Social capital and morphology of informality in the city of Queretaro

In Latin America, the development of cities has been ruled by political and economic forces that have determined its form and evolution. We refer then to top-down processes known as the “formal city”. However, this work explores the urban structure of settlements, way less explored than the previous ones, the so-called informal or irregular settlements in the city of Querétaro. This is done by means of the analysis of their urban, morphological and spatial patterns which has been referenced to social participation of organized citizen groups to improve habitat quality, through participation maps. We infer that informal settlements built by citizens has morphological and structural patterns which reflect social relationship, and both spatial and social relationship look alike traditional and historic city. A key role for the government of informal city is that of knowledge, which systems can be considered a covenant between citizens and institutions, used to govern the expansion of the urban structure.