The Urban Informal Sector Development Agenda in Nigeria
Abstract: The urban informal sector now constitutes a major part of the indigenous private sector in Africa. UN-Habitat and ILO estimate that between 50 and 70 per cent of townspeople in Sub-Saharan Africa work in the informal sector. Although critics dismiss the sector as “a chaotic jumble of unproductive activities”, and an obstacle to the development of a modern market economy, the fact is that this sector has helped to promote local entrepreneurship, employment and income, and thus to alleviate poverty and strengthen social protection. The main policy challenge is how best to support and regulate this sector in a way that translates the enterprise, resourcefulness and innovation of its operators into higher productivity and income, while at the same time ensuring a healthy and socially acceptable environment. The paper examines how the informal sector has developed in Nigeria and some other African countries over the last 50 years; constraints imposed by official prejudice and neglect, and the main elements of a strategy for informal sector promotion and management. It underscores the importance of good and inclusive governance; appropriate macro-economic and legislative reforms to remove pointless restrictions which place the operators in the sector at a disadvantage. We need to strengthen the institutions that provide small amounts of credits and other forms of financial and business services to the poor; programmes that promote skills training for unemployed youths; and policies that foster complementary links between the formal and informal economies. Those who work in the informal sector should be encouraged and enabled to upgrade, better organize and self-regulate themselves in order to become more productive and competitive, and engage more constructively with government and other development agencies.
The Urban Characteristics of informal settlements – Do They Block or Help the Urban Sustainability in Cairo Region?
Abstract: Cairo in its seeking to sustainable development by the year of 2050 facing the serious challenge of Around 65 percent of Cairenes live in informal settlements . In this respect, the Authors examine the effect of urban characteristics of informal settlements on the sustainable development in the Egyptian context , focusing on the type of informal growth on agricultural land. The objectives of the analysis are fourfold. First of all , we provide a brief overview of previous research on the main types of unplanned settlements in Cairo Region and the sustainability definition according to the Egyptian context. Secondly,we have a discussion with the local government during our field survey in Cairo to determine the study samples, the main urban characteristics,and the sustainability evaluation criteria in the Egyptian context. Thirdly, through the comparative analysis and GIS, we examine how the character of urban development affects area per capita four urban measures in a cross-section of 2 settlements ,one represents the unplanned settlements and other as a comparative planned sample to determine the real gap . Finally by using the evaluation matrix ,the Help and Block items are estimated for each measure of urban characteristics, providing substantive evidence on how the 4 measures of urban characteristics have been affected by the unplanned urban sprawl. we found that Mixture of land use , and Infrastructure are completely supporting the sustainable development through meeting more than 50% of its sub-item needs ,while Services , and Open Spaces & Roads Networks hinder it in Varying proportions.
Persian Bazaar and Its Impact on Evolution of Historic Urban Cores; the Case of Isfahan
Abstract: The tourist usually prefers to visit a comfortable city but also do so because of its old monument. The study of urban history reveals that a variety of factors has influenced the development of ancient cities. Isfahan as one of these most significant historical cities plays a critical role in portraying the Social interactions and Islamic beliefs which has mainly drawn public attentions because of its distinct transformation of social structure by means of architecture and urbanization. By this means Bazaar became known as a joint of social activities and cultural values, especially in Isfahan as a pre-capital city of Iran. As the most significant pedestrian network Bazaar plays an important role in the development and livability of Isfahan as an important traditional city.
In this paper the historical development of the Bazaar of Isfahan will be explored based on its social context and subsequently the organization and the remarkable impact of this phenomenon on the formation of historical spots in Isfahan will be explained.
In this paper the historical development of the Bazaar of Isfahan will be explored based on its social context and subsequently the organization and the remarkable impact of this phenomenon on the formation of historical spots in Isfahan will be explained.
The Fault-lines of Informality: Document(ed) Claims to Entitlement in Urban Poor Spaces
Abstract: This paper argues that housing and food policy in the urban poor locales of Delhi involve drawing fault-lines between various categories such as the family and the household, stable and makeshift residences, commercial spaces and residential spaces. This paper traces the various sites in which these fault-lines, especially those between the family and the household, are drawn – in the ration office, in the ration shop, in the housing survey, in food legislation and in the homes of the slum residents. Both the drawing and the contesting of these fault-lines entailed resort to informal practices of enumeration-without-ID verification, making counterfeit cards, mortgaging ration cards, commercialized form-filling, etc. Instead of seeing either officials, NGO representatives, commercial players, political leaders or slum residents as the sole party engaging in informal channels of brokerage, patronage, political negotiation and discretionary practices, this paper sees them as playing complementary roles in producing fault-lines and modes of survival in the slum.
This paper draws on ethnographic work in a slum cluster in South Delhi to depict norms of informality in enumerating, identifying and enfranchising urban poor residents in the slum cluster. The field-site of the paper, namely, the slum cluster of Govindpuri was where the deeply progressive leader and former Prime Minister of India, V.P.Singh unveiled his initiative of issuing a ration card and an ID card to every surveyed slum resident of Delhi in the year 1990. The decades between 1990 and 2010 witnessed turbulent economic and political change in India implicit in liberalization, welfare policies and urban planning measures. This paper examines how these varying contexts impinged on the identification of slum residents in Delhi.
This paper maps the historical changes in the interaction between technologies of identification such as computerization, biometric enumeration and informal practices of issuing documents to Delhi’s slum residents. The last few years in India saw the introduction of two national identification schemes called the Unique Identification (UID) scheme and the National Population Register (NPR). The former scheme which entails the issue of unique identification numbers called Aadhaar (hindi word for ‘evidence’ or 'proof') numbers for Indian national residents has especially wide-ranging implications for the welfare claims of the urban poor. A plethora of regional welfare programs such as free gas cylinders and a cash transfer scheme meant for the urban poor have been made contingent on the possession of the Aadhaar number thereby complicating the entitlement process. This patchwork of technologies of identification implemented in the city’s margins has left many of Delhi’s urban poor in limbo vis-à-vis entitlements forcing them to adopt piecemeal measures. This paper seeks to trace the new challenges of informal negotiation faced by slum residents in the emerging context of attempts to align the regional and the national grids of urban poor-related information.
As bureaucratic procedures, enumeration initiatives and administrative norms reach deep into the everyday lives of Delhi’s slum residents forcing them to demonstrate eligibility for welfare schemes, this paper takes a historical glimpse at the performances of urban citizenship that slum residents had to undertake in Govindpuri slum cluster. These performances will be set against personalized relationships of urban poor residents with their documents which were often the site for familial care, nostalgia and gender struggles.
This paper will also include the narratives of residents in surrounding middle class neighbourhoods who were critical of enumeration initiatives that threatened to legitimize slum residences steeped in illegality. Ultimately, this paper explores informality as a motif and strategy in official enumeration, middle class evaluations of the Delhi Master Plan and in the everyday practices of the urban poor.
This paper draws on ethnographic work in a slum cluster in South Delhi to depict norms of informality in enumerating, identifying and enfranchising urban poor residents in the slum cluster. The field-site of the paper, namely, the slum cluster of Govindpuri was where the deeply progressive leader and former Prime Minister of India, V.P.Singh unveiled his initiative of issuing a ration card and an ID card to every surveyed slum resident of Delhi in the year 1990. The decades between 1990 and 2010 witnessed turbulent economic and political change in India implicit in liberalization, welfare policies and urban planning measures. This paper examines how these varying contexts impinged on the identification of slum residents in Delhi.
This paper maps the historical changes in the interaction between technologies of identification such as computerization, biometric enumeration and informal practices of issuing documents to Delhi’s slum residents. The last few years in India saw the introduction of two national identification schemes called the Unique Identification (UID) scheme and the National Population Register (NPR). The former scheme which entails the issue of unique identification numbers called Aadhaar (hindi word for ‘evidence’ or 'proof') numbers for Indian national residents has especially wide-ranging implications for the welfare claims of the urban poor. A plethora of regional welfare programs such as free gas cylinders and a cash transfer scheme meant for the urban poor have been made contingent on the possession of the Aadhaar number thereby complicating the entitlement process. This patchwork of technologies of identification implemented in the city’s margins has left many of Delhi’s urban poor in limbo vis-à-vis entitlements forcing them to adopt piecemeal measures. This paper seeks to trace the new challenges of informal negotiation faced by slum residents in the emerging context of attempts to align the regional and the national grids of urban poor-related information.
As bureaucratic procedures, enumeration initiatives and administrative norms reach deep into the everyday lives of Delhi’s slum residents forcing them to demonstrate eligibility for welfare schemes, this paper takes a historical glimpse at the performances of urban citizenship that slum residents had to undertake in Govindpuri slum cluster. These performances will be set against personalized relationships of urban poor residents with their documents which were often the site for familial care, nostalgia and gender struggles.
This paper will also include the narratives of residents in surrounding middle class neighbourhoods who were critical of enumeration initiatives that threatened to legitimize slum residences steeped in illegality. Ultimately, this paper explores informality as a motif and strategy in official enumeration, middle class evaluations of the Delhi Master Plan and in the everyday practices of the urban poor.
Street Vending as a means of Urban Livelihood:
Abstract: Street Vending as a means of Urban Livelihood:
Indian Scenario - Case Study Indore
This paper would be based on a research study conducted by National Resource Centre, School of planning and Architecture, New Delhi. The study was conducted in 2011 . It had worked towards formulating guidelines for a Model Action Plan in accordance with the Protection of Livelihood of Street Vendors in Madhya Pradesh and Sale Regulation Act-2011 for Indore City.
The scope of the research study included both the primary as well as the secondary survey for the preparation of the guidelines for a model action plan for street vendors of Indore, MadhyaParadesh , India.
The paper would discuss the informal economy of Indore city. The history and the current situation. It would look at its famous street vending sites like the Sarafa Bazaar which is famous for the street food delicacies it serves.
It would look at the regulatory policies formulated in the country and the state of Madhya Pradesh. It would also look at the implications the street vending policies have had on the common man and the vendors. The paper would also cover the provisions that have been made in the Indore Master Plan for street vending.
The business dimension of these micro enterprises would also be analysed. Street vending is an essential part of the urban informal economy. 'Street Vending' is not merely a source of employment for the poor, but it is also a means for providing affordable services to the majority of population in the third world countries.
The paper will look at the policies and programmes for street vendors in India. It will also look at International street vending programmes and schemes. It would look at Regulation and Monitoring Mechanism for Vending Activity and the Means to provide economic and social Assistance to Vendors. It would also site design guidelines for integrating street vending in the Indore Master Plan.
Indian Scenario - Case Study Indore
This paper would be based on a research study conducted by National Resource Centre, School of planning and Architecture, New Delhi. The study was conducted in 2011 . It had worked towards formulating guidelines for a Model Action Plan in accordance with the Protection of Livelihood of Street Vendors in Madhya Pradesh and Sale Regulation Act-2011 for Indore City.
The scope of the research study included both the primary as well as the secondary survey for the preparation of the guidelines for a model action plan for street vendors of Indore, MadhyaParadesh , India.
The paper would discuss the informal economy of Indore city. The history and the current situation. It would look at its famous street vending sites like the Sarafa Bazaar which is famous for the street food delicacies it serves.
It would look at the regulatory policies formulated in the country and the state of Madhya Pradesh. It would also look at the implications the street vending policies have had on the common man and the vendors. The paper would also cover the provisions that have been made in the Indore Master Plan for street vending.
The business dimension of these micro enterprises would also be analysed. Street vending is an essential part of the urban informal economy. 'Street Vending' is not merely a source of employment for the poor, but it is also a means for providing affordable services to the majority of population in the third world countries.
The paper will look at the policies and programmes for street vendors in India. It will also look at International street vending programmes and schemes. It would look at Regulation and Monitoring Mechanism for Vending Activity and the Means to provide economic and social Assistance to Vendors. It would also site design guidelines for integrating street vending in the Indore Master Plan.
Home Based Enterprises – Case Study Delhi
Abstract: Since ancient times home has played an important role in the Indian society. The traditional Indian house was not just a place to live but also a place to do business. The spaces inside the house were designed such that it helped the dweller engage in income generating activities.
There is a growing need for providing the urban poor with formal housing but then it has been found that helping the poor gain a source of livelihood is equally important. Reason being the poor have no access to funds to maintain them and since these houses have a market value hence are either sold off or rented out.
A high percentage of the poor migrants in Indian cities engage in home based economic activities and these are important sources of livelihood. There are many linkages between shelter, urban poverty and livelihood development. Recognizing and supporting backward and forward market linkages of workplace of urban poor would help in poverty alleviation. The paper would covers case studies from Delhi and would present the conditions in which the poor Home based workers balances their work and family life in cramped quarters.
Operating from home minimizes production costs. It provides easy access to local markets for both finished products and for inputs. Transportation costs reduce to a great extent. Women whose mobility is constrained by their dual roles as care-givers and wage-earners operate from home.
The paper would explore the concept of home based enterprises and site live examples of home based work carried out in the capital state -Delhi. It would look at existing policies and programmes. To understand the implications of such units at city level, it would consider examples at settlement, cluster and dwelling unit level. It would also sight the impact of such H.B.Es (Home Based Enterprises) on the Spatial configuration of the dwelling unit.
The study would look at mixed use in low income settlements and suggest design and policy level approaches to integrate home based activities within new low income housing areas. That would help create sustainable communities by connecting housing to jobs, fostering local innovation in urban areas.
There is a growing need for providing the urban poor with formal housing but then it has been found that helping the poor gain a source of livelihood is equally important. Reason being the poor have no access to funds to maintain them and since these houses have a market value hence are either sold off or rented out.
A high percentage of the poor migrants in Indian cities engage in home based economic activities and these are important sources of livelihood. There are many linkages between shelter, urban poverty and livelihood development. Recognizing and supporting backward and forward market linkages of workplace of urban poor would help in poverty alleviation. The paper would covers case studies from Delhi and would present the conditions in which the poor Home based workers balances their work and family life in cramped quarters.
Operating from home minimizes production costs. It provides easy access to local markets for both finished products and for inputs. Transportation costs reduce to a great extent. Women whose mobility is constrained by their dual roles as care-givers and wage-earners operate from home.
The paper would explore the concept of home based enterprises and site live examples of home based work carried out in the capital state -Delhi. It would look at existing policies and programmes. To understand the implications of such units at city level, it would consider examples at settlement, cluster and dwelling unit level. It would also sight the impact of such H.B.Es (Home Based Enterprises) on the Spatial configuration of the dwelling unit.
The study would look at mixed use in low income settlements and suggest design and policy level approaches to integrate home based activities within new low income housing areas. That would help create sustainable communities by connecting housing to jobs, fostering local innovation in urban areas.
Nomadism or segregation? New planning issues in hidden neighborhoods
Abstract: Starting from a case study paper explores new critical issues in contemporary urban neighborhoods in transition, with whom public actors are dealing with: ageing population and ageing private residential buildings, contested multiethnic migration, vacant shops and shrinking economy.
The case study is Crocetta, a neighborhood in Cinisello Balsamo, a Municipality close to Milan, in Italy. It is important to point out that Crocetta isn’t a public housing context. Crocetta is a neighborhood that has been built since the Sixties of the last century to provide accommodation to Milanese professional middle class, today it detects the presence of fifty-four ethnic groups with a presence of migrants that is approximately 45% of the population, a substantial deterioration of the private residential buildings, and the ageing of the first Italian inhabitants. By the last decade of the twentieth century, Crocetta was confronting a host of new challenges : the loss of regional competitiveness, changing demographics of neighborhood, and multiethnic dynamics, mobility migrations with an high turnover, physical decline of buildings.
