The struggle of the 'invisibles': social policies and the urban poor. Planning within scarcity in the Northwest of Portugal.

• Main Author: Ana Fernandes
• Publication Date: 2014
• Other Authors: Nuno Travasso, Manuel Fernandes Sá
• Format: Book
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Download full: https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/77239
• topic: Políticas urbanas, Arquitectura, Artes; Urban policy, Architecture, Arts

Throughout the intense urbanisation process that occurred in Portugal during the last decades, social policies related with the built environment, and especially concerning housing, have shown to be insufficient to address and reverse precarious living conditions. Moreover, in this process the urban poor have often been 'invisible', even in major decisions that specifically concerned them, meaning that social policies have at times not only missed their target of reducing precariousness but have also actively contributed to increasing social and spatial exclusion, through inducing the creation of clusters of vulnerabilities or neglecting adequate support. Taking into account the recent worldwide economic crisis and its national impact in producing a condition of 'scarcity', it is urgent to rethink strategies and roles to reduce disparities. The metropolitan urban area of Porto, the second largest in Portugal, is here presented as a 'laboratory' within a broader ongoing research - commissioned by the Portuguese Government to the Porto University - to seek guidelines for social and territorial cohesion.Therefore, having this metropolitan area as background, this paper will start by presenting a critical analysis of different approaches towards the needs and roles of the urban poor, discussing not only how '(in)visible' they have been and how social policies have shaped the city, but also their impact in the concentration or dilution of socially vulnerable groups, and in the perpetuation and rupture of geographically concentrated vulnerability.Secondly, it will suggest the analysis of different types of vulnerabilities, understanding processes that have caused them, and their specific morphological patterns. Then it will be discussed how policies for reducing disparities have been struggling to address this diversity and sometimes missing their targets. Finally, detecting in the international debate on social policies a recent tendency to seek collaborative approaches, we aim to contribute to discussing the tools for this challenge.