Governing the Informal: Housing Policies Over Informal Settlements in China, India, and Brazil

“Habitat 5.0 – Towards affordable and sustainable housing in the developing world” strives to build communities by following urban design patterns for sustainable settlements and goes beyond the mere production of individual housing structures. It is a blockchain-based approach that leads to “disruptive innovations” in order to achieve “quality good enough”1 to upgrade informal settlements. The key approach relies on the secure and verifiable transfer of existing, qualified knowhow that enables residents to participate in the process. The self-building of houses with ecological materials is safer, cheaper, faster, sustainable, and supports the vision of “Glocalization.” Habitat 5.0 is a need-based approach: The need is the lack of affordable and adequate housing which leads to the surge in informal settlements. The idea is to improve informal housing in situ. This need is aggravated when disasters strike, as informal settlements are the most vulnerable when heavy rainfall, floods, storms or earthquakes hit unstable land and unsafe structures. Apart from informal housing, many other cheaply built structures are usually affected and destroyed by natural disasters. Therefore, disaster relief housing is another major potential of this approach.

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Slums, Favelas, and Urban Villages: Housing Policy in the Global South

Current History ◽

10.1525/curh.2020.119.813.15 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 119 (813) ◽

pp. 15-21

Author(s):

Xuefei Ren

Keyword(s):

Housing Policy ◽

Informal Settlements ◽

Global South ◽

Housing Policies ◽

Urban Villages

Comparing China, India, and Brazil reveals that current housing policies in all three countries have produced new forms of exclusion for inhabitants of informal settlements.

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La reproducción de la informalidad en el contexto urbano: el caso de la comuna 20 en Cali, Colombia

Territorios en formación ◽

10.20868/tf.2018.13.3806 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 99

Author(s):

Paula Contreras Paredes

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Armed Conflict ◽

Informal Settlements ◽

Spatial Segregation ◽

Right To The City ◽

Urban Structure ◽

Housing Policies ◽

The Right ◽

The City

La informalidad ha sido una característica permanente en el desarrollo urbano de la comuna 20 de Cali, desde el siglo pasado hasta la actualidad los asentamientos de desarrollo incompleto han ido evolucionando y vinculándose con la ciudad, aunque paralelamente los problemas causados por el conflicto armado también han influenciado en la segregación socio-espacial en este sector de la ladera. En este estudio, se hace referencia a dos de los elementos que incentivaron la reproducción urbana informal, el primero es el déficit de las políticas habitacionales y el segundo las relaciones que se establecen entre la ciudad formal y la ciudad informal. Desde esta hipótesis, se comprueba que debido a la falta de unas soluciones de vivienda adecuada para la población con menos ingresos aumentan los asentamientos informales en la comuna. Sin embargo, la necesidad de ser reconocidos legalmente y de ser partícipes del derecho a la ciudad hacen que se desarrollen procesos de urbanización que permiten una relación con la estructura urbana del contexto. AbstractInformality has been a permanent feature in the urban development of commune 20 in Cali. Since the last century until present days, incomplete development settlements have evolved and linked with the city although at the same time, the problems caused by the armed conflict have also influenced in the socio-spatial segregation in this hillside sector. This study makes reference of two of the main elements that stimulated informal urban reproduction, the first is the deficit of housing policies and the second one is the relation established between the formal city and the informal city. From this hypothesis, it is verified that due to the lack of adequate housing solutions for the less income population rise the informal settlements in the commune. However, the needs of being legally recognized and be part of the-right-to-the-city conduced them to develop urbanization processes that allows a relation with the context’s urban structure.

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Report of Informal Housing Policy in India

Journal of Finance Research ◽

10.26549/jfr.v2i3.1177 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 108

Author(s):

Xi Peng

Keyword(s):

Adverse Effects ◽

Housing Policy ◽

Low Income ◽

Residential Location ◽

Living Standards ◽

Master Plan ◽

Residential Areas ◽

Housing Policies ◽

Informal Housing ◽

Building Regulations

Informal housing can be broadly defined into two types: first, those in which occupants illegally occupy a certain area of a residential location and build a dwelling on the land; second, housing or residential areas which do not meet the master plan or building regulations. This report describes and evaluates the informal housing policies in India, introducing the improvement of the living standards brought on by these policies to the low-income residents of Chennai, while the case of Kannagi Nagar will be used to analyse the adverse effects of said policies.

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Wenn stadtpolitische Bewegungen das Terrain des Staats betreten

PROKLA Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft ◽

10.32387/prokla.v48i191.84 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 48 (191) ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan Diesselhorst

Keyword(s):

Social Movements ◽

City Government ◽

Housing Policies ◽

Hierarchical Decision Making ◽

Urban Social Movements ◽

State Apparatus ◽

Hierarchical Decision ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship ◽

The City

This article discusses the struggles of urban social movements for a de-neoliberalisation of housing policies in Poulantzian terms as a “condensation of the relationship of forces”. Drawing on an empirical analysis of the “Berliner Mietenvolksentscheid” (Berlin rent referendum), which was partially successful in forcing the city government of Berlin to adopt a more progressive housing policy, the article argues that urban social movements have the capacity to challenge neoliberal housing regimes. However, the specific materiality of the state apparatus and its strategic selectivity both limit the scope of intervention for social movements aiming at empowerment and non-hierarchical decision-making.

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Squatting: The Fight for Decent Shelter, 1970s–1980s

Britain and the World ◽

10.3366/brw.2018.0286 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 27-50

Author(s):

John Marsland

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

Public Services ◽

Second World War ◽

World War ◽

Housing Policies ◽

The West ◽

The World ◽

Housing Needs ◽

Post War ◽

Second World

During the twenty years after the Second World War, housing began to be seen as a basic right among many in the west, and the British welfare state included many policies and provisions to provide decent shelter for its citizens. This article focuses on the period circa 1968–85, because this was a time in England when the lack of affordable, secure-tenured housing reached a crisis level at the same time that central and local governmental housing policies received wider scrutiny for their ineffectiveness. My argument is that despite post-war laws and rhetoric, many Britons lived through a housing disaster and for many the most rational way they could solve their housing needs was to exploit loopholes in the law (as well as to break them out right). While the main focus of the article is on young British squatters, there is scope for transnational comparison. Squatters in other parts of the world looked to their example to address the housing needs in their own countries, especially as privatization of public services spread globally in the 1980s and 1990s. Dutch, Spanish, German and American squatters were involved in a symbiotic exchange of ideas and sometimes people with the British squatters and each other, and practices and rhetoric from one place were quickly adopted or rejected based on the success or failure in each place.

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