scholarly journals Knowledge is power – informal communities assert their right to the city through SDI and community-led enumerations

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheela Patel ◽  
Carrie Baptist ◽  
Celine D’Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Slum Dwellers ◽  
Community Data ◽  
The City ◽  
Rights To The City

This paper provides an introduction to the practice of community-led enumerations as conducted by Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI). It sets out the historical context for enumerations, which came out of a need in India in 1975 to find a more long-term solution to evictions, and charts its subsequent evolution and spread throughout other countries. Enumerations can help to build a community, define a collective identity, facilitate development priority setting and provide a basis for engagement between communities and government on planning and development. This process allows communities of the urban poor to assert their rights to the city, to secure tenure, livelihoods and adequate infrastructure. The paper discusses some of the specific methodological issues, including the challenges of legitimizing community data, and the use of technology by slum( 1 ) or shack dweller federations when appropriate.

COVID-19 pandemic and the poor in the urban spaces of India with special reference to Mumbai

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujayita Bhattacharjee ◽  
Sanjukta Sattar
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
Socioeconomic Crisis ◽  
The City

PurposeThe lives of the poor in the urban spaces of India are filled with hardships. They live amidst poverty and struggle to survive within other problems such as insecure jobs, lack of proper housing, unsanitary conditions and low levels of health immunity. This vulnerable section of the population has been rendered furthermore vulnerable by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that were never imagined before. Taking this into consideration, the purpose of this article is to examine the vulnerability of the poor in the urban settings of India with special reference to Mumbai in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology adopted in the study is based on the analysis of secondary data and content analysis of the existing literature. In addition to this, the study also makes use of certain narratives of the urban poor in Mumbai that have been captured by various articles, reports and blogs.FindingsThe findings of the study reveal how the urban poor of India, with special reference to Mumbai, the financial capital of India, has emerged as the worst sufferers of the socioeconomic crisis caused by the social distancing and lockdown measures imposed for combating the pandemic.Originality/valueThe study tries to explore the reality of the urban poor's right to the city in the wake of the pandemic.

Clientelism or Something Else? Squatter Politics in Montevideo

2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
María José Alvarez Rivadulla
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Political Networks ◽  
The City

AbstractThrough the in-depth ethnographic study of one squatter neighborhood in Montevideo and its leader’s political networks, this article illustrates a successful strategy through which some squatter neighborhoods have fought for their right to the city. This consists of opportunistic, face-to-face relationships between squatter leaders and politicians of various factions and parties as intermediaries to get state goods, such as water, building materials, electricity, roads, and ultimately land tenure. Through this mechanism, squatters have seized political opportunities at the national and municipal levels. These opportunities were particularly high between 1989 and 2004, years of great competition for the votes of the urban poor on the periphery of the city, when the national and municipal governments belonged to opposing parties. In terms of theory, the article discusses current literature on clientelism, posing problems that make it difficult to characterize the political networks observed among squatters.

scholarly journals Lefebvre’s thought in contemporary urban sociology

Sociologija ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-491
Author(s):  
Miloje Grbin
Keyword(s):  
Urban Sociology ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
The Right ◽  
Space Production ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

This paper presents the impact of Henri Lefebvre?s thought in contemporary urban sociology. In the first chapter, the reader can find brief descriptions of two most relevant Lefebvre?s concepts linked to his comprehension of space: production of space, the right to the city and a couple of firmly related concepts. The second chapter presents several examples of their recent interpretations by the authors from different theoretical backgrounds. Simultaneously, it evaluates the relevance of Lefebvre?s theoretical assumptions in contemporary social context, as well as their theoretical and methodological relevance for further research and development of urban sociology. Conclusion emphasizes that Lefebvre?s ideas have a deep and long term influence in urban sociology.