Neighborhoods similar to Crocetta are, in policy analysis, a “wicked problem”, a multifaceted and elusive problem. They present difficulties of long-term, bundle of issues which require new interpretative keys. Crocetta is a neighborhood somewhat “hidden”, hard to recognize even through the usual geographical data and statistics (how many people actually live there? For how long and why? Which are the shared boundaries of the neighborhood?).
The Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo has launched a project to enhance the livability and the multi-ethnic coexistence in the neighborhood. Through this regeneration project, the public actor has addressed in an integrated way the different issues affecting the aim of intervention by mainly leverages the resources and opportunities available in the neighborhood: the network operators and existing social services to the complexity of ethnic and cultural diversity of the population.
The project is promoted by the Municipality with a volunteer initiative and does not refer to European or national calls and funds. Public actor chooses to activate autonomously an experimental and innovative project. The aim of the project in which Milan Polytechnic is also involved, is directed towards the implementation of an “atypical” and “informal” urban regeneration project, for which the frame of reference is not public housing as usual.
The paper illustrates distinct strategies, pursued by the project, to nurture social integration and opportunities for aged people, low-income families and immigrants within community experiencing underused public and private spaces pressures, high migrants mobility, isolation and significant changes in demographics:
- citizenship. A notable area of challenge is in promoting widespread civic participation across ethnic groups and age. In particular, a trend has been observed that dominant voices drown out those of the marginalized. The marginalized is mostly poor, but not necessarily; they are always socially isolated. It has also been noticed that there are significantly more impediments that the marginalized encounters than the middle class;
- the social role of urban design to reposition the use of public space, to transform dormant or underutilized public space from a passive amenity into an active community asset that promotes individual economic mobility as well as social cohesion;
- the social role of public markets. It has been increasingly recognized that farmers markets and public markets play an important informal role in public health beyond “providing” fresh fruits and vegetables. Overall, markets can be neighborhood destinations and public-gathering places where community members are provided with a mechanism to participate in collective action towards strengthening social networks and enhancing civic engagement.
The case study is Crocetta, a neighborhood in Cinisello Balsamo, a Municipality close to Milan, in Italy. It is important to point out that Crocetta isn’t a public housing context. Crocetta is a neighborhood that has been built since the Sixties of the last century to provide accommodation to Milanese professional middle class, today it detects the presence of fifty-four ethnic groups with a presence of migrants that is approximately 45% of the population, a substantial deterioration of the private residential buildings, and the ageing of the first Italian inhabitants. By the last decade of the twentieth century, Crocetta was confronting a host of new challenges : the loss of regional competitiveness, changing demographics of neighborhood, and multiethnic dynamics, mobility migrations with an high turnover, physical decline of buildings.
Neighborhoods similar to Crocetta are, in policy analysis, a “wicked problem”, a multifaceted and elusive problem. They present difficulties of long-term, bundle of issues which require new interpretative keys. Crocetta is a neighborhood somewhat “hidden”, hard to recognize even through the usual geographical data and statistics (how many people actually live there? For how long and why? Which are the shared boundaries of the neighborhood?).
The Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo has launched a project to enhance the livability and the multi-ethnic coexistence in the neighborhood. Through this regeneration project, the public actor has addressed in an integrated way the different issues affecting the aim of intervention by mainly leverages the resources and opportunities available in the neighborhood: the network operators and existing social services to the complexity of ethnic and cultural diversity of the population.
The project is promoted by the Municipality with a volunteer initiative and does not refer to European or national calls and funds. Public actor chooses to activate autonomously an experimental and innovative project. The aim of the project in which Milan Polytechnic is also involved, is directed towards the implementation of an “atypical” and “informal” urban regeneration project, for which the frame of reference is not public housing as usual.
The paper illustrates distinct strategies, pursued by the project, to nurture social integration and opportunities for aged people, low-income families and immigrants within community experiencing underused public and private spaces pressures, high migrants mobility, isolation and significant changes in demographics:
- citizenship. A notable area of challenge is in promoting widespread civic participation across ethnic groups and age. In particular, a trend has been observed that dominant voices drown out those of the marginalized. The marginalized is mostly poor, but not necessarily; they are always socially isolated. It has also been noticed that there are significantly more impediments that the marginalized encounters than the middle class;
- the social role of urban design to reposition the use of public space, to transform dormant or underutilized public space from a passive amenity into an active community asset that promotes individual economic mobility as well as social cohesion;
- the social role of public markets. It has been increasingly recognized that farmers markets and public markets play an important informal role in public health beyond “providing” fresh fruits and vegetables. Overall, markets can be neighborhood destinations and public-gathering places where community members are provided with a mechanism to participate in collective action towards strengthening social networks and enhancing civic engagement.
Informal Jobs in Nigeria; Specialisation or Marginalisation: Some reflection on pattern of Ethnic Cleave
Abstract: Nigeria is made up of diverse ethnic groups and different geographical areas of varying material and human resources. Regional disparities and imbalance exhibit at different scale in the country. Ethnic inequalities are pervasive in Nigeria, affecting not just the public sector, but also the private sector. The informal sector is not spared of the pervade inequality. The long-drawn politico-historical process of regionalism, statism and localism has led to a concentric pattern of ethnic and political cleavages in Nigeria. The manifestations of inequalities associated with the cleavages coincide with systematic patterns of horizontal inequalities. The long-run implications of inequalities especially inequality arising from political marginalisation have come to shape people’s life chances including job specialization. This study assess the spatial Pattern of Informal Job Specialisation and Ethnic Cleave in Nigeria,s Urban Economy. The study will rely on information from Lokoja and Minna, two capital cities in the minority central part of Nigeria. Data for the study would be obtained mainly through questionnaire administration and complimented with field observation. The focus of data collection would be in the Central Business District (CBD) or Central Activity Area (CAA) of the various neighbourhood. To the best of my knowledge, the only study in Nigeria that attempt to relate informality in jobs with ethnicity was carried out in 1977 with focus on Benin. This study is thus coming up some three decades later. This study embraces two capital cities in Nigeria unlike the 1977 study that focused on one city- Benin. Yet, the informal sector provides about 70 times more employment than the formal sector in Nigeria. In fact, Nigeria’s informal sector is the largest in Africa. it is therefore necessary to generate information on the spatial pattern and the emerging ethnic cleave so that planning can react appropriately. Informal income opportunities are within the frame of urban social and economic milieu.
The Ambiguous Images of Kampungs and Kota: Conflict or Difference?
Abstract: Jakarta is a city of different and conflicting images. It is a big city or kota, and as well a big kampung, a complex city and a city of contrast: the traditional and modern, the informal and formal, and the unplanned and planned. There is apparently a great contrast between the world of the kampungs and that of kota—the first impressions that might be gained by an observer from afar. The phenomenon of differences between kampung and kota can be simplified to be the difference or conflict between qualitative value and quantitative value; social and human development; personal and interpersonal relationships versus management; day-to-day needs and aspirations versus business orientation; all-round competence versus specialization; mutual self-help versus top-down relationship; self-sufficiency versus top-down dependency; local versus inter-local and global but centralizing; and community versus down-town. This paper discusses some aspects of these ambiguous images to seek a different perception of the relationship between them. It is obvious that a blurred form of contrast between kampungs and kota seems to emerge. This paper explores related references and investigates the lived experience of people in kampungs and kota and then discussing them together to develop the finding of the images of kampung and kota..
Urbanization, Migration and Economic Opportunity of the Urban Poor: A Study of Squatter Settlements/Slums in Siliguri Municipal Corporation Area (SMCA) of West Bengal, India
Abstract: Industrialisation, urbanization and marketisation are three important criteria that are closely related to development process in both developed and developing countries. On the contrary, urbanization in certain regions, may not have occurred through industrialization, rather it has taken place primarily through the growth of the tertiary sector and the informal manufacturing sector. Cities are the hubs of economic growth. Most of the cities like Siliguri Municipal Corporation Area (SMCA) in West Bengal, India, are changing typically in terms of demographic, economic and social relationship due to rapid pace of urbanization. Compared to the growth of other municipalities in South Asia, SMCA has recorded the highest population growth over the past few decades. The proportion of slum population in SMCA was not only significantly higher than the municipal corporations in the State, the North Bengal region, and the rest of Bengal region but also higher than the million plus cities like Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. In the recent past, rural-urban migration has led to the emergence of informal settlements, both within the inner-cities and in the periphery of urbanising SMCA. Burgeoning population growth particularly aggravates housing problem which forces the migrant urban poor to settle for informal solutions resulting in mushrooming of slums and squatter settlements located in poor and highly vulnerable locations and consequently comprise the neglected segment of the urban populations. By and large, these migrants are predominantly from rural areas with backward class origin in terms of livelihood assets. In most of the cases, economic factors play an important role behind migration. The poor in these settlements do not possess necessary skills or education to enable them to find well paid and secured employment in the formal sector and due to lack of opportunities in the formal sector they tend to be absorbed in the informal sector employment through the formation of social capital like ethnic, kinship bonding etc. The informal sector is thus an entry point and in most cases the sole provider of employment to the squatters in SMCA. Though the sector plays a critical supplementary role in poverty alleviation through employment and income generation, however, most of the workers are officially invisible and are thus subject to job insecurity. The primary objective of the paper is to focus on the causes of migration, the growth of informal settlements and the scope of securing economic livelihood of the urban poor in relation to the urbanisation process in the specific Municipal area of SMCA. Based on primary survey and secondary database, the applied dimension of the study provides a guideline in outlining policies concerning migration, informal settlement, informal sector and its direct and indirect contributions to the economy through creating employment opportunities and providing a way of living for the urban poor in SMCA.
An analytical approach of informal development in Egypt: Towards more improvements in upgrading policy
Abstract: The problem of informal settlements in Egypt is one of the most serious problems due to its economic, social and security impacts which influence the society safety and stability. Notwithstanding Egyptian efforts to upgrade the informal settlements date back to the 1970s, a national programme of comprehensive upgrading of informal settlements was not initiated till 1993. In addition, there are many challenges that still hinder the development processes associated with informal areas. The national program represents a significant policy shift in the Egyptian housing strategies. Therefore, the general aim of this paper is to evaluate the urban policy-making process in Egypt taking the policy issue of upgrading the informal settlements as an instance in order to reveal more effective mechanisms to control both an increase in current informal areas and the emergence of new informal settlements.
Arab Gulf cities: competing identities of cosmopolitanism vs. localism
Abstract: The Arab cities of the smaller countries in the Gulf have changed rapidly and massively within a very short period. The discovery of oil in Bahrain (1932), Kuwait (1938), Qatar (1939), UAE (1958-1966 in different emirates), and Oman (1970s) was a turning point for the Gulf’s urban development. These small entities were essentially a series of city-states, and as oil income sky-rocketed, this became one of the wealthiest regions in the world, with very high per capita incomes. The great wealth brought the ability to build ‘modern’ global cities, increasingly integrated into the global economy. However, as favorable as these economic circumstances may be, they also created certain social problems. Traditionally, Gulf cities had always been cosmopolitan, but booming economies required increasing import of foreign labor. This drastically changed the demographics of the cosmopolitan cities.
Before oil, the basis of cosmopolitanism was maritime trade. Migration was common, albeit on a smaller scale than currently, and the socio-economic structure of cosmopolitanism was quite different. Muscat-Matrah, for example, anchored the southern end of the Gulf trade, and was the main gateway to the Indian Ocean trade network. Most large trading houses were Indian or other non-Arab ethnicities. Several levels of the supply chain / distribution network hierarchy insulated the local population from direct contact with the foreign system, but, at the same time, fostered interaction. Through the hierarchy, various ethnic groups tended to occupy different hierarchy levels, with decreasing cultural distance at the levels closer to local inhabitants.
Prior to oil, Kuwait was similarly situated as a gateway between the Gulf trade network and wider markets, in this case the Arab hinterland to the north in Mesopotamia. Due to lack of natural resources and harsh climate, Kuwait mainly relied on its port function. The economy was organized by small factions of merchant families, and there was a multitude of professions, largely comprised of intensive-labor, port, and market-related types of activities. A number of ethnic groups were involved in trade and jobs that supported trade, although the proportion of large merchant houses which were Arab was much greater.
We might use concepts of social inclusion / exclusion to characterize the traditional form of cosmopolitanism. This sort of economic organization around trade tended to maintain a certain balance for different ethnic urban groups between engaging with the public sphere and isolation within the private sphere. Relative to post-oil migration, the system was more inclusive. A key difference between the pre- and post-oil is the shifting balance between inclusion and exclusion. One major factor in this shift was that oil wealth freed rulers from frequent financial dependence on the large trading houses. The role of trade in city economies declined, and the interests of the commercial sector were no longer very prominent in the formation of public policy.
In addition, solidification of traditionally fluid state boundaries changed the nature of interaction with the cities’ hinterlands; this was particularly evident in Kuwait. The construction of modern states with their fixed boundaries pushed many more tribesmen to settle than had been the case earlier. A large number of these tribal Arabs gained citizenship. Finally, the rise of the welfare state, as oil money was dispersed to citizens, fostered a stronger sense of national identity and a corresponding need to classifying people as nationals and foreigners. Traditional factors toward inclusion were eliminated, and factors stressing exclusion increased. The modern cities are still quite cosmopolitan, but they seem to be much more fragmented socially and ethnically.
Before oil, the basis of cosmopolitanism was maritime trade. Migration was common, albeit on a smaller scale than currently, and the socio-economic structure of cosmopolitanism was quite different. Muscat-Matrah, for example, anchored the southern end of the Gulf trade, and was the main gateway to the Indian Ocean trade network. Most large trading houses were Indian or other non-Arab ethnicities. Several levels of the supply chain / distribution network hierarchy insulated the local population from direct contact with the foreign system, but, at the same time, fostered interaction. Through the hierarchy, various ethnic groups tended to occupy different hierarchy levels, with decreasing cultural distance at the levels closer to local inhabitants.
Prior to oil, Kuwait was similarly situated as a gateway between the Gulf trade network and wider markets, in this case the Arab hinterland to the north in Mesopotamia. Due to lack of natural resources and harsh climate, Kuwait mainly relied on its port function. The economy was organized by small factions of merchant families, and there was a multitude of professions, largely comprised of intensive-labor, port, and market-related types of activities. A number of ethnic groups were involved in trade and jobs that supported trade, although the proportion of large merchant houses which were Arab was much greater.
We might use concepts of social inclusion / exclusion to characterize the traditional form of cosmopolitanism. This sort of economic organization around trade tended to maintain a certain balance for different ethnic urban groups between engaging with the public sphere and isolation within the private sphere. Relative to post-oil migration, the system was more inclusive. A key difference between the pre- and post-oil is the shifting balance between inclusion and exclusion. One major factor in this shift was that oil wealth freed rulers from frequent financial dependence on the large trading houses. The role of trade in city economies declined, and the interests of the commercial sector were no longer very prominent in the formation of public policy.
In addition, solidification of traditionally fluid state boundaries changed the nature of interaction with the cities’ hinterlands; this was particularly evident in Kuwait. The construction of modern states with their fixed boundaries pushed many more tribesmen to settle than had been the case earlier. A large number of these tribal Arabs gained citizenship. Finally, the rise of the welfare state, as oil money was dispersed to citizens, fostered a stronger sense of national identity and a corresponding need to classifying people as nationals and foreigners. Traditional factors toward inclusion were eliminated, and factors stressing exclusion increased. The modern cities are still quite cosmopolitan, but they seem to be much more fragmented socially and ethnically.
Markets and the development of Oman’s urban network
Abstract: In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Oman was characterized by a dichotomy between the economic systems of the coast and interior. This translated into dual political entities until the middle of the twentieth century – the Sultanate and the Imamate – which gained or lost more control depending on their fluctuating fortunes. Even after the country was finally unified under the Sultan, the traditional dualism continued to be reflected in the official name – Sultanate of Muscat and Oman.
The dual economic organization was evident in the spatial market structure and the role of markets in the urban settlements of the country. The coastal urban system was very much tied to the international trade networks, although the market structure served to insulate the local population from much direct economic contact. Muscat was Oman’s main attachment point to the international trade network, and goods flowed between the Omani and the international economies primarily through Muscat. Matrah functioned as the main point of attachment to the domestic economy. Most import / export was channeled through these twin cities, which were the top tier of a dendritic market system. The spatial structure of trade was dendritic, i.e., tree-like, with a well-defined hierarchy of market centers, and patterns of trade which flowed vertically between levels of the hierarchy.
The interior economy was primarily based on traditional agriculture and animal husbandry. Local trade patterns and market structures in the interior Imamate were distinguished by a number of mini systems, rather than a single coherent system as on the coast. Generally, markets did not exist to channel long-distance trade, but were located to facilitate trade across local ecological and socio-economic boundaries. These markets were not integrated into a larger structure as in the coastal system. To the extent that there was much long-distance trade by the interior, it often was channeled through a small port not very strongly tied to the dendritic coastal system.
One can see evolution of the traditional systems in several developments over the past few decades. One can look at development of Oman’s road system as representative of the trends. First, roads in the coastal area link together markets of the coastal system, facilitating horizontal linkages in the formerly dendritic system. This eliminates dependency of lower level markets on a single higher level market, which fosters more competitive local economies and makes it possible for urban areas lower in the hierarchy to have stronger growth. Second, roads in the interior both link local interior markets and tie them to the coastal network, so that Oman has developed a unified local trade network. This, of course, makes it possible for interior cities to grow in size and complexity, similarly to the smaller cities in the coastal area.
The dual economic organization was evident in the spatial market structure and the role of markets in the urban settlements of the country. The coastal urban system was very much tied to the international trade networks, although the market structure served to insulate the local population from much direct economic contact. Muscat was Oman’s main attachment point to the international trade network, and goods flowed between the Omani and the international economies primarily through Muscat. Matrah functioned as the main point of attachment to the domestic economy. Most import / export was channeled through these twin cities, which were the top tier of a dendritic market system. The spatial structure of trade was dendritic, i.e., tree-like, with a well-defined hierarchy of market centers, and patterns of trade which flowed vertically between levels of the hierarchy.
The interior economy was primarily based on traditional agriculture and animal husbandry. Local trade patterns and market structures in the interior Imamate were distinguished by a number of mini systems, rather than a single coherent system as on the coast. Generally, markets did not exist to channel long-distance trade, but were located to facilitate trade across local ecological and socio-economic boundaries. These markets were not integrated into a larger structure as in the coastal system. To the extent that there was much long-distance trade by the interior, it often was channeled through a small port not very strongly tied to the dendritic coastal system.
One can see evolution of the traditional systems in several developments over the past few decades. One can look at development of Oman’s road system as representative of the trends. First, roads in the coastal area link together markets of the coastal system, facilitating horizontal linkages in the formerly dendritic system. This eliminates dependency of lower level markets on a single higher level market, which fosters more competitive local economies and makes it possible for urban areas lower in the hierarchy to have stronger growth. Second, roads in the interior both link local interior markets and tie them to the coastal network, so that Oman has developed a unified local trade network. This, of course, makes it possible for interior cities to grow in size and complexity, similarly to the smaller cities in the coastal area.
FORM AND REALITY
Abstract: COMPARISSON BETWEEN THE SAILS ( VELE ) OF SCAMPIA NAPELS AND THE SAILS OF VILLENEUVE LOUBET NEAR NICE.
Relocalism: local research of a global phenomenon
Abstract: Relocalism is defined as the practice of grassroots arts-based or led tactical interventions in the urban realm, participated in by citizens and local communities with an aim to improving the urban lived experience and environment by cultivating the connections between people, place and to community.
The research question is ‘What are the impacts of participation in relocalism projects on the experience of art, emotional wellbeing and active citizenship, and how can an understanding of relocalism inform urban and place making concepts?’
This poster presents the definition of relocalism, global relocalism examples; the research question; research aims and outcomes; methodology and methods; and research audience.
The research is investigating what the affects of participation in relocalism have on the individual and the community; does this make people feel (re)connected to their community, what role does the creative process play in this and does any increased sense of community affect civic participation and how can the disciplines of the arts, architecture, master planning and city authorities work with such grassroots projects? The projects, as grassroots and no/low funded are informal in nature; offer a new model of creative placemaking, of urbanisation and architectural and arts practice. They are peripheral projects that both work outside of and resist formal structures, at the same time, offering a critique of them.
The research question addresses issues of art, wellbeing, placemaking and citizenship in the urban realm. It aims to explore how participation in relocalism projects affects democratic engagement, social cohesion and social capital; examine the impacts of relocalism participation on individual and community wellbeing; explore the relation between relocalism, urban realm arts practice and the ‘value of arts’ debate; and examine the implications of relocalism for theoretical considerations of place making, contemporary and ‘future cities’ thinking.
The research question is ‘What are the impacts of participation in relocalism projects on the experience of art, emotional wellbeing and active citizenship, and how can an understanding of relocalism inform urban and place making concepts?’
This poster presents the definition of relocalism, global relocalism examples; the research question; research aims and outcomes; methodology and methods; and research audience.
The research is investigating what the affects of participation in relocalism have on the individual and the community; does this make people feel (re)connected to their community, what role does the creative process play in this and does any increased sense of community affect civic participation and how can the disciplines of the arts, architecture, master planning and city authorities work with such grassroots projects? The projects, as grassroots and no/low funded are informal in nature; offer a new model of creative placemaking, of urbanisation and architectural and arts practice. They are peripheral projects that both work outside of and resist formal structures, at the same time, offering a critique of them.
The research question addresses issues of art, wellbeing, placemaking and citizenship in the urban realm. It aims to explore how participation in relocalism projects affects democratic engagement, social cohesion and social capital; examine the impacts of relocalism participation on individual and community wellbeing; explore the relation between relocalism, urban realm arts practice and the ‘value of arts’ debate; and examine the implications of relocalism for theoretical considerations of place making, contemporary and ‘future cities’ thinking.
Neighborhood vendors and the internal economy of the slum: informal livelihoods among the chronically poor in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Abstract: In this paper we examine the role of women’s neighborhood vending – the lowest level of informal trade and a topic insufficiently studied – (1) within what we call the ‘internal economy’ of the slum, and (2) within broad kinship networks of assistance and cooperation. Usually invisible to researchers focusing on marketplaces and street vendors, neighborhood vendors sell their goods inside settlement compounds and contribute to a dynamic and hidden economy of diverse goods bought and sold. This internal economy exists because chronically poor women must often remain at home due to childrearing responsibilities and lack the money needed to travel regularly outside their neighborhood – thus in order to feed and clothe their families, they must buy (and sell) within their settlement. Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in 2010, 2012 and 2013, we argue that cultural attitudes towards gendered work, including the shame attached to women who undertake physically demanding jobs such as construction or hauling, also contribute to the popularity of neighborhood vending. Neighborhood vendors face a number of challenges, however, such as insufficient capital and fluctuation of income, as well as petty theft. Because they live in the same place where they sell and rely on neighbors for social and financial support, neighborhood vendors often must, unlike street or marketplace vendors, sell to their neighbors on credit, a practice which means they do not always recoup their investments. The female neighborhood vendors we interviewed also depend for their livelihoods on a network of relatives, friends and acquaintances who provide start-up capital for them. Rather than as independent and self-sufficient entrepreneurs, these women should be seen as participants in capital flows which circulate within the kin group, transferred increasingly through mobile banking. Wealthier relatives often help their impoverished kin because in a risk-laden informal economy, they know that someday they may depend on others in the network for financial assistance. Kin group networks that can quickly shift their assets to vulnerable members in time of crisis or hunger ensure that the members of the network survive and stay both mentally and physically fit, in other words remain potential accumulators of capital for the network. The network itself thus remains large and resilient to better withstand severe shocks.
Capital circulated within the kin group tends to flow ’down’ toward the most vulnerable members, and is usually eventually lost by them. Start-up capital is regularly lost to such calamities as illness, death (funeral expenses) and unplanned pregnancies in the family. The function of small neighborhood businesses run by the women in our study was therefore not necessarily to increase the capital lent to them by husbands or relatives, nor to lift themselves out of poverty, but to maintain – for as long as possible while surviving on meager profits – one’s own share of the circulating capital of the kin group, before the next crisis wipes it out.
Capital circulated within the kin group tends to flow ’down’ toward the most vulnerable members, and is usually eventually lost by them. Start-up capital is regularly lost to such calamities as illness, death (funeral expenses) and unplanned pregnancies in the family. The function of small neighborhood businesses run by the women in our study was therefore not necessarily to increase the capital lent to them by husbands or relatives, nor to lift themselves out of poverty, but to maintain – for as long as possible while surviving on meager profits – one’s own share of the circulating capital of the kin group, before the next crisis wipes it out.
Austerity Measures Or Entrepreneurial Development? Evidence from Nigeria.
Abstract: Objectives: The implementation of austerity measures in a country often appears to stiffen economic growth, painful to most individuals, and critiqued by many stakeholders. However, the objective of this paper is to show that austerity policies tend to stimulate entrepreneurial development. In addition, this paper aims to provide an innovative summary of the theories of the informal economy and how they link-up with the various empirical methods that have been employed in the study of the latter.
Approach: in a quantitative study of the Nigerian informal economy, structured questionnaire was randomly administered to over 1000 participants, and a success rate of about 62% was recorded. Data was analysed using SPSS, and a comparative analysis of two austerity periods in Nigeria was carried out, using the year businesses were established (age of business) as the determining factor. Though this study covers all business start-ups in the past forty years, particularly, 0-46 years old businesses, however, two periods are singled out for relative analysis, as they represent the periods for implementing austerity measures in Nigeria. In addition, this author has carried out an extensive review of the literature in order to clearly reveal the basic features of each theory and link it up with methods.
Results: The literature review has produced an innovative snapshot, termed the 4Cs, of the theories of the informal economy. Again, the empirical result from the study of the Nigerian informal economy confirms the above argument that austerity measures-policies, though painful to all stakeholders in the economy, but it, at the same time appears to drive entrepreneurial development. Specifically, the number of new business start-ups in Nigeria experienced the highest growth in periods of two separate economic crisis, and result also suggests that these businesses do not exist for the short term alone.
Implications: The implication of this paper is that it resolves the ambiguity and overlaps which currently trails the theories of the informal economy in the literature. In addition, the paper tends to suggest that austerity measures may not be as bad as currently believed as it provides the opportunity for entrepreneurship to blossom in a country.
Value: The value this paper brings to the literature are two. First, it brings sanity to the clumsy theories of the informal economy. Secondly, the paper reinforces the findings that the informal economy serves as seedbed for entrepreneurial development; and that the rate of development for the latter is more during periods of austerity measures.
Approach: in a quantitative study of the Nigerian informal economy, structured questionnaire was randomly administered to over 1000 participants, and a success rate of about 62% was recorded. Data was analysed using SPSS, and a comparative analysis of two austerity periods in Nigeria was carried out, using the year businesses were established (age of business) as the determining factor. Though this study covers all business start-ups in the past forty years, particularly, 0-46 years old businesses, however, two periods are singled out for relative analysis, as they represent the periods for implementing austerity measures in Nigeria. In addition, this author has carried out an extensive review of the literature in order to clearly reveal the basic features of each theory and link it up with methods.
Results: The literature review has produced an innovative snapshot, termed the 4Cs, of the theories of the informal economy. Again, the empirical result from the study of the Nigerian informal economy confirms the above argument that austerity measures-policies, though painful to all stakeholders in the economy, but it, at the same time appears to drive entrepreneurial development. Specifically, the number of new business start-ups in Nigeria experienced the highest growth in periods of two separate economic crisis, and result also suggests that these businesses do not exist for the short term alone.
Implications: The implication of this paper is that it resolves the ambiguity and overlaps which currently trails the theories of the informal economy in the literature. In addition, the paper tends to suggest that austerity measures may not be as bad as currently believed as it provides the opportunity for entrepreneurship to blossom in a country.
Value: The value this paper brings to the literature are two. First, it brings sanity to the clumsy theories of the informal economy. Secondly, the paper reinforces the findings that the informal economy serves as seedbed for entrepreneurial development; and that the rate of development for the latter is more during periods of austerity measures.
The study of informal settlement, prevailing ideologies and confronting strategies
Abstract: One of the major issues and the field and domain of urban development`s instability, which cause cities of developing countries to face with crisis is the issue of informal settlements that in fact is the consequence of industrialization and accelerated urbanization. These settlements, with differences in definition, are known as uncontrolled, expropriated, changeable, the margined and self-made housing .Tehran is also facing the problem of informal settlement , like many of developing countries’ cities and also this phenomenon is the manifestation of the unmet housing and shelter’s need of low-income people, which have no place in the formal and planned space of the city and forming disorganized settlement in fringe of the city in evasion of legal limitation which is beyond their abilities , and with the hope of access to the job’s opportunities with constant income. This paper has tried to briefly introduce informal settlements, prevailing ideologies and strategies to deal with and confront such phenomenon.
The study of urbanization’s inclinations, features and the cause of informal settlement emergence in Iran - Case study: The megalopolis region of Tehran
Abstract: The emergence and the resumption of urbanization’s growth in Iran is rapid, uncoordinated and without consistent planning. Although many elements like inadequacy of planning administration and urban management, economic structures and etc. are among the effective elements on urbanization development (spread), it is impossible to deny the role of migration. The informal settlement is such phenomenon which has been emerged by following the structural evolutions and emergence of social - economic problems like the rapid process of urbanization and unrestrained rural migration. The informal settlement is the abnormal phenomenon, which is observed toward the current and common texture of city and is found in large city of Iran after land reforms and increases of oil price and then gradually penetrate to the lower levels. Therefore this paper has tried to first have a glance at urbanization’s inclinations and then study the features and effective elements on forming and changing informal settlement in Iran with emphasis on the conditions of the megalopolis region of Tehran.
Relocalism, the city and informality
Abstract: Relocalism is the practice of grassroots arts-based or led tactical interventions in the urban realm, participated in by citizens and local communities with an aim to improving the urban lived experience and environment by cultivating the connections between people, place and to community.
This paper would present relocalism and global examples of practice to inform and extend the discourse on informality, addressing specifically the conference themes of urbanisation and informality; everyday resistance; place politics; street art; and urban informality in popular culture. The paper would position the co-production paradigm shift of relocalism, where meaning is collectively created via inter-subjective and informal creative encounters in the urban realm, as a model that other urban and informal practitioners can learn from and with, extending the model for the urban sector that would extend its understanding and practice of informality.
Relocalism is an informal and tactical approach from citizens to creative placemaking and is emerging as a global phenomenon as a model of co-production between artist and community. It has implications on the role of ‘artist-as expert’, holding the knowledge of the community in equal value; the artist is recognised an expert creative thinker/disruptor/negotiator but the community is also held as equal in the co-produced endeavour as expert in their own lives. The relocalist artist reflects on the dominant and grassroots culture and is driven to agitate both, deliberately situating themselves outside of the formal arts sector and at the same time placing relocalism on a horizontal status to it. Part of a processural, relational turn, relocalism is next extension of non-artist from audience to participants to co-authors (‘urban creatives’) of urban and civic space.
This is a participatory, democratic and creative citizenship phenomenon on a global scale where projects spread via a wiki ethos and where city authorities are now taking the lead from tactical urbanist interventions. As a citizen-led placemaking endeavour, relocalism is a reappropriation of cultural placemaking by citizens at the grassroots and commonly outside of formal structures of funding and administration and represents a new form of urban citizenship and situated civil participation. Relocalism projects surface from the peripheral margins of creative urban practice and are demanding a revision of the discourse of art in the public realm, arts participation and citizenship and democratic urban space.
It is a reappropriation of cultural and creative placemaking by citizens, as a potentially new form of an urban, active and participatory citizenship. As a nascent and informal arts, architecture and built environment practice, it is emerging globally in the context of the functions of cities, their cultural interactions and democratic mechanisms for civic participation, these issues being actively questioned by some citizens, artists and city authorities.
Operating at the intersection of participatory arts, placemaking and urban theory and psychological thinking, relocalism is concerned with creative placemaking being designed and produced by hyper-local activists and has an increased attention on the arts as a means of creative placemaking and informal and tactical urban revitalization for its participants and the community they live, work and play in.
This paper would present relocalism and global examples of practice to inform and extend the discourse on informality, addressing specifically the conference themes of urbanisation and informality; everyday resistance; place politics; street art; and urban informality in popular culture. The paper would position the co-production paradigm shift of relocalism, where meaning is collectively created via inter-subjective and informal creative encounters in the urban realm, as a model that other urban and informal practitioners can learn from and with, extending the model for the urban sector that would extend its understanding and practice of informality.
Relocalism is an informal and tactical approach from citizens to creative placemaking and is emerging as a global phenomenon as a model of co-production between artist and community. It has implications on the role of ‘artist-as expert’, holding the knowledge of the community in equal value; the artist is recognised an expert creative thinker/disruptor/negotiator but the community is also held as equal in the co-produced endeavour as expert in their own lives. The relocalist artist reflects on the dominant and grassroots culture and is driven to agitate both, deliberately situating themselves outside of the formal arts sector and at the same time placing relocalism on a horizontal status to it. Part of a processural, relational turn, relocalism is next extension of non-artist from audience to participants to co-authors (‘urban creatives’) of urban and civic space.
This is a participatory, democratic and creative citizenship phenomenon on a global scale where projects spread via a wiki ethos and where city authorities are now taking the lead from tactical urbanist interventions. As a citizen-led placemaking endeavour, relocalism is a reappropriation of cultural placemaking by citizens at the grassroots and commonly outside of formal structures of funding and administration and represents a new form of urban citizenship and situated civil participation. Relocalism projects surface from the peripheral margins of creative urban practice and are demanding a revision of the discourse of art in the public realm, arts participation and citizenship and democratic urban space.
It is a reappropriation of cultural and creative placemaking by citizens, as a potentially new form of an urban, active and participatory citizenship. As a nascent and informal arts, architecture and built environment practice, it is emerging globally in the context of the functions of cities, their cultural interactions and democratic mechanisms for civic participation, these issues being actively questioned by some citizens, artists and city authorities.
Operating at the intersection of participatory arts, placemaking and urban theory and psychological thinking, relocalism is concerned with creative placemaking being designed and produced by hyper-local activists and has an increased attention on the arts as a means of creative placemaking and informal and tactical urban revitalization for its participants and the community they live, work and play in.
‘Poverty at home and Municipal Police in Town’: Unpacking the dynamics of informal trading in Harare, Zimbabwe
Abstract: Moving up and down the streets of Harare (the capital city of Zimbabwe) one observes a set of ills that are plaguing the city. These vary from social, environmental, economic and morphological. Informality has grown to unimaginable levels rendering the formally labelled the ‘sunshine city’ to the ‘city of vending’. Despite it being prohibited within the country’s planning software informal vending has rescued many from the harsh forces of poverty. One thing that touches the heart of any observer is that the vendors are ordinary people who chose to be extra-ordinary by confronting poverty and unemployment head-on. These people are resilient and fight against the odds to put a meal on the table. To date, the City of Harare municipal police have been drawn into a ‘cat and mouse’ relationship by the vendors. The current mode of engagement which consists of arrests and confiscation is inhuman. How can one sanction the arrest of people who are trying to make a "decent"? Many a times the arrests are brutal. Women with children sometimes run away crossing busy streets living their toddlers behind. Not to mention that once the products have been confiscated its back to square one for the street vendors. Street vendors are trapped between a rock and a hard place. There is poverty at home and municipal police in town where they are supposed to earn a living. These are people whose next meal is not guaranteed because the municipal police might just arrest them before they make a sale.Whilst there are a host of problems being caused by the vendors to the wellbeing of the city, a lot can be done to restore sanity and order in the city. As of now no permanent solution has been made to address the sector from a design perspective. A design approach to accommodate this activity seems the only feasible solution. Mutual symbiotic co-existence is quite possible and the benefits of that are quite numerous. This paper seeks to unpack the dynamics of informal trading in Harare with a view to proffer a design solution to the problem. The study applies a phenomenological approach where 10 in-depth interviews shall be carried out and analysed in order to put the final nail to the discourse.
The Use of Public Spaces in Naples: an Institutional Perspective
Abstract: The auri sacra fames [greed] of a Neapolitan cab-driver or barcaiuolo is,
as anyone can find out for himself, very much more intense,
and especially more unscrupulous than that of, say,
an Englishman in similar circumstances (Weber, 1930 [2005], p. 21)
Naples confronts the observer with a difficult decision – whether to dismiss it
as a chaotic and anarchic place doomed to suicidal extinction […]
or to ask whether there is a rationale for its appearance
that might explain things differently (Pardo, 1996, p. xi)
Abstract
In southern Italy as elsewhere, underdevelopment has both economic and social aspects. An influential strand of literature explains Southern Italy’s enduring underdevelopment as a consequence of its poor civic culture (Banfield, 1958; Putnam, 1993; Fukuyama, 1995). Its low “civicness”, defined as the failure of its citizens to cooperate for common goals, is seen as part of a culture developed along centuries of foreign domination, where horizontal ties were deliberately hindered. In contrast to Italy’s centre-north, the southern society would have never learnt the “art of associating” (a reference to Tocqueville’s Democracy in America), which is deemed necessary for the well-functioning of institutions. This argument, especially as revived by American political scientist Robert Putnam (1993), has met both approval and criticism. This on-going PhD research proposes to deal, from a urban perspective, with the main theoretical failures of the “civic society” explanation of underdevelopment. These failures are: the overstated importance and autonomy of civicness as a determinant of development (Levi, 1996); the account of political institutions as passively reflecting a society’s degree of civic culture (Tarrow, 1996; Rothstein & Stolle, 2008); the nostalgic stance on the (economic) virtues of community life (Blokland & Savage, 2008), as well as the overly de-spacialised conceptualisation of civic behaviour (Blokland & Savage, 2008) which emerges from Putnam’s attempt of “making social science work across space and time” (Tarrow, 1996). A study on civic behaviour, I argue, must start with the analysis of the place where it happens (or fails to happen).
Yet, merely invoking place is not enough. I therefore propose to understand places as “institutional contexts”, i.e., places where certain rules prevail. Thus framed, civic behaviour happens (or fails to happen) in places which are governed by different mixes of formal and informal institutions. Formal institutions are sets of explicit and codified rules, such as laws and regulations, which constrain and guide impersonal, episodic interactions among strangers (North, 1990). Informal institutions refer instead to non-codified rules, such as conventions or codes of conduct, which constrain and guide interaction among people in a community. This distinction follows Tönnies’ society/community dichotomy. Community and society, as different means of coordination, generally coexist, and neither of these is intrinsically desirable or conducive to development (Rodriguez-Pose & Storper, 2006). Well-functioning public spaces are thus posited to be the outcome of a distinct mix formality and informality, whereby the two are both strong, but complement each other. An explorative case study will be carried out in September 2013, where two sets of indicators (measuring the relative and the absolute strength of both formal and informal rules) will be tested. At the conference I would present the case study with a validity assessment of the methodology adopted.
as anyone can find out for himself, very much more intense,
and especially more unscrupulous than that of, say,
an Englishman in similar circumstances (Weber, 1930 [2005], p. 21)
Naples confronts the observer with a difficult decision – whether to dismiss it
as a chaotic and anarchic place doomed to suicidal extinction […]
or to ask whether there is a rationale for its appearance
that might explain things differently (Pardo, 1996, p. xi)
Abstract
In southern Italy as elsewhere, underdevelopment has both economic and social aspects. An influential strand of literature explains Southern Italy’s enduring underdevelopment as a consequence of its poor civic culture (Banfield, 1958; Putnam, 1993; Fukuyama, 1995). Its low “civicness”, defined as the failure of its citizens to cooperate for common goals, is seen as part of a culture developed along centuries of foreign domination, where horizontal ties were deliberately hindered. In contrast to Italy’s centre-north, the southern society would have never learnt the “art of associating” (a reference to Tocqueville’s Democracy in America), which is deemed necessary for the well-functioning of institutions. This argument, especially as revived by American political scientist Robert Putnam (1993), has met both approval and criticism. This on-going PhD research proposes to deal, from a urban perspective, with the main theoretical failures of the “civic society” explanation of underdevelopment. These failures are: the overstated importance and autonomy of civicness as a determinant of development (Levi, 1996); the account of political institutions as passively reflecting a society’s degree of civic culture (Tarrow, 1996; Rothstein & Stolle, 2008); the nostalgic stance on the (economic) virtues of community life (Blokland & Savage, 2008), as well as the overly de-spacialised conceptualisation of civic behaviour (Blokland & Savage, 2008) which emerges from Putnam’s attempt of “making social science work across space and time” (Tarrow, 1996). A study on civic behaviour, I argue, must start with the analysis of the place where it happens (or fails to happen).
Yet, merely invoking place is not enough. I therefore propose to understand places as “institutional contexts”, i.e., places where certain rules prevail. Thus framed, civic behaviour happens (or fails to happen) in places which are governed by different mixes of formal and informal institutions. Formal institutions are sets of explicit and codified rules, such as laws and regulations, which constrain and guide impersonal, episodic interactions among strangers (North, 1990). Informal institutions refer instead to non-codified rules, such as conventions or codes of conduct, which constrain and guide interaction among people in a community. This distinction follows Tönnies’ society/community dichotomy. Community and society, as different means of coordination, generally coexist, and neither of these is intrinsically desirable or conducive to development (Rodriguez-Pose & Storper, 2006). Well-functioning public spaces are thus posited to be the outcome of a distinct mix formality and informality, whereby the two are both strong, but complement each other. An explorative case study will be carried out in September 2013, where two sets of indicators (measuring the relative and the absolute strength of both formal and informal rules) will be tested. At the conference I would present the case study with a validity assessment of the methodology adopted.
BANGKOK STREET VENDING, IDENTITY AND GLOCALITY: THE CASE OF SILOM DISTRICT
Abstract: Street vendor is a universal phenomenon, an important part of street culture and the landscape of everyday life in Asian countries. Likewise, they play a significant role of socio-economy in several Asian cities as well as the city of Bangkok. Street vending activities provide the easy access for all populace to get cheap foods, commodities and employment. Nevertheless, governor and planning policy-maker still have a blinded-eye to its potential because of its illegality, and image of poverty. As a consequence, street vendors nowadays are forced by diverse forms of pressures. Traditionally by governor, policy maker, developer, as well as modern concept influenced urban designer who has try to vanishing street vending out of the city. Conventionally, by socio-structural change due to the unrelenting rapid advance in technology especially in online communication which has brought the global trend and influence merging into the local context.
According to the circumstance mentioned above, this research aims to investigate on how globalization influence to the identity of street vending. As street vending is one of the most primitive forms of shopping activity and rich in the sense of localness. The study is focused on the identity reflecting on place, selling space through street vendor’s manifestation. The study uses street vending area around “Silom” district as case study. “Silom” district is the central business district of Bangkok city, one of the most busiest urban activity in city center where the blending of globalization in Thai local context could be found obviously through lifestyles, activities, and physical environment, meanwhile local-ness is still remains. The empirical study was conducted on January 2013.The quantitative data would be gathered through the spatial survey and qualitative data would be gathered through the interview with 50 street vendors. The cross-analysis data would be able to clarify the current spatio-cultural identity of street vending activity in Glocal context of Siam commercial district.
The result reveals the sense of Glocality could be investigated in street vending activity brought by its surrounding socio-cultural environmental context. The adoption of global-ness or internationalization by street vendors were found in physical attributes rather than their use of space and their gesture. The local-ness identities are still survived in form of vending space, vending devices and good as well. Moreover, the unique identity represents the place-ness of Silom district also express through spatial distribution of street vendors. In order to survive, street vendors were obligated to adapt themselves to be more glocal-ness or less. Street vendors have to compete not only with among themselves and public sectors but also with other forms of commerce which emerged newly under the forces of globalization and internalization. Finally, it would provide the initial recommendations on how street vending element and its identity should be inclusive in urban planning and design perspective.
According to the circumstance mentioned above, this research aims to investigate on how globalization influence to the identity of street vending. As street vending is one of the most primitive forms of shopping activity and rich in the sense of localness. The study is focused on the identity reflecting on place, selling space through street vendor’s manifestation. The study uses street vending area around “Silom” district as case study. “Silom” district is the central business district of Bangkok city, one of the most busiest urban activity in city center where the blending of globalization in Thai local context could be found obviously through lifestyles, activities, and physical environment, meanwhile local-ness is still remains. The empirical study was conducted on January 2013.The quantitative data would be gathered through the spatial survey and qualitative data would be gathered through the interview with 50 street vendors. The cross-analysis data would be able to clarify the current spatio-cultural identity of street vending activity in Glocal context of Siam commercial district.
The result reveals the sense of Glocality could be investigated in street vending activity brought by its surrounding socio-cultural environmental context. The adoption of global-ness or internationalization by street vendors were found in physical attributes rather than their use of space and their gesture. The local-ness identities are still survived in form of vending space, vending devices and good as well. Moreover, the unique identity represents the place-ness of Silom district also express through spatial distribution of street vendors. In order to survive, street vendors were obligated to adapt themselves to be more glocal-ness or less. Street vendors have to compete not only with among themselves and public sectors but also with other forms of commerce which emerged newly under the forces of globalization and internalization. Finally, it would provide the initial recommendations on how street vending element and its identity should be inclusive in urban planning and design perspective.
