Housing and sense of belonging: the defense of the Place of living by social groups undergoing vulnerability processes

Abstract

Housing is a broad theme that may be viewed from different perspectives. This article aims at reflecting on the experience of groups affected by disasters and undergoing social vulnerability processes: they defend the right to remain in their own Place of living in opposition to the experienced threat of deterritorialization. This is about the living experience based on the revelation of meanings that are attributed to the house and to the Place, which point to other dimensions of relations to the space. The Place either reveals the adoption of ways of living and relating to the environment, which, sometimes, have not been chosen, or reveals choices based on reduced possibilities, designing an unequal access to the goods and services offered by the city.