BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Sam Brandt - More Than a Home: Dwelling\, Place\, and Poverty in R
 ural Uruguay - Samuel T. Brandt (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20250512T160000Z
DTEND:20250512T170000Z
UID:TALK231931@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Samaira Gill
DESCRIPTION:How do you house the rural poor at a national scale?\n\nThis q
 uestion drove one of the most audacious social policies in late-twentieth 
 century Latin America. More Than a Home: Dwelling\, Place\, and Poverty in
  Rural Uruguay is a historical\, ethnographic\, and policy-oriented accoun
 t of the origins\, evolution\, and impact of Uruguay’s Movement for the 
 Eradication of Unhealthy Rural Housing (MEVIR). Guided by the slogan\, “
 To see it rain from inside without getting wet”\, MEVIR was founded in 1
 967 to provide dignified living for rural laborers residing in precarious 
 mud and straw dwellings. A parastatal institution premised on mutual aid c
 onstruction\, MEVIR has since built over 33\,000 homes and exists in nearl
 y every small town across Uruguay. A sui generis effort to bring housing p
 olicy\, urban planning\, formal homeownership\, and a sense of community t
 o remote areas\, MEVIR keeps the rural working poor rooted in the places t
 hey call home and away from informal settlements on the periphery of citie
 s. In the predominantly urban field of social housing\, MEVIR is a rare ca
 se of best practices in a rural setting. Three factors explain MEVIR’s s
 ustained effectiveness: a clear objective to serve a specific geographical
  context\, a methodology of policy implementation as a process of social g
 rowth\, and a sensitivity to the scales and places where it operates. As m
 y travels to all nineteen departments (akin to counties) of Uruguay with M
 EVIR technicians illustrate\, MEVIR vindicates the power of geographic kno
 wledge.\n\nSamuel T. Brandt is a cultural-historical geographer of Latin A
 merica\, namely the Southern Cone and Brazil. He is a Research Fellow in A
 rts\, Humanities\, and Social Sciences at Gonville and Caius College\, Uni
 versity of Cambridge. His scholarly work has been published in the Geograp
 hical Review\, the Journal of Latin American Geography\, and the AAG Revie
 w of Books. The recipient of two Fulbright awards\, he has also written ab
 out Uruguay for a variety of magazines and newspapers.
LOCATION:Small Lecture Theatre\, Geography Department\, Cambridge
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR