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Comparing self-build experiences in city-regions over three continents, this book spans gigantic local differences. In order to make sense of comparison, a strict selection of paradigm is made to focus the analysis in all cases on the same relationships. The paradigm combines critical economic theory (coined by David Harvey) and cultural institutional analysis (inspired by Henri Lefebvre) in order to focus on the struggle between material and immaterial forces underlying the local performances. The analysis focuses both on the micro level performances and at the trans scalar social and political conditions to these practices. The commissioning role of residents vis-à-vis the role of the leading social movements focus on the social normalisation of moral ownership of the poor residents. The challenge is to sustain this active institutionalisation also in future processes of professionalization as the relationships on the lower segments of housing markets appear to be vulnerable for commercial economic exploitation.
Comparing self-build experiences in city-regions over three continents, this book spans gigantic local differences. In order to make sense of comparison, a strict selection of paradigm is made to focus the analysis in all cases on the same relationships. The paradigm combines critical economic theory (coined by David Harvey) and cultural institutional analysis (inspired by Henri Lefebvre) in order to focus on the struggle between material and immaterial forces underlying the local performances. The analysis focuses both on the micro level performances and at the trans scalar social and political conditions to these practices. The commissioning role of residents vis-à-vis the role of the leading social movements focus on the social normalisation of moral ownership of the poor residents. The challenge is to sustain this active institutionalisation also in future processes of professionalization as the relationships on the lower segments of housing markets appear to be vulnerable for commercial economic exploitation.
The concluding chapter epitomizes the empirical findings of contested urban governance in the empirical case studies and compares the institutional regime conditions of self-build housing in contrasting contexts. By focusing on the social and economic struggle on public regime conditions, we aim to analyse and compare the performances and challenges of very different self-build experiences in city-regions on three continents. Guided by this framework, the most important empirical findings of the case studies are inferred in this concluding chapter.
Comparing the housing situation of European city-regions is complicated by the large differences between social-economic and institutional conditions. In the first part of the chapter, a global indication is given of the different tenures, the differences of accessibility, and the recent tendencies of housing conditions. Social and private rent appear to be the most common arrangements for low- and middle-income groups; these are provided by different public and private sector agencies. The second part of the chapter discusses recent experiences of articulating the commissioning role of tenants vis à vis the public sector, the market and the established developers in a number of significant cases.
The combination of the population explosion and the unbridled and disjointed urbanization in Burkina Faso is posing a crucial problem of poor access to decent housing. This chapter distinguishes different stages of urban development in Burkina, and analyses the inconsistency of public measures. It also discusses the role of housing markets and governments in a country where self-construction is the main mode of housing production; the withdrawal of the State from the organization of housing promotion; and the emergence of a civil society.
This chapter delves in the evolution of the city of Kamëz from a small town in the suburbs of Tirana, the capital of Albania, to a city of over 90,000 inhabitants. Practices of self-built are analysed in three main timeframes reflecting the different socio-political conditions of Albania. Initially, experiences of self-built are analysed in the pre-1990s in Kamëz during the dictatorial regime. Afterwards, the analysis is focused on the dynamic evolution of the area of Bathore, a neighbourhood in Kamëz, in a complete absence urban management by the state and where citizens through informal development populated the whole area. In the end, the chapter is focused on a project for the improvement of the neighbourhood which afterwards became a common practice for the evolution of the city through self-built practices. The main focus of the analysis is on the role of state, non-state and citizens in the process of self-built experiences in Albania.
This chapter explores how the different arrangements of low- and middle-income housing at the micro-level relate to processes of city building at the level of the city-region. We study how the social and economic contestation on the uses of urban land translate into new spatial patterns of urban and regional development. This is concretely done through a comparative case study of a Brazilian and an European city-region. This comparative perspective will sensitize the empirical investigation to the effect of the (changes of) institutional context and regimes on housing arrangements and spatial patterns of city building. A specific focus will be on self-building arrangements as practices that challenge existing formal systems of city building in both cases.
The chapter shows how the housing policies for the low-income population in Brazil, especially in São Paulo, were transformed by popular practices. The huge increase of the Brazilian favela population in the last decades reaching more than 11 million inhabitants (about 6% of the Brazilian population in 2010) has led institutions to gradually tolerate heterodox practices (such as land invasion) and even to have them legalized by the public power. Starting from the point of view of Latin American urbanization and irregularity reality, this article describes the gradual institutionalizing of informal governance arrangements in Brazil and the evolution of the intervention paradigm from the 1960’s to the present day.
The chapter sets up the analytical framework for the comparison of cases of self-building by low income groups in city-regions of the Global North and South. Considering the enormous local differences, a choice of paradigm is needed to enable comparison. By designing a framework of contested urban governance, the analysis focuses on the struggle of social and economic forces that are underlying the local experiences: it consists of the economic powers that capitalize on material growth of cities on the one hand and the social and cultural powers of the urban population, claiming their right to the city, on the other. Crucial is the commissioning role of the residents in the attempts to control their housing situation in relation to other relevant players on urban housing markets. These attempts are not only made in the micro-level performance of self-building but also in the political and social struggle on the conditions that rest on these practices.
The chapter analyses two experiences of housing production through the federal Program ‘My Life My House Entities’ in São Paulo: Ipiranga/ Dandara and Maria Domitila buildings, both projects of Unification of the Tenements and Housing Struggles (Unificação das Lutas de Cortiços e Moradia – ULCM) movement. São Paulo has a long history of innovative policies regarding self-build housing. During the last two decades, government housing programs steadily incorporated self-help and collective task forces. The text analyses the opportunity of high quality affordable housing in central areas based on self-help and participative practices in the recent Brazilian experience.
