Breaking the Cycle: Women’s Perceptions of the Causes of Violence and Crime in Informal Settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, and Their Strategies for Response and Prevention

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110280
Author(s):  
Samantha C. Winter ◽  
Lena Moraa Obara ◽  
Nathan Jason Aguilar ◽  
Laura Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Women's Voices ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Women’S Perceptions ◽  
Causes Of Violence

Crime and violence are serious issues in informal settlements around the world. To date, there is a dearth of evidence about the causes of and effective strategies for reducing and preventing violence and crime in informal settlements in cities in the Global South. Additionally, women’s voices are often absent from research focused on violence and crime prevention and reduction in informal settlements. The purpose of this study, therefore, was (1) to identify potential causes of violence and crime in informal settlements, as perceived by women living in Mathare informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya and (2) to highlight residents’ strategies for response and prevention. Fifty-five in-depth and walk-along interviews were conducted with women living in Mathare in 2015-2016. A modified grounded theory approach was used to guide data collection and analysis. The most common contributor to violence and crime identified by women in Mathare was idle youth, but leadership and government challenges, corruption and/or inadequacy of police, community barriers, tribalism, and lack of protective infrastructure also emerged as contributing factors. Despite facing many economic, environmental, and day-to-day challenges, women in Mathare identified violence and crime as predominant issues; thus, developing effective response and prevention strategies to these issues is paramount. Women discussed many strategies and initiatives to reduce and prevent violence and crime in informal settlements, but also identified barriers to implementing them. Findings suggest there is a need for trust-building between formal and informal sectors of the community, systems of accountability, and long-term investment to foster sustainable and effective violence and crime response and prevention in these settlements.

scholarly journals Breaking the Cycle: Women’s Perceptions of the Causes of Violence and Crime in Informal Settlements in Nairobi, Kenya and their Strategies for Response and Prevention

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Winter ◽  
Lena Moraa Obara ◽  
Nathan Jason Aguilar ◽  
Laura Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Women’S Perceptions ◽  
Causes Of Violence ◽  
Grounded Theory Approach

The purpose of this study was to identify potential causes of violence and crime in informal settlements and residents’ strategies for response and prevention to these issues, as perceived by women living in Mathare informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. A total of 55 in-depth interviews were conducted with women living in the informal settlement in 2015-2016. A modified grounded theory approach was used to guide data collection and analysis. The most common contributor to violence and crime identified by women in Mathare informal settlement was idle youth, but leadership and government challenges, corruption and/or inadequacy of police, community barriers, tribalism, and lack of protective infrastructure also emerged as contributing factors. Despite facing many economic, environmental, and day-to-day challenges, women in Mathare identified violence and crime as predominant issues; thus, developing effective response and prevention strategies to these issues in informal settlements is paramount. Women suggest there are many strategies and initiatives to reduce and prevent violence and crime in informal settlements, but also identified barriers to implementing them. Findings suggest there is a need for trust-building between formal and informal organizations and institutions, systems of accountability, and long-term investment to foster sustainable and effective violence and crime response and interventions in these settlements.

“Next, it will be you”: Women’s Fear of Victimization and Precautionary Safety Behaviors in Informal Settlement Communities in Nairobi, Kenya

2021 ◽  
pp. 107780122110457
Author(s):  
Samantha C. Winter ◽  
Nathan J. Aguilar ◽  
Lena M. Obara ◽  
Laura Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Safety Behaviors ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Fear Of Victimization ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Grounded Theory Approach ◽  
Depth Interviews

Around one billion people live in informal settlements globally, including over half of Nairobi, Kenya’s 3 million residents. The purpose of this study was to explore women’s fear of victimization within Mathare, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya and how fear of victimization influences women’s behaviors. Fifty-five in-depth interviews were conducted with women in 2015–2016. A modified grounded theory approach guided data collection and analysis. Findings suggest fear of victimization is a serious concern in informal settlements, but women have found ways to adapt their behaviors to cope and to continue to function and protect their children despite fearing victimization.

scholarly journals “Next, It Will Be You”: Women's Fear of Victimization and Precautionary Safety Behaviors in Informal Settlement Communities in Nairobi, Kenya

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Winter ◽  
Nathan Jason Aguilar ◽  
Lena Moraa Obara ◽  
Laura Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Potential Cost ◽  
Fear Of Victimization ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Individual Strategies ◽  
Grounded Theory Approach ◽  
Depth Interviews

Around one billion people live in informal settlements, globally, including over half of Nairobi, Kenya’s three million residents. The purpose of this study was to explore women’s fear of victimization within Mathare, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya and how fear of victimization influences behavior. Fifty-five in-depth interviews were conducted with women in 2016. A modified grounded theory approach guided data collection and analysis. Findings suggest fear of victimization is a serious concern in informal settlements. Women have found ways to adopt their behaviors that allow them to continue to function and protect their children despite fearing victimization, but at a potential cost to their health and well-being. Thus, there is a critical need for more research focused on social, economic, structural, community, infrastructure, technological, and individual strategies to prevent violence, enhance residents’ sense of safety, and, subsequently, minimize women’s fear of victimization in informal settlements.