Social Implications of Peri-urbanization and Agricultural Land Acquisition and Compensation in Vietnam: A Case Study in Thua Thien Hue Province
Abstract: Land acquisition and compensation for urban development has become a matter of great concern given the multi-facetted impacts on different groups of people — particularly the vulnerable in developed and developing countries. Since the 1986 Doi Moi economic reforms, Vietnam has experienced remarkable changes in urban transformation. Peri-urbanization and the acquisition of agricultural land for development have impacted millions of rural Vietnamese. This paper looks at issues of agricultural land acquisition, compensation and the livelihoods of effected farmers. Thua Thien Hue Province, in Central Vietnam, will be analyzed as a case study to provide a platform for discussion and comparative analysis to other cases in Vietnam, China and some African countries. It aims to examine the local practice of agricultural land acquisition and the sustainability of livelihoods for local farmers. Through direct interactions with the local farmers and other relevant stakeholders via in-depth interviews, questionnaires and focus groups discussions, the research findings indicate that the local practice of agricultural land acquisition and compensation in Thua Thien Hue has resulted in the permanent loss of livelihoods for thousands of farmers compounded by poor compensation rates. Meanwhile, the land is converted for residential uses at a much higher value. While the primary livelihood of farmers remains wet rice cultivation, acquisition of their land at lowered prices without follow-up welfare services sends communities deeper into the cycle of poverty. This study concludes that the local implementation of policies should take a comprehensive approach through a more participatory process that empowers the local community so as to maintain overall social stability.
SURVIVING IN URBAN SLUM COMMUNITIES IN GHANA, THE ROLE OF INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS
Abstract: Housing shortage is a challenge in Ghana as it is in many developing countries. The country battles with housing deficit which has been estimated at between 750 000 and 1.3 million units (Arku, Luginaah, & Mkandawire, 2012). The difficulty in having access to decent homes stems from reasons such as; rising costs of homeownership, constraints in land acquisition, low and irregular incomes for the vast majority of people and more importantly the inability of the state to provide homes for its citizens. This has forced many urban dwellers to remain in dilapidated rent-free houses in indigenous urban communities, whilst some rent or build ‘cheap’ structures on unused private or public lands. Such communities are characterised as slum communities. A distinct feature of slum communities is the concentration of its population in the lower income group as a result of their inability to attract meaningful jobs in the country. Slum areas also have majority of their population working in the informal sector to earn their livelihoods. In such communities, the embodiments of livelihoods are also embedded in the informal institutions that operate within the communities. People are involved in organizations which rules regulate their lives and livelihoods. The organizations and the rules are usually community based which have different aims and ambitions such as; community development, economic activities of members, welfare of community members, socio-cultural and spiritual lives of the people. Planning and development of the community, as well as people’s livelihoods do revolve around the institutions. In some of the communities, the entire population have migrated from different parts of the country and even outside the country, yet, they are able to connect themselves within a social web which bond the community as similar to the ones found in the rural and indigenous areas of the country. The state plays relaxed and absential roles in providing housing and other infrastructure and social amenities in slum communities. Usually its people are also neglected on the basis of formal employment because of their low levels of education and skills. But the people are not perturbed by the inefficiency of the state, rather, they find ways of surviving by being part of the informal institutions which help them strategise their livelihoods like finding jobs, housing and also governing their lives in the cities. The paper focuses on four slum communities in Ghana and the various informal institutions that are in operative in the communities. It argues that the livelihoods of the slum dwellers and the informal institutions that exist in the communities connected. And it concludes that the state institutions can collaborate with the informal ones to plan and develop the slum communities and make them humanly habitable.
Knowledge and attitudes of breast-self examination among Kuwaitis’ Women
Abstract: The major aim of this study is to examine breast cancer knowledge and awareness among Kuwaiti women from an anthropological perspective. The study concentrates on a different sociocultural factors (age, level of education, sector, ethnic roots, material status, family history with cancer, and family history with BC) to examine participant’s knowledge and attitudes of breast self examination . A convenient sample of 353 Kuwaitis women were selected, ages range between 15 and 62 years. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire that consisted of four sections, with a total of 34 items. A scale of Knowledge of breast self examination used for this study. SPSS (Version 19) has been used for data entry and analysis. Descriptive statistics and test (T) T-test, ANOVA, and regression were used.The findings reveal that most of the participants did not practice and performed self breast examination and there is relationship between sociodemographic factors and the performance of breast self examination.
Corruption Affecting Cairo's Small Businesses in Formal and Informal Areas
Abstract: Following the Arab Spring and specifically the January 25th 2011 revolution in Egypt, countries in the region continue to face turmoil economically, politically and at the security level. This has lead to great controversy and polarization between the different actors, and stagnation of the democratic transformation of the country. When looking at one of the root causes of the uprisings, corruption is specifically highlighted. Post-revolutionary governments have pledged to combat the phenomenon at all levels, but their policy impact is yet to be seen.
The purpose of this research, which was part of a Masters Thesis study, was to look at the types of corruption affecting small businesses in formal and informal districts of Cairo before and after the January 2011 revolution. The district of Nasr City was chosen, including its formal neighborhoods and the informal area of Ezbet Al-Haggana Small grocery businesses were selected as representatives of the largest business sector in Egypt. The purpose was to identify the discrepancies between the two types of sectors in the types of corruption they face on a daily basis, and how they have been impacted by the Revolution. This would allow us to gain insights on the barriers to conducting business after the Revolution and how anti-corruption policies affect businesses at the local level.
The study findings indicate that corruption affecting small businesses in both formal and informal districts of Cairo decreased drastically, compared to before the revolution; the main reason for the results being the breakdown of citizens’ fears and the weakening of governmental power and authority, particularly in the police.
The purpose of this research, which was part of a Masters Thesis study, was to look at the types of corruption affecting small businesses in formal and informal districts of Cairo before and after the January 2011 revolution. The district of Nasr City was chosen, including its formal neighborhoods and the informal area of Ezbet Al-Haggana Small grocery businesses were selected as representatives of the largest business sector in Egypt. The purpose was to identify the discrepancies between the two types of sectors in the types of corruption they face on a daily basis, and how they have been impacted by the Revolution. This would allow us to gain insights on the barriers to conducting business after the Revolution and how anti-corruption policies affect businesses at the local level.
The study findings indicate that corruption affecting small businesses in both formal and informal districts of Cairo decreased drastically, compared to before the revolution; the main reason for the results being the breakdown of citizens’ fears and the weakening of governmental power and authority, particularly in the police.
Government and Community Efforts in Upgrading Infrastructure in Informal Areas
Abstract: Realizing the magnitude of informality as a façon-de-vie in Cairo as in other megacities, this research focuses on the urban poor in their attempts to provide a decent standard of living using their own efforts, within the context of the lack of government engagement and limited resources. The purpose was to answer the research question how community organizations and state actors interact in providing key infrastructure in informal areas, taking Izbit ElHaggana as an area of study. The objective was to determine the processes of how community self-help schemes and government efforts to install and upgrade infrastructure in informal areas operate and are maintained. This thus allowed us to recognize quality and sustainability issues, as well as potential for integrated/inclusive upgrading policies; and whether the government can afford to reject informal infrastructure. Qualitative interviews were conducted with community members, government officials and experts on informality to provide holistic perceptions on the upgrading paradigm. The study findings provided an insight to two case studies of self-help water installations in the two districts of ElHaggana, as well as an insight into electricity and sewerage connections, regarding gehood zateya processes- incremental networking, innovation strategies, communal networks and self-sufficiency, sub-optimal quality, and sustainability. The findings also shed light on the themes of informal social structures and interaction with formal systems. The research indicates that local self-help initiatives often override non-functioning formal systems, while local governments stubbornly avoid collaboration as back participation in initiatives. In addition, community interviews presented citizens caught in a trap between the need to regularize and mistrust of formalization given the unstable official recognition.
Housing informality as wicked problems? Building evidence for better practice
Abstract: In spite of significant public concern, professional efforts and financial expenditure, there has been a perceived lack of progress in reducing the incidence of housing informality, and in improving the outcomes for the majority of informal settlers in Africa. This is in part a reflection that housing informality has almost become a daunting challenge that is not amenable to any remedy. We show in this paper how ideas emphasizing the interconnections within complex systems and the concept of ‘wicked problems’ can be combined to improve understanding of the challenges associated with informality in the housing sector. This analysis has therefore used system ideas and the concept of ‘wicked problems’ to frame examination of the housing informality challenge in Africa. We interrogated theoretical postulations on ‘wicked problems’ and matched the derivations thereof with empirical evidence from housing informality - case experiences drawn from seven African countries. To facilitate sound matching, the analysis used and applied the main tenets of pattern matching as both a concept and tool. Building on the evidence generated, we observe that intervention efforts on housing informality often involve multiple objectives, multiple stakeholders, and complex socio-ecological and political interactions – characteristics that are similar to those of wicked problems. Despite this wickedness, policy makers in Africa have unleashed a torrent of top-down actions that in most cases are grounded on a fairly stable set of assumptions and an exercise of past orientation. Poor housing outcomes have however demonstrated that informality challenges are innately resistant to any tame formulations of scientific analysis and linear protocols for professional practice, and that they defy conventional approaches and skill sets of planning, management, and policy-making. We conclude by presenting a persuasive case that calls for scholars, practitioners, stakeholders, and the general public to attend to the daunting social reality of accepting housing informality as a wicked problem.
THE QUESTION OF LOW INCOME HOUSING BACKLOGS AND DEFICITS IN SOUTH AFRICA: MOVING BEYOND RHETORIC?
Abstract: This paper raises critical questions regarding low income housing debates in South Africa. The departure point of the paper is to argue that the debate should move beyond theorising to implementing transformative sustainable projects and programmes. Central to this change is the need to utilise robust housing construction and development models in seeking to redress the country of shelter provision and delivery backlogs. The contribution that advanced construction materials and fast construction building techniques can play is discussed. The addition of updated traditional construction technologies and also the the role of societal and political developments will also be drawn in. The paper draws its findings from an extensive desktop analysis completed by references to case studies. The major recommendations emanating from this paper is that applied research and development of housing innovations in practice is critical in transforming the shelter and housing sustainability agenda in South Africa and by extension in developing countries.
Urban Sustainability and connectivity in gated and Semi Gated housing compounds in new Cairo
Abstract: What we call ‘sustainable urbanism and connectivity’ – the ability to move about town easily – is the key to a properly functioning city, especially in the past few decades which witnessed a practical orientation toward gated communities and divided cities. Given that gated communities are spatially a type of enclave, Setha M. Low, among other anthropologists, in her book (The Edge and the Center: Gated Communities and the Discourse of Urban Fear) has argued that they have a negative effect on the overall social capital of the broader community outside the gated community.
Some argue that Gated Communities offer promises of healthy, comfort, convenience, various services, peace and quiet environment (Kuppinger & College 2004). Other emphasize lush manicured landscape, architecture character, security, and distinctive amenities and services facilities (Yousry 2009). Other argue that Gated Communities provide the desire for an imaginary or imagined community leads consumers to look for enhanced suburban environments of the kind promised by these contemporary movements (Christopher 1994; Knox 2005; Kohn 2004).
This paper will define the term " Gated Community ", then understand how it started globally, followed by its major criticism. Through analyzing the recent practice of gated communities in new Cairo region, and comparing it with sustainable urban principles of good community, and examine its connectivity with the Egyptian urban fabric, the paper will end up formulating a series of recommendation which can achieve better connectivity and more sustainability, taking into consideration the social formulation of the Egyptian society and how to benefit from this type of urban development.
Paper assumes that these new trends in developing new cities can create various urban, functional, social, and economical problems, which can be adapted and solved through developing a new vision to connect the urban fabric with the surrounding housing areas. To prove that, some important questions will be answered through the research process:
• What are the different types of gated and semi gated communities ?
• Is there any design principles codes for each similar community in New Cairo ?
• Is there any role of public authorities in understanding and directing this type of communities in urban planning and development according to greater vision of urban development ?
• Do gated communities has a one way impact only on adjacent community or micro community? Or there is a double impact on both macro public community and also micro private community?
• How big should gated communities be?, where they should locate? And how they should relate to the city?. What efficient characteristics should gated communities have?
Some argue that Gated Communities offer promises of healthy, comfort, convenience, various services, peace and quiet environment (Kuppinger & College 2004). Other emphasize lush manicured landscape, architecture character, security, and distinctive amenities and services facilities (Yousry 2009). Other argue that Gated Communities provide the desire for an imaginary or imagined community leads consumers to look for enhanced suburban environments of the kind promised by these contemporary movements (Christopher 1994; Knox 2005; Kohn 2004).
This paper will define the term " Gated Community ", then understand how it started globally, followed by its major criticism. Through analyzing the recent practice of gated communities in new Cairo region, and comparing it with sustainable urban principles of good community, and examine its connectivity with the Egyptian urban fabric, the paper will end up formulating a series of recommendation which can achieve better connectivity and more sustainability, taking into consideration the social formulation of the Egyptian society and how to benefit from this type of urban development.
Paper assumes that these new trends in developing new cities can create various urban, functional, social, and economical problems, which can be adapted and solved through developing a new vision to connect the urban fabric with the surrounding housing areas. To prove that, some important questions will be answered through the research process:
• What are the different types of gated and semi gated communities ?
• Is there any design principles codes for each similar community in New Cairo ?
• Is there any role of public authorities in understanding and directing this type of communities in urban planning and development according to greater vision of urban development ?
• Do gated communities has a one way impact only on adjacent community or micro community? Or there is a double impact on both macro public community and also micro private community?
• How big should gated communities be?, where they should locate? And how they should relate to the city?. What efficient characteristics should gated communities have?
Social production of space: ‘Lived space’ of informal livelihood operators; the case of Dar es Salaam city, Tanzania
Abstract: This paper critically examines the social production of space for informal livelihood activities. While many scholars have addressed the process of the eviction and harassment of informal livelihood operators, what these scholars has often left unexplored is how informal operators contribute to the social production of space in urban areas. The first half of this paper focuses on Lefebvre’s conceptualisation of the social production of space and its links with the activities of informal livelihood operators. The second section focuses specifically on how the social production of space is manifested in the operation of informal livelihood operators in the urban areas of Dar es Salaam city.
The study uses a mixed method approach to arrive at its findings, drawing from both secondary and primary data, the latter in the form of 200 questionnaires, 43 in-depth interviews, as well as mapping and observation undertaken in Dar es Salaam. The process of accessing and using prime locations and the operators’ use of both legal and illegal means to do so, are investigated through three specific locations: two are roadside areas, along the Msimbazi and Uhuru Roads and third is a designated market, Mchikichini market. The study explores the lived experience of informal livelihood operators in these locations.
The paper offers insight into the socio-economic characteristics of operators and the wide-reaching changes in the economy and policies that have influenced their participation in informal activities. Through a focus on prime locations, the paper demonstrates how the appropriation of such locations contributes to social and material transitions which impact on the operators’ social, economic and environmental relationships.
It is argued that the informal mode of space production, which constitutes the ‘lived space’, should be considered to inform understanding of how the spaces for such activities are produced. Rather than opposing informal operators, initiatives should take into consideration the shared experience created in the process of producing spaces and implementing policies for informal livelihood activities in Dar es Salaam and elsewhere.
