Category: Allgemein

The residents of Peregrinos de Chapi (but also in our other neighbourhoods) have as their goal the formalisation of ownership in their neighbourhood. Property titles do not only mean more security for the residents regarding their land and the buildings erected on it, but also strengthen the claim to infrastructure services such as water and electricity. They thus represent a central tool for the formalisation of the pueblos jovenes. To demand their land titles, the president of the association organised a protest march in the centre of Arequipa. The route led past the office of the state registration authority and the headquarters of the Arequipa regional administration. Talks were held with employees at both institutions and documents were handed in, and an employee of the administration also addressed a few words to the protesters. The protest ended at the Plaza de Armas, the central square in the city centre. Here, all participants signed up on lists to document their participation.

In the “pueblos jovenes” there are often neighbourhood meetings organised by the presidents of the associations on Sundays. The neighbours also meet there to work on the development of the local infrastructures themselves. According to the associations’ statutes, non-participation is subject to a penalty fee for neighbours. We have taken part in many of these meetings, conducted interviews there, documented ourselves with photos or had the neighbours take pictures for the project. We also helped out ourselves and had people explain to us how auto-construction works in the different contexts of the neighbourhoods.

Angeles de la Cruz- in hilly Sachaca, residents are busy constructing 2 central connecting roads at different elevation levels. The building material is cut out of the hill directly on site, the resulting free flat areas are already planned as plots for further residential houses. These projects will continue for several months until the first cars can drive on the roads. It is unclear when the government will take over the tarring and the installation of professional protection on the sides of the roads.

Casa Huerta de las Lomas del Cural – Here, the first steps towards the design of the central square are being taken by the residents. The municipality has provided several hundred trees, each resident plants four of these trees him- or herself and is subsequently also responsible for the care and watering of these trees.

Sector 10 in Peregrinos de Chapi – this is also part of the activities at the neighbourhood gatherings. On the central square in Sector 10, neighbours meet on Sunday afternoons after the meeting and play volleyball together. The neighbours would like playground equipment for the neighbouring open space so that their children also have something to do within sight. At the moment, the management of Sector 10 is looking for funding options for this; municipal or government funding options are not known to those responsible.

The conclusion of the first exploratory phase in the field research in Arequipa was the final selection of three neighborhoods in the north, west and south of the city. All three neighborhoods are united by their relatively young age of 15-25 years and the construction activity of current and future residents. The neighborhoods are organized as “asociaciones” and the neighbors elect a president every two years. This president, in turn, has a varying amount of personnel and material resources at his disposal. This administrative apparatus is financed by contributions from the residents. Through the support of the three presidents of the neighborhoods, it has already been possible to gather a lot of information and establish contacts with the residents. We have completed many field visits and observed a wide variety of forms of infrastructure provision and the underlying processes of their social and material production.

In the next phase of the field research, we will conduct on-site interviews with many residents to focus on their perspectives on the development of their neighborhoods and, in particular, their use of water and mobility. In addition to the semi-structured interviews, some residents will be asked to take photos of their perspective on their neighborhood in order to capture key places and developments for them.

Angeles de la Cruz is located in the west of the center of Arequipa in the district of Sachaca. Buildings are constructed on a hill surrounded by agricultrual land.

Peregrinos de Chapi is located in the south of Arequipa Center in the district of Quequeña. The association covers a lot of land and is divided into 10 sectors. We conduct our fieldwork in sector 10, the newest of them.

Casa Huerta las Lomas de Cural in the north of Arequipa is located in the district of Cerro Colorado which is often described as the arrival area for many immigrants coming from other regions in Peru, mostly north of Arequipa.

Christian Rosen’s field research in Arequipa, Peru, began on 2 April. For a total of three months, he will be researching hybrid forms of urban development in various parts of the city using the concept of delivery configurations of the infrastructures water and mobility. The first two weeks are dedicated to explorative work. This includes visits to many different neighbourhoods, including initial discussions with residents, discussions with researchers from local universities and initial interviews with other local experts. The aim is to review the case selection already prepared in advance and to determine a suitable procedure for the following phase of on-site field research in the neighbourhoods.

First impressions from two city districts:

Consolidated neighbourhoods in Sachaca next to agricultural areas

New developments of high price housing on former agricultural lands in Sachaca

Land of a housing association in Cerro Colorado being protected by a wall. Multiple housing projects being constructed inside.

Water supply for the surrounding houses in Cerro Colorado