low-and moderate-income people. Based
D. Vanegas and M. Bose
1 Introduction
In endeavoring to create sustainable urban environments, cities around the world
need to draw on extensive research in adapting their policies and subsequent planning efforts. In the face of rapidly growing low-income urban populations, providing
a high-quality urban environment constitutes a significant challenge, which sustainability research is called on to help address. Cities in developing countries provide
a rich and complex field for sustainability research where environmental, economic,
and social aspects intertwine with urban phenomena such as informality, expressed
through living environments referred to as slums, favelas, or shanty towns. Such environments are defined by poverty and may also be present in other urban contexts. For
Latin American cities, 20–70% of urban land has been informally developed to provide housing for the lowest-income urban populations (UN Habitat 2004). A small
percentage of low-income housing has been built through formal housing delivery
processes by governments and more recently through private–public partnerships
(Ruiz 2006). Interest in the difference between planned (formal) and unplanned
(informal) neighborhoods and the residents’ perspectives on these is what drives the
present research.
An extensive body of literature has been published on informally produced residential environments (Amin 2014; Dovey 2016) based on the well-established connections between the social and physical manifestations of cities (Tonkiss 2014).
Even though the social aspects of residential environments have been acknowledged
as key contributors to sustainability, research on the linkages between residential
environment features and sustainability has been characterized as limited (Dempsey
et al. 2011). A recent study considers residential satisfaction (RS) along with social
capital and a sense of community as crucial social outcomes contributing to social
sustainability.
It is our contention that low-income residents of neighborhoods of formal origin
and low-income residents of neighborhoods of informal origin differ both in terms of
their perceptions of the residential features of their neighborhoods and in terms of the
residential features that contribute most to a sense of RS. This study focuses on RS,
particularly on the views and experiences of residents of formal origin neighborhoods
and likewise of residents of informal origin neighborhoods. Based on this usercentered approach, we are able to advance the field’s understanding of objective
measures of residential environments such as density, tenure, and mix of land uses.
2 Background
2.1 Residential Satisfaction
The field of RS research emerged as a scientific response to assumptions made about
the quality of residential areas provided for low-and moderate-income people. Based