The study uses a mixed method approach to arrive at its findings, drawing from both secondary and primary data, the latter in the form of 200 questionnaires, 43 in-depth interviews, as well as mapping and observation undertaken in Dar es Salaam. The process of accessing and using prime locations and the operators’ use of both legal and illegal means to do so, are investigated through three specific locations: two are roadside areas, along the Msimbazi and Uhuru Roads and third is a designated market, Mchikichini market. The study explores the lived experience of informal livelihood operators in these locations.
The paper offers insight into the socio-economic characteristics of operators and the wide-reaching changes in the economy and policies that have influenced their participation in informal activities. Through a focus on prime locations, the paper demonstrates how the appropriation of such locations contributes to social and material transitions which impact on the operators’ social, economic and environmental relationships.
It is argued that the informal mode of space production, which constitutes the ‘lived space’, should be considered to inform understanding of how the spaces for such activities are produced. Rather than opposing informal operators, initiatives should take into consideration the shared experience created in the process of producing spaces and implementing policies for informal livelihood activities in Dar es Salaam and elsewhere.
'I'm Local and Foreign': Belonging, the City and the Case for Denizenship
Abstract: Terms such as ‘diaspora,’ ‘transnational community’ and ‘postnational community’ have emerged in attempts to make sense of the modes of belonging experienced in the inner-city. Many such attempts have related to residents of the ‘global city’ who see themselves as untied to any particular bounded locality or territorial reference point. Using the findings of two years’ ethnographic fieldwork, the article explores the modes of belonging experienced by a group of young men in inner-city London. More specifically, it focuses on the subjects’ touchstones of belonging and how these are informed by notions of place and portrayals of self and other. The article concludes by arguing that a mindset of ‘denizenship’ united these young men in their feelings of belonging, and making some tentative suggestions with regard to how we might understand this mindset as a sociological phenomenon.
The question of informality: Contestation in land development in major cities in India
Abstract: Urban population growth and economic growth require cities to expand into the agricultural land on their periphery. Such expansions have been in the forefront of cities’ transformation in India that witnessed formalized land development implemented using a distinctively state-led but partnership land development model. There is a formalized land development structure in place backed up by central and local policies, politics and laws of the country. But this structure lacks complementary relationship with the informality that exists in these locations leading to increasing formal-informal conflict. Informality is manifested through scattered nature of land holding, lack of title deeds and customary rights leading to transactions outside of the purview of the formal process.
It is observed that this ‘conflict’ reflects nuances and challenges of the neoliberal urban transformation, highlighting the dilemma in the contemporary political economy in India – of how to incorporate informality within the formal structured models given that peripheral informality has become the biggest stumbling block for India’s implementation of New Town and SEZ policies. The aim of this paper is to explore the formal-informal duality prevalent in law, institutional practices and processes of land development in India. It will focus on the symbolic and symbiotic relationship of the peripheral informality with the legislative and regulatory regime for land acquisition, compensation and urban development. At the broad disposition of the paper lies a question on how informality is understood, embraced and is functioning at local level and regional level. It then seeks to explore how new institutional arrangement can be developed to optimize coordinated partnership to bridge the formal-informal gulf in land development.
The paper uses empirical examples from land development model currently being implemented across the country. Primarily, the paper focuses on the informality in urban fringes in Kolkata, one of the metro cities in India and a pioneer in the implementation of state-led land development model. The methodology underpinning the paper is not only based on an interdisciplinary literature review and informal interview with key stakeholders but also a passive participant observation of the policymaking involved in urban land development in India over the past ten years.
It is observed that this ‘conflict’ reflects nuances and challenges of the neoliberal urban transformation, highlighting the dilemma in the contemporary political economy in India – of how to incorporate informality within the formal structured models given that peripheral informality has become the biggest stumbling block for India’s implementation of New Town and SEZ policies. The aim of this paper is to explore the formal-informal duality prevalent in law, institutional practices and processes of land development in India. It will focus on the symbolic and symbiotic relationship of the peripheral informality with the legislative and regulatory regime for land acquisition, compensation and urban development. At the broad disposition of the paper lies a question on how informality is understood, embraced and is functioning at local level and regional level. It then seeks to explore how new institutional arrangement can be developed to optimize coordinated partnership to bridge the formal-informal gulf in land development.
The paper uses empirical examples from land development model currently being implemented across the country. Primarily, the paper focuses on the informality in urban fringes in Kolkata, one of the metro cities in India and a pioneer in the implementation of state-led land development model. The methodology underpinning the paper is not only based on an interdisciplinary literature review and informal interview with key stakeholders but also a passive participant observation of the policymaking involved in urban land development in India over the past ten years.
Rur-urbanity as a key aspect of informality: evidence from small towns in Mozambique
Abstract: The paper addresses the subject of informality focusing on the socio-economic structure and the spatial organization of small towns scattered in sub-Saharan Africa. For this study small towns located in the central part of Mozambique are considered, in which the author has worked for many years supporting urban and country planning activities.
These small towns are characterized, with regards to the functioning of the economy as well as the social and spatial organization, by the predominance of informality. This predominance is ascribed to the prevailing rural character of these small towns in which rurality, far from becoming a residual phenomenon, tends to last even in presence of modernizing processes, and interact with modernity creating an urban hybrid structure, the rural town, in which elements of rurality and urbanity meld together. The rural town can therefore be utilized as an interpretative category considered more appropriate to understand the phenomenon of hybridization between modernity and informality in the small towns of sub-Saharan Africa, than the one widely used in the literature, i.e. the formal-informal dichotomy.
The paper analyzes the most recent phases of the urbanization process occurring in Mozambique, highlighting how the population growth observable in small towns has taken place mainly by means of farmers who have adapted themselves to the new urban context without ceasing to cultivate the land to survive. This urbanization process has transposed in the urban context way of living, the behaviours and cultures of the rural areas; thus conferring these towns with their predominantly informal features. Here informality does not constitute a separate structure, but tends to interact with modernity by establishing with the latter relationships of mutual interdependence.
Particular attention is paid to the spatial organization of small towns, highlighting how the settlement pattern utilized in this urbanization process has reproduced the one of the countryside not only from the physical point of view, i.e. proposing the morphology and the typologies of rural settlements, but also from the institutional point of view, with regards to the traditional mechanisms of access to the land. In this context, the important role that can be played by spatial planning in recognizing and supporting the various forms of informality is emphasized.
These small towns are characterized, with regards to the functioning of the economy as well as the social and spatial organization, by the predominance of informality. This predominance is ascribed to the prevailing rural character of these small towns in which rurality, far from becoming a residual phenomenon, tends to last even in presence of modernizing processes, and interact with modernity creating an urban hybrid structure, the rural town, in which elements of rurality and urbanity meld together. The rural town can therefore be utilized as an interpretative category considered more appropriate to understand the phenomenon of hybridization between modernity and informality in the small towns of sub-Saharan Africa, than the one widely used in the literature, i.e. the formal-informal dichotomy.
The paper analyzes the most recent phases of the urbanization process occurring in Mozambique, highlighting how the population growth observable in small towns has taken place mainly by means of farmers who have adapted themselves to the new urban context without ceasing to cultivate the land to survive. This urbanization process has transposed in the urban context way of living, the behaviours and cultures of the rural areas; thus conferring these towns with their predominantly informal features. Here informality does not constitute a separate structure, but tends to interact with modernity by establishing with the latter relationships of mutual interdependence.
Particular attention is paid to the spatial organization of small towns, highlighting how the settlement pattern utilized in this urbanization process has reproduced the one of the countryside not only from the physical point of view, i.e. proposing the morphology and the typologies of rural settlements, but also from the institutional point of view, with regards to the traditional mechanisms of access to the land. In this context, the important role that can be played by spatial planning in recognizing and supporting the various forms of informality is emphasized.
A mobility of one's own. Explorations on informality and movement in the Milan urban region
Abstract: Is informality a relevant category also for mobility? The role of informal initiatives is usually acknowledged when discussing “static” aspects of urban phenomena; the same relevance could be explored referring to movement, attempting a preliminary understanding of such a relationship and its consequences on transport policy. Research on informal mobility has already been conducted in Asian and Latin American metropolises, where different examples in this sense – from minibuses to rickshaws – play an important role in meeting the mobility needs of lower classes; still, the same presence could be investigated in Western contexts, even if from a different perspective: that of mobility practices.
Observing the transport sector, a draft classification of informal experiences can highlight three main categories of non-formal actions: they can include services, infrastructures and practices. A first typology involves services – various forms of transit moving in urban contexts, referring to a range of initiatives encompassing paratransit forms (pedicabs, vans...) and more established transport networks alternative to the public ones. A second category is more difficult to observe and includes infrastructures, representing the support for transport services and practices; since the provision of massive infrastructures is mainly public, it is possible to include small insurgent physical interventions, such as guerrilla urbanism initiatives. Finally, the third group refers to mobility practices, defined as the various ways in which individuals and groups use the available services and infrastructures.
Informal services, infrastructures and practices all discuss the effectiveness of formal decisions and actions, challenging their outcomes as well as objectives and inspiring principles. Yet, the formal – informal dialectic in Western contexts has mainly to do with practices: a number of habits and initiatives continuously discuss effectiveness and legitimacy of the public intervention, ranging from everyday actions to sporadic protests. Generally speaking, practices define the main traits of urban populations and are often a claim for a better socio-political representation. The description of such a relationship can effectively rely also on a number of examples related to mobility and transport, especially from the policy perspective.
The Milan metropolitan area and its mobility provide a good setting to explore the relationship between informality and movement: in fact the central municipality is presently developing its Pums (Urban Plan for Sustainable Mobility), trying to formally intervene in a context continuously generating various forms of mobility practices (as discussed in a number of recent research programs). Various local initiatives have been recently challenging the effectiveness of public interventions, addressing its limitations (for example, with protesting commuters), criticizing imbalances (it is the case of the cycling Critical Mass) or simply putting to the institutional attention the existence of alternative mobility practices (as in the case of the local night transport network). Now, the mobility planning process could provide the formal setting to consider these informal practices and try to include (or at least consider) them in the developing transport policy; yet, the formal – informal interaction is complex, dealing with some of these initiatives but neglecting or excluding others.
Combining literature and on-field research, an inquiry on informal contributions to mobility can help to understand if even in Western contexts informality is relevant for movement, although the focus is on practices rather than on the provision of infrastructures and services; finally, it makes possible to explore room for possible confrontation (and even cooperation) between formal initiatives and informal actions.
Observing the transport sector, a draft classification of informal experiences can highlight three main categories of non-formal actions: they can include services, infrastructures and practices. A first typology involves services – various forms of transit moving in urban contexts, referring to a range of initiatives encompassing paratransit forms (pedicabs, vans...) and more established transport networks alternative to the public ones. A second category is more difficult to observe and includes infrastructures, representing the support for transport services and practices; since the provision of massive infrastructures is mainly public, it is possible to include small insurgent physical interventions, such as guerrilla urbanism initiatives. Finally, the third group refers to mobility practices, defined as the various ways in which individuals and groups use the available services and infrastructures.
Informal services, infrastructures and practices all discuss the effectiveness of formal decisions and actions, challenging their outcomes as well as objectives and inspiring principles. Yet, the formal – informal dialectic in Western contexts has mainly to do with practices: a number of habits and initiatives continuously discuss effectiveness and legitimacy of the public intervention, ranging from everyday actions to sporadic protests. Generally speaking, practices define the main traits of urban populations and are often a claim for a better socio-political representation. The description of such a relationship can effectively rely also on a number of examples related to mobility and transport, especially from the policy perspective.
The Milan metropolitan area and its mobility provide a good setting to explore the relationship between informality and movement: in fact the central municipality is presently developing its Pums (Urban Plan for Sustainable Mobility), trying to formally intervene in a context continuously generating various forms of mobility practices (as discussed in a number of recent research programs). Various local initiatives have been recently challenging the effectiveness of public interventions, addressing its limitations (for example, with protesting commuters), criticizing imbalances (it is the case of the cycling Critical Mass) or simply putting to the institutional attention the existence of alternative mobility practices (as in the case of the local night transport network). Now, the mobility planning process could provide the formal setting to consider these informal practices and try to include (or at least consider) them in the developing transport policy; yet, the formal – informal interaction is complex, dealing with some of these initiatives but neglecting or excluding others.
Combining literature and on-field research, an inquiry on informal contributions to mobility can help to understand if even in Western contexts informality is relevant for movement, although the focus is on practices rather than on the provision of infrastructures and services; finally, it makes possible to explore room for possible confrontation (and even cooperation) between formal initiatives and informal actions.
From the margins to the center - reviewing the concept of informality
Abstract: The discourse on informality is as diverse as it is fragmented. Spanning across many disciplines and geographic context most knowledge generation has remained confined within disciplinary thinking. This is highly unfortunate as the complex interplay of formal-informal practices in the world escapes largely such a limited view. The authors put forward a cross-disciplinary reading of informality and propose a common taxonomy.
Looking at the existing literature there are certain communalities despite all the fragmentation. Within the large body of research concepts seeing formality-informality as flipped side of the same coin dominate. Other approaches concentrate on the hitherto definition, perceiving informality as negative, inferior, and to be eradicated opposite of the formal. Only recently new concepts thrive to break binary opposition. While some scholars argue for decolonizing the informality discourse {Roy, 2005 #404}, other authors propose a scalar thinking of a formal-informal range {Guha-Khasnobis, 2006 #402:3}. How this should be done practically remains unaddressed to date.
To break with the initial pathologies of subject fragmentation inherited from past sector-based approaches the authors propose a careful dissection of different aspects of informality implied in the different school of thoughts. Past approaches did not discern carefully enough between the qualitative dimension, legal condition of the informal and its underlying processes.
The proposed long paper reviews a representative sample of the informality literature written within different traditions (economic, legal, political, and sociological). From these publications common informality criteria are derived and a coherent taxonomy proposed. This taxonomy could considerably advance our knowledge of informality and form a bridgehead for interdisciplinary discussions.
Looking at the existing literature there are certain communalities despite all the fragmentation. Within the large body of research concepts seeing formality-informality as flipped side of the same coin dominate. Other approaches concentrate on the hitherto definition, perceiving informality as negative, inferior, and to be eradicated opposite of the formal. Only recently new concepts thrive to break binary opposition. While some scholars argue for decolonizing the informality discourse {Roy, 2005 #404}, other authors propose a scalar thinking of a formal-informal range {Guha-Khasnobis, 2006 #402:3}. How this should be done practically remains unaddressed to date.
To break with the initial pathologies of subject fragmentation inherited from past sector-based approaches the authors propose a careful dissection of different aspects of informality implied in the different school of thoughts. Past approaches did not discern carefully enough between the qualitative dimension, legal condition of the informal and its underlying processes.
The proposed long paper reviews a representative sample of the informality literature written within different traditions (economic, legal, political, and sociological). From these publications common informality criteria are derived and a coherent taxonomy proposed. This taxonomy could considerably advance our knowledge of informality and form a bridgehead for interdisciplinary discussions.