scholarly journals “Next, It Will Be You”: Women's Fear of Victimization and Precautionary Safety Behaviors in Informal Settlement Communities in Nairobi, Kenya

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Winter ◽  
Lena Moraa Obara ◽  
Nathan Jason Aguilar ◽  
Laura Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Potential Cost ◽  
Fear Of Victimization ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Individual Strategies ◽  
Grounded Theory Approach ◽  
Depth Interviews

Around one billion people live in informal settlements, globally, including over half of Nairobi, Kenya’s three million residents. The purpose of this study was to explore women’s fear of victimization within Mathare, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya and how fear of victimization influences behavior. Fifty-five in-depth interviews were conducted with women in 2016. A modified grounded theory approach guided data collection and analysis. Findings suggest fear of victimization is a serious concern in informal settlements. Women have found ways to adopt their behaviors that allow them to continue to function and protect their children despite fearing victimization, but at a potential cost to their health and well-being. Thus, there is a critical need for more research focused on social, economic, structural, community, infrastructure, technological, and individual strategies to prevent violence, enhance residents’ sense of safety, and, subsequently, minimize women’s fear of victimization in informal settlements.

Career Counselling Effectiveness and Contributing Factors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan C. Whiston
Keyword(s):  
Career Choice ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Career Counselling ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Considerable Evidence ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
The World ◽  
Meta Analyses

This chapter explores the research related to whether career counselling is effective for individuals with vocational issues. In particular, there is considerable empirical support for career counselling related to career choice issues and searching for employment. Hence, practitioners can use this evidence to convince administrators, policymakers, parents, students, and other constituencies of the worth of career counselling. In addition, the chapter provides empirical evidence that practitioners can use to improve their effectiveness in working with people with career issues. This discussion mainly focuses on the results from older and newer meta-analyses regarding the ingredients that have a significant influence on effect sizes or the critical ingredients in career counselling. For example, there is considerable evidence that support from individuals, including the counsellor, may play an important role in the effectiveness of career counselling. Other factors that contribute to effective practice are also identified and discussed. The chapter further explores the need for additional research that addresses the most effective methods for providing career counselling. As the world of work becomes increasingly complex, it is important that researchers continue to explore the most effective strategies for assisting people in finding satisfying, meaningful, and productive work.

scholarly journals Determination of Critical Separation Distance Between Dwellings in Informal Settlements Fire

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Wang ◽  
Lesley Gibson ◽  
Mohamed Beshir ◽  
David Rush
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Spread ◽  
Separation Distance ◽  
Flame Length ◽  
Critical Distance ◽  
Fire Disaster ◽  
Critical Separation

AbstractApproximately one billion people across the globe are living in informal settlements with a large potential fire risk. Due to the high dwelling density, a single informal settlement dwelling fire may result in a very serious fire disaster leaving thousands of people homeless. In this work, a simple physics-based theoretical model was employed to assess the critical fire separation distance between dwellings. The heat flux and ejected flame length were obtained from a full-scale dwelling tests with ISO 9705 dimension (3.6 m × 2.4 m × 2.4 m) to estimate the radiation decay coefficient of the radiation heat flux away from the open door. The ignition potential of combustible materials in adjacent dwellings are analyzed based on the critical heat flux from cone calorimeter tests. To verify the critical distance in real informal settlement fire, a parallel method using aerial photography within geographic information systems (GIS), was employed to determine the critical separation distances in four real informal settlement fires of 2014–2015 in Masiphumelele, Cape Town, South Africa. The fire-spread distances were obtained as well through the real fires. The probabilistic analysis was conducted by Weibull distribution and logistic regression, and the corresponding separation distances were given with different fire spread probabilities. From the experiments with the assumption of no interventions and open doors and windows, it was established that the heat flux would decay from around 36 kW/m2 within a distance of 1.0 m to a value smaller than 5 kW/m2 at a distance of 4.0 m. Both experiments and GIS results agree well and suggest the ignition probabilities at distances of 1.0 m, 2.0 m and 3.0 m are 97%, 52% and 5% respectively. While wind is not explicitly considered in the work, it is implicit within the GIS analyses of fire spread risk, therefore, it is reasonable to say that there is a relatively low fire spread risk at distances greater than 3 m. The distance of 1.0 m in GIS is verified to well and conservatively predict the fire spread risk in the informal settlements.

scholarly journals Fit-For-Purpose, Private-Sector Led Land Regularization and Financing of Informal Settlements in Brazil

