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.
Introduction Self-building, and the partly informal city that is created by this practice, is a common characteristic in Brazilian city-regions. The urban fabric is a complex cohabitation of more formal and informal – affordable – city quarters, realised in a situation of extensive urban growth over the last decades. In Europe, the impact of low- and middle-income housing on the social and spatial shape of city-regions differs highly among states and regions with different forms of welfare capitalism (Esping-Andersen, 1990 ; Kemeny, 1995 ). Such as
entrepreneurial role, pursuing growth strategies focused on the urban land market and becoming more aggressive and hegemonic. The organisation of housing production radically transformed with these changes and the introduction of new financial instruments. This chapter critically analyses the shifting housing regimes and their repercussions on place making and the quality of Istanbul’s neighbourhoods, which aroused considerable dissent and resistance among residents. Shifting housing regimes in Istanbul Emergent forms of self-building in housing production: 1950
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.
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.
part of the chapter will pay attention to the position and active involvement of low- and middle-income residents in the creation of housing in city-regions. We wonder how residents organise their commitment in an epoch of political and economic liberalisation. As outlined in the general introduction to this book, our focus on self-building is oriented to the active commissioning role (Bossuyt et al, 2018 ) and moral ownership of urban residents (Lefebvre, 1996 ). This commissioning role entails a variety of tenures, ranging from rented dwellings, to owner
