A schematic proposal for an analysis of self-build in Latin America as a mass and plural phenomenon

Abstract

The importance of the building phenomenon, known as self-build is particularly marked in Latin America: by virtue of its quantitative volume, and of the variety of the forms and types in which it can appear The author proposes a series of possible classifications of self-build from the following points of view: as a process; as a product; technological context and socio-political context. The work sets out eleven typical cases of self-build processes in very different parts of Latin America, and analyses them according to previously established criteria. The outcome, shown as a graph, clearly shows the different variations which can exist in the wide context of a single phenomenon: self-build.