1,721,097 research outputs found
Intra-settlement politics and conflict in enumerations
Full text linkWhile traditionally an instrument of government power, enumerations are increasingly conducted by urban communities themselves to gain recognition and negotiate with city authorities. Most literature focuses on the productive relationship between communities and government enabled by enumerations, and how enumerations transfer power to communities. However, in highly unequal informal settlements, it is very important to understand who within the community gets such power. Through the ethnographic account of an enumeration promoted by a slum-upgrading project in Nairobi, this paper makes a contribution to the analysis of power in enumerations. The article reveals the strategies of local elites to shape the exercise in their favour. Often, local elites present themselves as representatives of the wider community and draw on this power and legitimacy to advance their specific claims. Therefore, rather than looking only at the relationship between state and community, analyses of enumeration processes should also pay more attention to the complexity of internal communities’ dynamics and conflicting interests, and how these play out in the relationships with the state
Diversity, justice and slum upgrading: An intersectional approach to urban development
Full text linkSlum upgrading interventions often assume that all residents have similar aspirations and needs. However, these neighbourhoods rank among the most unequal settlements, and interventions can create winners and losers. Different dimensions of diversity have to be taken into consideration in planning such interventions to ensure a just outcome. Through the analysis of specific examples of slum upgrading processes in Nairobi, the paper identifies three interlinked aspects of diversity that need to be considered. These relate to Fraser's dimensions of social justice and to the pillars of the right to the city. We find that slum upgrading projects assume that all residents aspire to better housing and are willing to invest their savings and effort to achieve this. However, this is not a priority for everyone living in informal settlements. For many, the informal settlement is a relatively cheap housing option located close to good educational and economic opportunities, allowing parents to save for children's education. Interventions in informal settlements seldom consider the impact of market dynamics on different groups of residents. In informal settlements with some rental housing, improved infrastructures can lead to sudden increases in rent, displacing the most vulnerable residents of the settlement. Attempts to take diversity into account in participatory processes with local residents generally only recognise a limited number of dimensions of identity. They tend to divide people based on one dimension only, as if there were no others. However, people have multiple identities and some can be more salient than others when it comes to slum upgrading. This paper argues for an intersectional and relational approach, focusing on the relations between residents, and between different groups of residents
Unequal power relations in the governance of the World Social Forum process: an analysis of the practices of the Nairobi Forum
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Finanza e sviluppo delle PMI in Europa. Banche e intervento pubblico nelle aree svantaggiate
No full textIl libro affronta il tema dello sviluppo delle pmi e del rapporto banca-impresa a livello europeo, evidenziando il ruolo del settore pubblico a sostegno delle impres
Participatory Spatial Intervention: How can participatory design and a diversity lens help address vulnerabilities in Bar Elias, Lebanon?
No full textThis publication presents the process of implementing a Participatory
Spatial Intervention, its methodology, and our reflection as a way of
sharing our experience of this co-design project that took place between
August 2018 and July 2019. The Participatory Spatial Intervention is a
co-produced way to build capacity and generate knowledge through
an experimental process aiming to have an impact on the sustainable
prosperity of the locality. A physical spatial intervention is embedded
in a participatory action-research process and becomes a catalyst for
generating questions and activate local social processes. We learned
that combining action-research, citizen science, participatory
design and a diversity lens not only contributes to the design of
infrastructures that respond to residents’ needs, but that it can
transform social relations, build a human infrastructure able to negotiate
and activate important change processes, while diffusing social tensions.
This work took place in Bar Elias (Lebanon) which hosts a large number
of refugees and vulnerable populations
Beyond formal and informal: Understanding urban informalities from Freetown
Full text linkFreetown challenges, even more than other cities, entrenched categories of formal and informal. In this paper, the discussion on informality encompasses both the distinction drawn between informal and formal settlements, and between informal and formal economic activities. It is difficult to speak without using these terms given that they are so deeply part of policy discourses in the country by government and development agencies. However, when deployed as an analytical lens, they are demonstrably problematic. Drawing from the findings of a research project, this paper provides insights on what the activities and spaces referred to in policy as “informal” are and what this classification does. It reveals the political use of the term informality, arguing that it is wrong to frame informality as belonging to the poor and challenging the idea that formality and informality are clearly distinct spaces or economic activities in the city. It also demonstrates the fundamental contribution of what policy makers call “informal” to the wellbeing and development of cities, by providing what the state and the “formal” sector are unable to provide: employment and social protection, particularly important for the post-conflict Sierra Leone context. The paper calls for a deep understanding of the contributions of the livelihoods of the residents of informal settlements and a change of criminalisation policies that undermine them
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