Villas as Urban Change: Contesting Narratives of Modernity in Twentieth-Century Buenos Aires
Adriana Massidda writes about the transformation of urban space in contexts of social and ecological disadvantage. Her main project to date analysed the transformation of the Buenos Aires Southwest marshlands into a landscape of low-income neighbourhoods, shanty towns (villas), and state-sponsored projects over a convoluted period of Argentine history (1956-1967). Residents’ micro-scale and collective actions were key for this transformative process, refuting modernisation discourse which regarded villas as sites of backwardness and disorganisation. More recently she has explored the environmental past of two social housing areas in London and Leicester respectively, interrogating the ways in which it ties into their present.

To join online, please register in advance:
us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpceqtpz8oHdB5ETD8UUb5RfpyAgavKjmM
Date: 30 November 2023, 17:00 (Thursday, 8th week, Michaelmas 2023)
Venue: 1 Church Walk, 1 Church Walk OX2 6LY
Venue Details: Main Seminar Room, Latin American Centre, and online via Zoom
Speaker: Adriana Massidda (University of Sheffield)
Organising department: Latin American Centre
Part of: Latin American History Seminar
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Belinda Clark