The Alliance for Progress and Housing Policy in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires in the 1960s

This article explores the construction of publicly financed low-income housing complexes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the 1960s. These housing developments were possible thanks to the arrival of foreign economic and technical assistance from the Alliance for Progress. Urban scholars, politicians, diplomats and urbanists of the Americas sought to promote middle-class habits, mass consumption and moderate political behaviour, especially among the poor, by expanding access to homeownership and ‘decent’ living conditions for a burgeoning urban population. As a result, the history of low-income housing should be understood within broader transnational discourses and practices about the ‘modernization’ and ‘development’ of the urban poor.

The 1960s: A Bibliography

The time period covered by this bibliography is circa 1960 to 1974, an unusual "decade," to be sure. But because the Civil Rights movements and Watergate framed this era, it became impossible to compile a bibliography on the 1960s without entering the 1970s. The Vietnam War did not end until 1975, which would seem a logical place to end the decade. However, Nixon's resignation sparked more public interest and energy than did the anti-climax of the end of the war. Thus, the time period covered. Although there are some key books on the Civil Rights Movement, which started in the late 1950s, that movement has been adequately covered in other resources.

Color aerial view of Medical campus, incl. "Old Main" Hospital, mid 1960s?

side 2

Economic issues of the 1960s.

Mode of access: Internet.

Furniture, 1960s

[Perspective of Glass and Steel Table], untitled. Colored pencil drawing on tracing paper, 9 3/4 x 17 1/2 inches [from photographic copy by Lance Burgharrdt]

Furniture, 1960s

[Elevations and Plan of Leather and Steel Lobby Seating],untitled. Colored pencil drawings on two sheets of tracing paper, 9 3/4 x 21 1/4 & 8 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches [from photographic copy by Lance Burgharrdt]

Campus protest late 1960s

From Diag [Diagonal] looking toward Rackham