Inhabiting Debt

Debt is not something that can be circumscribed to the relationship between economies, finance, 'development' and society, but operates within phenomena of intensifying social, gender and racial inequalities, as well as in the various forms of environmental and climate injustice. Conceived as a practice of dwelling, debt manifests itself according to precise forms of spatial production that responds to political and climate challenges with new modes of operation and design solutions. This book examines the relationship between access to housing and indebtedness in four emblematic neighborhoods in Ecuador. Drawing on observations of social housing districts and interviews with the inhabitants, this volume identifies characteristics of the relationship between informal private debt and spatial production processes that cross scales and intertwine with geopolitical dynamics. This collaboration with the Schools of Architecture of the Universities of Loja and Quito aims to both make visible the 'presence' of debt within the processes of contemporary spatial production and to (re)define strategies for spaces and living with debt.