Repelling violence by design? Effects of the social and physical structure of resettlement communities on violence in the Bajo Lempa, El Salvador
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Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
Confronted with violence and chaos in the 1980-1992 Salvadoran Civil War, citizens fled to nearby countries to wait out the conflict. In the process most lost their land and their livelihoods. At the war’s end, citizens returned in large numbers, but, as a result of government economic reforms and land repatriation processes, they were forced to relocate into different regions than those from which they had come. In many cases, people relocated with those they had fled with and/or met in refugee camps, and established new communities using only what skills they possessed collectively to establish a governing structure and physical design. As a result, several communities were founded in the early to mid-1990s throughout El Salvador by people in very similar circumstances, but with many different ideas about what an “ideal” community might look like. Currently, many of these planned communities, along with the country at large, face daunting levels of violence, especially gang violence. What is unique, however, is that some these communities are much more successful in keeping violence outside their borders. This paper asks why?
Description
Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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All Rights Reserved