GRAY SPACING: INFORMALITY AND THE TRANSFORAMTION OF URBAN REGIMES
Abstract: Middle Eastern cities have recently experienced unprecedented waves of demonstrations, coupled by the mushrooming of tent cities, and the articulation of mass demands for political, social and economic change. At the same time, a quieter transformation has spawned a process of ‘gray spacing’, during which informalities have shaped anew urban spaces and regimes. The paper analyzes and conceptualizes these transformations with a focus on Israel/Palestine, in order to ask: do these transformation herald a new democratic age and the dawn of urban citizenship? Or are there the pangs of a ‘creeping apartheid’ process, during which ethnocratic and neo-liberal forces co-opt, colonize and entrap the growing class of ‘unwanted/irremovable? In the spirit of global urbanism, the paper compares events in Israel/Palestine’s main cities to urban transformations in other world regions, and theorize the connection between gray spacing, the recent wave of protest, and the emergence of new urban regimes.
Occupy urban space: dialectic of formality and informality in Greece in the era of crisis
Abstract: In this paper we problematize the occupation tactics in urban space and examine the socio-spatial effects of the informal-arbitrary buildings and squats in Greece during the crisis era. We approach squats, informal housing and formal private property as a social relation and as a mean of production of space. We draw particular inspiration by the Marxian category of the so-called primitive accumulation, which describes the permanent process through which people are separated from the means of production, reproduction and existence and are forced, in order to survive, to migrate in the rising cities and become wage labours in order to produce value and surplusvalue. Several contemporary geographers and urban thinkers like Harvey, Chatterton, Hodkinson, Vasudevan, Hartsock, Glassman, Prudham, Wolford, while studying the spatial evolution of primitive accumulation, argue that it is a permanent process of capitalism that intensifies during periods of crisis. In such periods certain tools appear in order to maintain and expand sovereignty, like the ‘state of exception’ a notion that is introduced by Schmitt and Agamben.
In this framework we question the dipole of formality and informality since informal construction -along with small scale private property- function more as a rule rather than as an exception for the production of the Greek urban space. We focus on the recent dispossession-eviction-criminalization of squatters and regulations, taxations, legalization-formalization of informal-arbitrary constructions, which came as a result of the recent financial crisis in Greece. We compare them to relevant urban policies around the western world and approach them as the contemporary means of the intensified accumulation that takes place during this socio-economic crisis.
In this framework we question the dipole of formality and informality since informal construction -along with small scale private property- function more as a rule rather than as an exception for the production of the Greek urban space. We focus on the recent dispossession-eviction-criminalization of squatters and regulations, taxations, legalization-formalization of informal-arbitrary constructions, which came as a result of the recent financial crisis in Greece. We compare them to relevant urban policies around the western world and approach them as the contemporary means of the intensified accumulation that takes place during this socio-economic crisis.
A Formal History of Informal Settlements
Abstract: In Architectural Education, Poverty and inequality are too often perceived as problems attained to their present condition, so little effort is made in to analyze the historical sequence of urban planning programs and design practices that emerged in the 19th Century. The lack of emphasis in the critical study of such linkages and of historical precedents – in their successes and failures – has weakened the efficacy of some contemporary programs and practices dealing with informality, such as “urban acupuncture”, “slum upgrading”, “sites and services”, “progressive housing”, and “social housing”.
This phenomenon - the lack of historical analysis of a problem that is quasi-connatural to urbanization - is aggravated by the lack of agreement on the meaning of "urban slum", "urban informality", and their different equivalents in many languages. Since "urban informality" has, thus, an informal history, this paper will present a historical sequence of architectural projects and urban planning programs that link informality to mainstream modern architectural history. History of Photography will be the medium to illustrate the evolution of informal settlements since 1850s until the present date.
This phenomenon - the lack of historical analysis of a problem that is quasi-connatural to urbanization - is aggravated by the lack of agreement on the meaning of "urban slum", "urban informality", and their different equivalents in many languages. Since "urban informality" has, thus, an informal history, this paper will present a historical sequence of architectural projects and urban planning programs that link informality to mainstream modern architectural history. History of Photography will be the medium to illustrate the evolution of informal settlements since 1850s until the present date.
INFORMALITY IN URBAN INDIA
Abstract: The idea of informality grew with the beginning of informal sector as a concept in early 1970s. Keith Hart was the first person to introduce the term “Informal Sector” and it was first used in the ILO’s report “Employment Incomes and Equality”. The informality is increasing with modern industrial growth. More than 90 percent of workforce and about 50 percent of the national product are accounted by the informal economy. The high level of growth of the Indian economy during the past two decades was accompanied by increasing informalization. This study attempts to analyze the structure of urban informality and the scenario of informal employment across sectors and states of India. The study is based on secondary data collected by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) for 66th (2009-10) and 67th (2010-11) round through quinquennial surveys on “Employment- Unemployment”. In India, in the non-agricultural sector, nearly 67 percent workers engaged in informal sector. Among self-employed 95 percent are working in informal sector in urban area. Study shows that the informal employment having a greater share among women than men, 87 per cent of female compared to 75 per cent of male. Annual emoluments per hired worker by enterprise belongs to informal sector is less as compared to formal sector. Therefore, this paper summaries the nature of the informal sector in India and explain how globalization affects its. However, this poses a particular challenge for policymakers that growth of informal sector has occurred with increasing globalization and industrialization and because of that ‘decent jobs’ decreasing.
The Informality and the Urban Settlement in Indonesian Towns and Cities
Abstract: Informality has been part of our life in Indonesia for very long time, even before the country was born. The republic has never been able to get rid of it, and thanks to the informal sectors that the country was in the much better condition among those who suffer from economic problems in the late 1990s. Informal sector provides the majority of housing units in the country, and it showed in its urban forms, which include the kampung, the unplanned settlement for living and working. In many towns and cities, these unplanned settlements can be the majority of the whole area, and they are the big part of the housing stock. In general, they are not squatter since they legally own the land rights.
Informality in the production of urban spaces, the place for living and generating income for the household, is carried out by the property/ land owner spontaneously, despite the existence of building regulations and the lacking of urban infrastructures. As for now, the structures built are only up to 2 to 3 stories, and the settlement’s open spaces including for the roads, is minimum.
With the prediction that urban population will increase from 30% into 70% in asia and africa continents, and the diminishing of available land for urban development inside and outside of the municipality boundary, the informality in the production of urban spaces will go up to the sky, either by utilising multi-story structures built by formal sector or constructing new structures informally. Evidence to this new trend has been in Jakarta since the begining of this century. Today, informal settlements in the inner city are often redeveloped by the formal sectors into high-density high-rise formal urban development, and at the same time, new informal settlements are growing in the city fringe.
Improvements to this kind of settlement has been carried out since the Dutch occupation, to integrate the area with the rest of the city physically and socially, with the public sector intervention that in the 1970’s worldly well known as Kampung Improvement Programme. Interventions include local urban infrastructures and facilities. Today, the intervention should be include city-wide urban infrastructures including the creation of urban open space and parks, to mitigate the environment degradation caused and to make the city livable.
Informality in the production of urban spaces, the place for living and generating income for the household, is carried out by the property/ land owner spontaneously, despite the existence of building regulations and the lacking of urban infrastructures. As for now, the structures built are only up to 2 to 3 stories, and the settlement’s open spaces including for the roads, is minimum.
With the prediction that urban population will increase from 30% into 70% in asia and africa continents, and the diminishing of available land for urban development inside and outside of the municipality boundary, the informality in the production of urban spaces will go up to the sky, either by utilising multi-story structures built by formal sector or constructing new structures informally. Evidence to this new trend has been in Jakarta since the begining of this century. Today, informal settlements in the inner city are often redeveloped by the formal sectors into high-density high-rise formal urban development, and at the same time, new informal settlements are growing in the city fringe.
Improvements to this kind of settlement has been carried out since the Dutch occupation, to integrate the area with the rest of the city physically and socially, with the public sector intervention that in the 1970’s worldly well known as Kampung Improvement Programme. Interventions include local urban infrastructures and facilities. Today, the intervention should be include city-wide urban infrastructures including the creation of urban open space and parks, to mitigate the environment degradation caused and to make the city livable.
Urban Informality and Place Making in the “Gray Zones” of Urban Turkey
Abstract: This paper is about the multifaceted and contradictory dynamics of space making in urban peripheries. Informed by the critical urban theories, it presents “urban informality” as a mode of the production of space and traces the emergence of subversive political communities through informalized production of space. The analysis draws on an ethnographic and archival research conducted on Gazi, a marginalized district of Istanbul, which is reputed as a center of radical leftist activism with its rural-to-urban migrant population. The paper sets out to demonstrate the ways in which various leftist organizations facilitated the emergence of an autonomous spatial formation and an urban political consciousness since 1970s by organizing land distribution, helping newly migrating squatters to build houses, and keeping local order in the absence of state services in the district. It argues that the radical and anti-systemic political agenda of these groups helped blur the ever-shifting boundaries between legality and illegality and the legitimacy and illegitimacy; while their radical political appropriation of informality expanded and redefined the scope of entrepreneurial, political and moral strategies available to the urban poor in the neighborhood. A recent shift in the dominant representations of urban peripheries took part, however, setting further limits on the informal lives of the urban poor with the introduction of a range of delegitimizing and criminalizing discourses, neoliberal state policies and violence. The final part thus seeks to lay out the contours of a recently formulated “subaltern urban informality" that essentially embrace creative forms of illegality and informality regarding urban life through which rival schemes of legitimacy and morality are generated to those of the neoliberal state.
THE NEXUS OF INFORMAL TRADING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT:A case study of Lagos, Nigeria
Abstract: THE NEXUS OF INFORMAL TRADING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT:
A case study of Lagos, Nigeria
by
BANDYOPADHYAY, SOUMYEN (PROF.)
&
ONOLAJA, OLUWASEUN ADEBOLA
ABSTRACT
Urbanization is associated with changes in the pattern of social and economic behaviour. However, the rapidly growing rate of urbanization being experienced globally with its attendant challenges has resulted in the quest at evolving MEGACITY schemes out of major cities around the world of which Lagos, Nigeria is one of such urban centres due to its high population and BUILT ENVIRONMENT density as well as large concentration of commercial activities. A hub of these commercial activities characterizes LAGOS, Nigeria’s Lagoon MEGA CITY covering 154,540 hectares land area. This can be attributed to population explosion resulting from migration and consequently the quest for survival. An important aspect of the commercial activities is the pattern of distribution, acquisition and consumption of essential goods and commodities by the people of Lagos. This has led to the evolution of different urban economic sectors with different characteristics and opportunities within the city. A peculiar aspect of the urban economic sustenance identified with the informal sector is STREET TRADING. It entails hawking, display or offer for sale goods or wares of any type at street or roadsides. What started as a social anomaly has now assumed an endemic proportion. The activities of STREET TRADERS coupled with the growing preference of the population for patronizing them rather than established stores and traditional markets shows a shift in the dynamics of commerce and consumer perception as well as spatial use and definition in the BUILT ENVIRONMENT. This paper is therefore an investigative study of this phenomenon using CASE STUDIES and other relevant research tools to establish the impact of street trading on the people as well as the built environment. It also includes studying the impact of this activity and how to manage it within a built environment framework to benefit all stake holders. Against the background of previous researches, this paper breaks new grounds by seeking to suggest a SYMBIOSIS between street trading and the urban built environment thus contributing to the dynamism of ARCHITECTURE, URBAN PLANNING AND SPATIAL DESIGN.
A case study of Lagos, Nigeria
by
BANDYOPADHYAY, SOUMYEN (PROF.)
&
ONOLAJA, OLUWASEUN ADEBOLA
ABSTRACT
Urbanization is associated with changes in the pattern of social and economic behaviour. However, the rapidly growing rate of urbanization being experienced globally with its attendant challenges has resulted in the quest at evolving MEGACITY schemes out of major cities around the world of which Lagos, Nigeria is one of such urban centres due to its high population and BUILT ENVIRONMENT density as well as large concentration of commercial activities. A hub of these commercial activities characterizes LAGOS, Nigeria’s Lagoon MEGA CITY covering 154,540 hectares land area. This can be attributed to population explosion resulting from migration and consequently the quest for survival. An important aspect of the commercial activities is the pattern of distribution, acquisition and consumption of essential goods and commodities by the people of Lagos. This has led to the evolution of different urban economic sectors with different characteristics and opportunities within the city. A peculiar aspect of the urban economic sustenance identified with the informal sector is STREET TRADING. It entails hawking, display or offer for sale goods or wares of any type at street or roadsides. What started as a social anomaly has now assumed an endemic proportion. The activities of STREET TRADERS coupled with the growing preference of the population for patronizing them rather than established stores and traditional markets shows a shift in the dynamics of commerce and consumer perception as well as spatial use and definition in the BUILT ENVIRONMENT. This paper is therefore an investigative study of this phenomenon using CASE STUDIES and other relevant research tools to establish the impact of street trading on the people as well as the built environment. It also includes studying the impact of this activity and how to manage it within a built environment framework to benefit all stake holders. Against the background of previous researches, this paper breaks new grounds by seeking to suggest a SYMBIOSIS between street trading and the urban built environment thus contributing to the dynamism of ARCHITECTURE, URBAN PLANNING AND SPATIAL DESIGN.
Conflict and Convergence: Creating Common Ground in Latin America
Abstract: In recent years, Latin America has become the scenario for a series of projects that try to alleviate social segregation and its spatial productions. These projects suggest that a new kind of urbanism is emerging - one that differs from a totalized future vision of place but rather materializes as punctual and sometimes sporadic spatial interventions. In time, some of these buildings became iconic, widely recognized and publicized: the Biblioteca España in Medellin, Colombia; the Chacao Vertical Gym in Caracas, Venezuela; and Quinta Monroy in Iquique, Chile; to name a few. In a sense, the success of many of these projects became an inspiration for many architects working in informal settlements around the world.
Many argue that the success of these projects lies in the acceptance rather than repudiation of urban informality. But as Daniela Fabricius warns us, we need to be careful because “in the acceptance of informality, it is too easy to forget that to live informally is to live precariously.” Furthermore, how can the true success of these projects be measured if the current social and economical barriers have barely changed? How can we examine the design strategies deployed in these projects to have a better understanding of their impact? This article analyzes the context and ideas explored by the designers of the projects cited above. It analyzes the conflicts and convergences that arose in the search for common ground between the architectural and the social, political and economical processes.
Upon examination, these precedents suggest that the design of punctual urban interventions perform better when complemented by a series multi-scalar, multidisciplinary set of strategies. It argues that in order to go beyond local impact and to achieve true social and economic cohesion, informal interventions should be understood and planned as part of a wider set of ideas and cultural movements and that the architect’s role has evolved from that of a spatial and formal designer to the anticipation and planning of processes that extend the boundaries of the formal and the informal. The article concludes by suggesting what these strategies might be and presents alternative ideas for the practice of architecture.
Many argue that the success of these projects lies in the acceptance rather than repudiation of urban informality. But as Daniela Fabricius warns us, we need to be careful because “in the acceptance of informality, it is too easy to forget that to live informally is to live precariously.” Furthermore, how can the true success of these projects be measured if the current social and economical barriers have barely changed? How can we examine the design strategies deployed in these projects to have a better understanding of their impact? This article analyzes the context and ideas explored by the designers of the projects cited above. It analyzes the conflicts and convergences that arose in the search for common ground between the architectural and the social, political and economical processes.
