Socio-spatial fragmentation of popular urbanizations on the outskirts of the city of Culiacan Rosales

Abstract

The aim of this article is to provide an analysis of the socio-spatial fragmentation of popular urbanisations on the edge of Culiacán Rosales, the state capital of Sinaloa, which are the main form of housing in this intermediate city. Research was conducted on the basis of quantitative data, cartographic material, census information and interviews with officials in government offices. With satellite images from Google Earth and through field-work, georeferenced thematic maps were elaborated using the free software of QGIS. The project began with a classification of the different types of popular urbanisations on the periphery of the city. The main form of housing in two thirds of the city as a whole, is that of various types of popular urbanisation: there are social housing developments built by private companies (fraccionamientos), neighbourhoods of self-built housing on formally subdivided land (colonias), originally informal settlements (asentamientos de origen irregular), and villages (poblados) or rural townships (localidades rurales). Although they are adjacent, they do not mix, which leads to a particular socio-spatial fragmentation of the periphery of the city. Real estate subdivisions are the type with the most barriers, placed by the developers as paet of their merchandising. Most urban studies have concentrated on the big metropolitan centres, and especially on the insular social housing estates (fraccionamientos) of the periphery. Few studies have taken up the subject of popular urbanisations and even less have analysed the fragmentation seen in intermediate cities. The study presented here has made the diversity of popular urbanisations more visible, with an emphasis on the importance of identifying the different types, studying their distribution, and explaining the important role their variety plays in the socio-spatial fragmentation of the city.