Introduction Defining self-building is not an easy task. It varies from place to place, from time to time and according to the dwellers’ income. Self-building may be an evident option for high-income residents but remains highly challenging for low- and moderate-income households all over the world, in particular, in densely urbanised city-regions with their characteristic scarcities of land and contested uses of space. This book investigates the self-build initiatives of low- and middle-income residents in city-regions in international comparison. We are
(Bayat, 2000 ; Bayat and Biekart, 2009 ; O’Connor, 2013 ). People are pulled into cities by economic opportunities, different lifestyles and improved well-being prospects for themselves and their relatives, whom they might leave (temporarily) behind in rural areas. The larger parts of what most African cities could be have not yet been built (World Bank, 2017 ), leading to the overpopulation of existing urban housing, high costs and self-building on marginal land plots. Simultaneously, urban development pushes existing groups of poor and marginalised people and
Using a broad international comparative perspective spanning multiple countries across South America, Europe and Africa, contributors explore resident-led self-building for low- and middle-income groups in urban areas. Although social, economic and urban prosperity differs across these contexts, there exists a recurring, cross-continental, tension between formal governance and self-regulation.
Contributors examine the multifaceted regulation dilemmas of self-building under the conditions of modernisation and consider alternative methods of institutionalisation, place-making and urban design, reconceptualising the moral and managerial ownership of the city. Innovative in scope, this book provides an array of globalised solutions for navigating regulatory tensions in order to optimise sustainable development for the future.
In Creating Community-Led and Self-Build Homes, Martin Field explores the ways in which people and communities across the UK have been striving to create the homes and neighbourhood communities they want.
Giving context to contemporary practices in the UK, the book examines ‘self-build housing’ and ‘community-led housing’, discussing the commonalities and distinctions between these in practice, and what could be learned from other initiatives across Europe.
Individual methods and models of local practice are explored - including cohousing, cooperatives, community land trusts, empty homes and other intentional communities - and an examination is made of what has constrained such initiatives to date and how future policies and practice might be shaped.
This bold new textbook represents a significant step forward in social policy teaching by combining comparative and global perspectives.
Introducing readers to a wide spread of international challenges and issues, the book shows how insights into policy can be generated using a comparative and multidisciplinary approach. Global in its canvas and analytical in its method, the book:
• explores the economic, social and political contexts of social policy;
• examines in detail its institutions and fields of practice;
• illustrates the field’s main ideas, themes and practices, drawing on a rich international literature and using pertinent and thought-provoking examples.
Authored by two highly respected and experienced academics, this book demonstrates the rewards of studying social policy from an international perspective by avoiding the constraints of a single-nation focus. Clear, authoritative and wide-ranging, it will be essential reading for students of social sciences taking courses covering social policy, social welfare and comparative policy analysis.
Comedy and Critique explores British professional stand-up comedy in the wake of the Alternative Comedy movement of the late twentieth century, seeing it as an extension of the politics of the New Left: standing up for oneself as anti-racist, feminist and open to a queering of self and social institutions.
Daniel Smith demonstrates that the comic sensibility pervading contemporary humour is as much ‘speaking truth to power’ as it is realising one’s position ‘in’ power. The professionalisation of New Left humour offers a challenge to social and cultural critique. Stand-up comedy has made us all sociologists of self, identity and cultural power while also resigning us to a place where a comic sensibility becomes an acknowledgment of the necessity of social change.
The challenge of violence against women should be recognised as an issue for the state, citizenship and the whole community. This book examines how responses by the state sanction violence against women and shape a woman’s citizenship long after she has escaped from a violent partner.
Drawing from a long-term study of women’s lives in Australia, including before and after a relationship with a violent partner, it investigates the effects of intimate partner violence on aspects of everyday life including housing, employment, mental health and social participation.
The book contributes to theoretical explanations of violence against women by reframing it through the lens of sexual politics. Finally, it offers critical insights for the development of social policy and practice.
Known as ‘the land of fire’, Azerbaijan’s politics are materially and ideologically shaped by energy. In the country, energy security emerges as a mix of coercion and control, requiring widespread military and law enforcement deployment.
This book examines the extensive network of security professionals and the wide range of practices that have spread in Azerbaijan’s energy sector. It unpacks the interactions of state, supra‐state, and private security organizations and argues that energy security has enabled and normalized a coercive way of exercising power. This study shows that oppressive energy security practices lead to multiple forms of abuse and poor energy policies.
Involved in educating social work professionals? Overwhelmed and demoralised by the current climate of cuts to services and over-regulation? This unique book written by practice educators, students and academics offers hope.
This collection of innovative approaches to social work placements addresses subjects including sustainability, student-led services, overseas placements, the value of the third-sector, supporting students from minority groups and the visual arts. The international and diverse contributions offer practical guidance and challenge conventional approaches to placement finding, teaching and assessment in field education.
Written from a global social work perspective this is essential reading for anyone responsible for ensuring quality placements for future professionals.
In this important contribution to urban studies, Juliet Davis makes the case for a more ethical and humane approach to city development and management.
With a range of illustrative case studies, the book challenges the conventional and neoliberal thinking of urban planners and academics, and explores new ways to correct problems of inequality and exclusion. It shows how a philosophy of caring can improve both city environments and communities.
This is an original and powerful theory of urban care that can promote the wellbeing of our cities’ many inhabitants.