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 797
Author(s):  
Malcolm Childress ◽  
Selina Carter ◽  
Edgard Barki
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Business Model ◽  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Property Values ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Operational Approach ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Fit For Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the financial and operational approach to land regularization and financing used in Brazil by an innovative private social enterprise in order to demonstrate that the approach widens the concept fit-for-purpose land regularization to include fit-for-purpose land financing, with relevance for wider efforts in informal settlement regularization and upgrading. In this approach, the enterprise acts as a coordinator and broker to organize the residents of informal settlements to regularize their settlements by negotiating buyouts of the underlying private owners at discounted values, handling titling and registration of the occupants, and coordinating with municipal governments to provide infrastructure. The analysis of parcel-level repayment and price data provides evidence of the sustainability of the business model and increase of property values of the regularized parcels. The results presented from the enterprise’s own repayment data demonstrate that under (non-pandemic) historical conditions residents are largely able to pay an affordable monthly payment over 7–10 years to the enterprise for the service to purchase the plots and maintain the enterprise. In operation since 2001, the enterprise has regularized over 20,000 parcels in more than 30 settlements, primarily in the cities of Sao Paolo and Curitiba in Brazil. The approach suggests that it could be widely replicable and add to the set of options for regularizing informal settlements, especially when purchase of private land is required.

Exploring Just Sustainability in Re-Blocking Intervention in a Johannesburg Informal Settlement

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 782-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olumuyiwa Bayode Adegun
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Urban Housing ◽  
Material Distribution ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Just Sustainability

Addressing intertwined socio-economic and environmental problems in informal urban areas underscores the need for just sustainability. The co-production of urban housing provides a useful domain to link issues related to sustainability with social and environmental justice. Using the example of an informal settlement re-blocking project, this paper shows how co-production as an approach might or might not promote principles ingrained in just sustainability. The study relied on data collected through semi-structured interviews with residents and key informants as well as transect walks within the settlement. The case shows that working towards just sustainability is not straight-forward. It demands efforts that navigate, with foresight rather than hindsight, the dynamics in multi-scalar contexts into which informal settlements are embedded. Social and institutional structures, processes and relationships producing and reproducing material distribution are crucial to entrenching the just sustainability praxis.

scholarly journals The Role of Human Capital Factors on Poverty in Informal Settlement: Informal Settlement of Sheikh-Hasan, Mashhad City, Iran

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Javad Barati ◽  
Sahar Soltani ◽  
Simin Froogh-Zadeh ◽  
Farzaneh Razaghian
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Urban Poverty ◽  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Household Head ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
Education Level ◽  
Poverty Level ◽  
Mashhad City ◽  
Household Members

This paper investigates the determinants of multi-dimension poverty in informal settlements of Mashhad City. It specially analyzes human capital factors, among factors that influence poverty level. Education, skills, experience and knowledge have important role in promoting income level and in access to sustainable jobs, especially in informal settlements that have lower human capital level than the urban areas other. Mashhad city has most marginal settlements in Iran. Sheikh-Hasan Neighborhood in Mashhad Municipality region 4 has been selected as case study. This study is based on information gathered from household level in 2016 and the ordered logit model is employed to estimate factors influencing urban poverty. Data were obtained from 300 households using the questionnaire Through the Systematic Random technique. Calculation of poverty indexes reveals that nearly 87% of households are below absolute poverty line and 20% of households are below extreme poverty line. Marginal effects show variables of “job stability”, “Ownership”, “Household size” and “Education of household head” have the greatest impact on poverty alleviation. Also, variables of “Education level” and “highest level of education of household members” have positive effect and significant on poverty. Results represent that poverty in informal settlements of Mashhad is strongly linked to factors such as human capital. In addition, with increasing the level of knowledge of household heads and creation of favorable conditions for increasing of the education level of household members can reduce poverty.

scholarly journals Architecture & Legitimacy: Strategies for the Development of Urban Informal Settlements

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel D. Pressick
Keyword(s):  
Urban Poor ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Global City ◽  
The People ◽  
Urban Informal Settlements ◽  
Cultural Networks ◽  
The City ◽  
Autonomous Development

Currently, 1 in 6 people live in slums, or informal settlements in cities throughout the developing world. They are built illegally and are characterized by lack of proper sanitation, unsafe housing, and crowded living conditions. Despite their appearance, informal settlements are legitimate communities; they are vibrant, with sophisticated social, economic and cultural networks that support the livelihoods of residents who call them home. These communities give the urban poor a physical place within the city, giving them access to the opportunities and advantages that the current age of the 'global city' can offer to any willing participant. As architects who see the responsibility in choosing the informal settlement as a realm for engagement, this thesis proposes that any architectural intervention be mindful of the importance of the networks contained within the streets and buildings of the informal settlement. By preserving the built-fabric of the settlement, the architect legitimizes the settlement's density and scale, while ensuring the urban poor have a physical place in the city. They have managed to develop their own communities without any investment from outside forces, any intervention should only support that autonomous development. These structures, as well as the people and activities with them, are vital to the survival of residents of informal settlements.

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