Placemaking and the right to the city of urban poor: a case studyin Sanandaj, Iran

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 508-528
Author(s):  
Kayoumars Irandoost ◽  
Milad Doostvandi ◽  
Todd Litman ◽  
Mohammad Azami
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Purpose This paper aims to present a critical analysis of placemaking by the urban poor based on the Right to the City, Henri Lefebvre’s influential theory regarding the production of space and placemaking. Design/methodology/approach This study reflects Lefebvre’s production of space and the right to the city theories and containing three main pillars including holism, the urban and praxis, and the use of spatial dialectics. Also, for collecting information in this research, along with scrutiny of documents and books, residents of the poor settlements of Sanandaj have also been interviewed. Findings In Sanandaj, urban poor who lack formal housing reclaim the Right to City by creating informal settlements. Such settlements, such as Shohada, Baharmast and Tagh Taghan, cover 23% of the city’s area but house 69% of the urban population. Originality/value This research seeks to understand placemaking in urban slums by low-income inhabitants using Henry Lefebvre’s critical theory of social production of space and the Right to the City. This case study examines the city of Sanandaj, Iran, where most residents are poor and live in cooperative informal settlements. It illustrates how the urban poor, as marginalized inhabitants, overcome the constraints of conventional planning and property ownership to creatively and cooperatively develop communities that reflect their needs. This indicates a schism between formal and informal sectors.

“Bridges” and “Gaps” on Maps of Multicultural Cities

2017 ◽  
pp. 181-199
Author(s):  
Oxana Karnaukhova
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
The South ◽  
Urban Identity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Legacy ◽  
The City

The city is a sum of feasible expressions of social and historical evolution and space identity. The uniqueness of a place is formed not only by contemporary infrastructure, but by the cultural environment deeply anchored in the historical context. The object of the study is the South Russian agglomeration as a feasible example of ragged edges of multicultural history of the region and constantly challenged collective identity. Multicultural cities in Russia carry a burden of the pre-Soviet and Soviet urban policy, weighed down by complex historical environment. As a result, cities are closed in a coterie: reliance on Soviet and post-Soviet legacy – conservative economic policy –– fragmentary and spontaneous development of the city architecture and infrastructure. The term of splintering urbanism coined by Steven Graham and Simon Marvin is focused on the historical circumstances and socio-cultural environment of urban communities in the South Russian agglomeration, describing symbolic forms of bridges and gaps in the collective urban identity.

(Community) garden in the city: Conspicuous labor and gentrification

2020 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2097787
Author(s):  
Fatmir Haskaj
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Community Garden ◽  
The City

Community gardens are fertile fields of complex political, economic and social relations, on both a local and global level. From environmentalism to urban policy and planning, racial and gender studies, transnational migration, commodity chains and food studies, the garden in the city offers an abundance of research opportunities and analytical resources. This article seeks to contribute to the efforts to understand and contest hegemonic forces in the urban environment, forces that are rooted in what Foucault identified as a set of sacred binaries which underpin a host of power relations that are “given” and form the unquestioned framework of a given set of power relations. This is therefore a project which is bent on a “theoretical desanctification of space” by a disordering of one set of several sanctified oppositions which can be found in the space of the community garden. The article de-sanctifies space by exploring the historical context of the community garden in New York and Oakland California and posits that the work of the gardener is co-opted into a value regime by a process I call “conspicuous labor”. This process is similar to Veblen's conspicuous consumption except the value generated is not in modeling consumption but rather in emulating class patterns and re-configuring the urban poor as a productive, passive and pastoral.

scholarly journals Building Forward Better: Inclusive Livelihood Support in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements

IDS Bulletin ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Kimani ◽  
Rosie Steege ◽  
Jack Makau ◽  
Kilion Nyambuga ◽  
Jane Wairutu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Population ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Income Support ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Vulnerable Communities ◽  
Community Data ◽  
The City ◽  
Development Perspective

For the large population living in Nairobi’s informal settlements, the long-term effects of Covid-19 pose a threat to livelihoods, health, and wellbeing. For those working in the informal sector, who are the lifeblood of the city, livelihoods have been severely supressed by Covid-19 restrictions such as curfews, pushing many into further poverty. This article draws on community data, meetings, and authors’ observations as community organisers, to explore the challenges posed by existing government responses from a community development perspective. We found that poor accountability structures and targeted income support only for the ‘most vulnerable’ exacerbates tensions, mistrust, and insecurity among already vulnerable communities. We draw on a rapid desk review of existing literature to argue that community-led enumeration to validate entitlement claims, improved accountability for distribution, and widening income support is required to build solidarity and improve the future resilience of these communities.

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