Upon examination, these precedents suggest that the design of punctual urban interventions perform better when complemented by a series multi-scalar, multidisciplinary set of strategies. It argues that in order to go beyond local impact and to achieve true social and economic cohesion, informal interventions should be understood and planned as part of a wider set of ideas and cultural movements and that the architect’s role has evolved from that of a spatial and formal designer to the anticipation and planning of processes that extend the boundaries of the formal and the informal. The article concludes by suggesting what these strategies might be and presents alternative ideas for the practice of architecture.
‘Conflictual Participation’ and Slum Upgrading: Lessons Learnt from Bang Bua Canal Communities’ Network in Thailand
Abstract: Participation is typically perceived as a consensual process leading to solidarity, while the notion of community is regarded as harmonized. In reality, however, both participation and community are complex and inherently political. Working through the participation process and with the upgrading of slum community is unavoidable a conflict-driven process. This paper aims to illustrate the ‘conflictual participation’, by employing Baan Mankong slum upgrading process for the urban poor community in Thailand implemented at Bang Bua canal as a case study.
Through discussions with the locals, seven communities within the network of Bang Bua canal communities were selected for the study. Observations, several semi-structured interviews with key persons and a focus group with the Bang Bua canal communities’ network representatives were conducted. The case study revealed that conflicts arose at the local level and between the stakeholders have significantly delayed the process of upgrading, as well as have influenced the planning of the communities. Since its initial start in 2003, Bang Bua community is the first community that completed its construction of 264 houses, which took it 7 years to complete all phases of upgrading. More than 1,000 houses in the other 6 informal communities along the canal have remained under construction.
This paper describes the occasion of conflicts, their underlying reasons and manifestations appeared in various forms, ranging from general disputes and protests, to severe situations such as intimidations and prosecution at each process of the Baan Mankong. The conflict resolution by the people collectively, then, will be highlighted. The paper recommends that spatial agents working in participation with the community in slum upgrading should be aware of these constraints with which the locals community needs to cope during the implementation process. Additionally, to what extent planners can accommodate this conflictual participation into their spatial design process needs to be considered.
Through discussions with the locals, seven communities within the network of Bang Bua canal communities were selected for the study. Observations, several semi-structured interviews with key persons and a focus group with the Bang Bua canal communities’ network representatives were conducted. The case study revealed that conflicts arose at the local level and between the stakeholders have significantly delayed the process of upgrading, as well as have influenced the planning of the communities. Since its initial start in 2003, Bang Bua community is the first community that completed its construction of 264 houses, which took it 7 years to complete all phases of upgrading. More than 1,000 houses in the other 6 informal communities along the canal have remained under construction.
This paper describes the occasion of conflicts, their underlying reasons and manifestations appeared in various forms, ranging from general disputes and protests, to severe situations such as intimidations and prosecution at each process of the Baan Mankong. The conflict resolution by the people collectively, then, will be highlighted. The paper recommends that spatial agents working in participation with the community in slum upgrading should be aware of these constraints with which the locals community needs to cope during the implementation process. Additionally, to what extent planners can accommodate this conflictual participation into their spatial design process needs to be considered.
Beyond the dichotomy between formality and informality: imagining a new policy approach in urban deprived areas. The French and Italian cases.
Abstract: The paper proposes a theoretical reflection, based on a literature review of French and Italian cases, around the relationship between urban policies (formality) and everyday practices (informality) in urban poor areas. We propose the thesis that in order to foster processes of social inclusion and cohesion, urban policies in deprived areas should overcome the dichotomy between formality and informality through empowerment dynamics based on the acknowledgement of the everyday practices and strategies of poor people. In fact, only the recognition of the resources produced in informal domains might sustain processes of inclusion in the «formal» arena. In the first section, we stress that urban policies such as the Rénovation Urbaine in French “sensitive” urban areas and Riqualificazione urbana in Italy, despite the specificity of each context and of results of these policies, consider deprived areas and inhabitants’ practices as factors of further marginalisation and exclusion. In other words, these urban policies are not able to go beyond a negative interpretation of poor territories and risk to destroy the self-regenerating resources produced in deprived urban areas worsening the trajectories of deprived groups. Starting from the assumption of spatial mismatch, negative socialisation and neighbourhood effects, these policies consider inhabitants as passive actors and interpret their practices as concrete expressions of their marginal condition in the informal domain. In the second section, the paper explains that according to several research conducted in French and Italian areas, deprived groups should be considered as actors provided of agency which have spatial competences and unfold a series of tactics to cope with the everyday constraints of urban life. In other words, in their relationship with the territory, deprived people show the capability to transform proximity in a place of opportunities that provides various resources to groups lacking in other forms of capital.
Finally, we argue that to avoid processes of confinement and ghettoization in the informal domain urban policies should recognise the informal strategies of deprived groups in order to transform the resources produced in the proximity into a capital that might foster social inclusion in the city and in the overall society. In fact the set of resources provided to poor groups by their membership to a local space can build a «capital» only if the actors’ strategies are recognised in the public arena. In fact, we point out that urban policies should promote social inclusion creating connections between formal and informal territories. To achieve this task urban policies must acknowledge the complex and fundamental role of territory.
Finally, we argue that to avoid processes of confinement and ghettoization in the informal domain urban policies should recognise the informal strategies of deprived groups in order to transform the resources produced in the proximity into a capital that might foster social inclusion in the city and in the overall society. In fact the set of resources provided to poor groups by their membership to a local space can build a «capital» only if the actors’ strategies are recognised in the public arena. In fact, we point out that urban policies should promote social inclusion creating connections between formal and informal territories. To achieve this task urban policies must acknowledge the complex and fundamental role of territory.
New urban aspiration in the postcolonial city: Consumption and displacement in Karachi’s new Port Grand Development Project
Abstract: Over the past decade Pakistan’s leading metropolis has witnessed the onslaught of numerous projects that have sought to reshape Karachi and mold a new avatar backed by corporatist visions of a world-class city. These projects have, amongst other impacts, precipitated the displacement and dispossession of marginalized populations, whose presence is considered extraneous to the new urban futures being imagined. We argue the emergent activities of urban redevelopment function on the basis of a new spatial logic that endeavors to produce a ‘sanitized’ and ‘secure’ cosmopolitan city through which a proactive desire for modernity is expressed. However, this process seeks to render invisible the undesirable and underprivileged from the new image of the world-class city. As Roy and Ong (2011) have pointed out, the contested terrains of what has traditionally been considered a “subaltern” space, that of the urban poor in the Third World, is as much a part of the “worlding” of cities as the processes of capital development and financial investment. In this view the city is not so much a space of formality and informality but an assemblage of different forces which contain both, the spaces of dispossession as well as accumulation. Our study of a waterfront renewal development in Karachi and its dynamics of new subject formations amongst different classes of citizens uses this more critical optics of “worlding” to raise questions about the exact nature of the forces that continue to inform the reproduction of cities like Karachi.
Reference:
Roy, Ananya & Aihwa Ong. Worlding Cities: Asian Experiments and the Art of Being Global. UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
Reference:
Roy, Ananya & Aihwa Ong. Worlding Cities: Asian Experiments and the Art of Being Global. UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
The state-led gentrification behind commoditized regeneration: The clearance of Hua-Guang community under the neoliberal collage from Taipei Wall Street to Taipei Roppongi
Abstract: Entrepreneurial urban governance has become the prevailed panacea to efficiently run the pro-business climate attracting advanced elites in the era of neoliberal city competition. The most significant example is the large-scale flagship regeneration of downtown to rejuvenate dilapidated built environment. In order to match the branding for the competitive urban image and provide sufficient incentives for the involvement of private capital, modernizing, spectacular, luxurious, and complex building often dominates the new spatial form of regeneration project. Furthermore, the nature of state-led development intensifies the socio-spatial contestation due to its unfair, selective policy privileging property capital while destroying the historic, cultural, and social fabrics of local community. The paper explores the contested displacement of Hua-Guang community in downtown Taipei, where exhibited Taipei’s urban informality due to its specific, complicated, and hybrid community structure driven by the postwar geopolitical and decolonized forces and has encountered the state-led gentrifying process. In order to strengthen the branding of entrepreneurial landscape, the state has planned to transform the community into a new special financial district in Taipei since 2006. Through distorting the context of local informality and appropriating advanced urban images as the prospectus imagination, the state labels the residence as illegal one to justify the action of community clearance to privilege the influx of property investment and strengthen Taipei’s global city competitiveness. The attitude of state toward neoliberal urbanism has resulted in the tension between spatial selectivity favoring property-led regeneration from the top-down growth machine and spatial contestation from the grassroots resistance. The case of Hua-Guang community reveals several implications for neoliberal urban governance. Firstly, state still plays an important role to involve in Taiwan’s urban renewal even if the Urban Renewal Act has empowered the private developers the right to involve in and dominate renewal process. Secondly, the requirement for producing entrepreneurial landscapes and the pressure for circulate property capital have contributed to the phenomena of state-led gentrification in Hua-Guang community and stimulated the activism of local residents. Thirdly, the right to interpret informality has become a powerful instrument for the both camps to contest each other in the clearance action wherein the growth coalition has dominated the production of new spatial form due to the spatial selectivity of state privileging property interest.
Informal sectors and the "lived space" under-threat, A case of Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong
Abstract: Sham Shui Po, one of the earliest developed/oldest districts in Hong Kong, is "famous" for its containment of large-number of low-income and underprivileged people. Half of residents who live in Sham Shui Po are tenants suffering relatively high rent (The rent-income proportion is 19% in average, higher than the average figure of whole Hong Kong area). Under such circumstance, surprisingly, informal sectors are flourished in this district and offer tenants daily necessities in a cheap price and sustain the community. The district is clustered with loads of hawkers and has one of the largest flea markets in Hong Kong.
However, Sham Shui Po locates as an important transport nodes in Hong Kong, numbers of redevelopment projects have been carried out in the last decade by both public and private sectors. It has caused gentrification for sure and further widened the gap between poor and rich within the district.
Furthermore, the Hong Kong government is trying to eliminating the hawker within the district nowadays through stops issuing new hawker licences and enacts stricter regulation on hawker activities, which especially has bought a harmful effect on Sham Shui Po’s informal economic activities. (In fact, the total number of hawkers in Hong Kong has dropped more than 30% between 2009 and 2011)
Thus, in this respect, the paper would like to use a historical-geographical approach, with the assist from literatures review and interviews both, presents how the space and how these informal activities were established and produced. Argue that the district’s informal sectors have its contribution in constructing “lived space” within. The paper also seek to use a Lefebvrian view to indicate that the newly redevelopment projects are in fact taking advantage of those existing informal activities which were established via dwellers’ everyday life and everyday activities over decades. Moreover, the paper would try to clarify the relationship between residents in Sham Shui Po and these informal activities, also how these activities altered in different time.
However, Sham Shui Po locates as an important transport nodes in Hong Kong, numbers of redevelopment projects have been carried out in the last decade by both public and private sectors. It has caused gentrification for sure and further widened the gap between poor and rich within the district.
Furthermore, the Hong Kong government is trying to eliminating the hawker within the district nowadays through stops issuing new hawker licences and enacts stricter regulation on hawker activities, which especially has bought a harmful effect on Sham Shui Po’s informal economic activities. (In fact, the total number of hawkers in Hong Kong has dropped more than 30% between 2009 and 2011)
Thus, in this respect, the paper would like to use a historical-geographical approach, with the assist from literatures review and interviews both, presents how the space and how these informal activities were established and produced. Argue that the district’s informal sectors have its contribution in constructing “lived space” within. The paper also seek to use a Lefebvrian view to indicate that the newly redevelopment projects are in fact taking advantage of those existing informal activities which were established via dwellers’ everyday life and everyday activities over decades. Moreover, the paper would try to clarify the relationship between residents in Sham Shui Po and these informal activities, also how these activities altered in different time.
Informal Space versus Formal Norm: informal settlement populations’ perception of the right to adequate housing
Abstract: This paper proposes an analysis of the perception of the right to adequate housing by populations living in informal settlements, through socio-legal theoretical approaches as well as the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data gathered in the central area of the city of São Paulo . Due to an increasing housing deficit in the city, there has been a growth in populations living in sub-standard housing such as squatters, slums, tenements and precariously built shelter at downtown public spaces. The socio-legal relations of the population that is subjected to these sub-housing standards and whose perceptions are analyzed in this study are marked by their perception of housing, as well as by the emergence of specific types of internal and reaction to external regulations amongst communities. Although these informal normative orders are a constitutive part of the urban space and of the legal system, they are regarded as irrelevant or inexistent by State law. The relation between the formal and the informal is not only an evidence of incompatibility between State law and informal socio-legal relations, but also a denial of the informal as a relevant form of existence – taking exclusion to its deepest level. Within this context, the objective of this paper is to propose a cognitive comprehension of the socio-legal interactions related to the right to adequate housing through the analysis of São Paulo’s informal settlements as a case study. The paper explores two questions: how do communities perceive their right to housing and how this perspective acts in the spatial and normative organization of informal settlements. These questions are based on the premise that initiatives to overcome exclusion must include the recognition of plurality. Social relations, legal discourses, and the urban space are mutually influential, creating complex realities governed by multiple normative systems. Consequently, analyses of informal settlements which consider only State law are potentially insufficient and exclusionary: insufficient, because State law does not encompass the plurality of relations which constitute these settlements, and exclusionary, because it applies a logic of nonexistence to other forms of organization. In this context, this paper contributes to a plural and inclusive conception of urbanity through the acknowledgement of legitimate socio-legal spaces that emerge from informal settlements and is constructed upon the conceptual framework of the ‘abyssal thinking’ theoretical approach proposed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos.
Informal Commercial Activities, Environmental Problems, and Public Space: Lessons from Güzelyalı Park in Izmir and La Andrea Park in Bogotá
Abstract: The relationship between commerce and public spaces has been acknowledged in literature as something not only possible but highly desirable (Carmona 2010). Commerce is not only related to indoor formal and organized activities, but in many places such as in Turkey and Colombia, they are referred to those developed in or projected into the streets. Informal commercial activities contribute to generate income to locals, but also bring urban spaces life and dynamism, and can help to build appropriation, attachment and identity (Hernandez-Garcia 2012). However, they can also bring environmental problems to urban areas and affect the quality of life of peaceful residential areas (Varkal 2010). To what extent informal economic activities are a burden to neighborhoods development and quality of life? Can these activities be seen as active contributors to lively urban spaces? What is the actual relationship between informal commercial activities and environmental problems? With evidence from two cases, one in Izmir (Turkey) and one in Bogotá (Colombia); this paper will discuss the pros and cons of the potentially interesting but conflictive relationship between informal commercial activities, environmental problems and public space.
Informality is not only associated with poverty and marginality; it is increasingly accepted as an alternative way of doing things (AlSayaad 2004). For Hernando De Soto (1987), the informal economy is “the other path” to economic development, a “silent revolution” by poor people to obtain resources to make a living in the cities. The informal economy comprises a large range of activities and circumstances, and perhaps the only common aspect between them is that they are not registered with the government, and among other things, taxes are not paid (Ruiperez Palmero, 2006). Milton Santos (2000) argues that there are two economic circuits, one superior or formal and one inferior or informal; however, both are interconnected, one depends on the other, in the sense that they are part of the same whole. Informal commercial activities in public spaces, as the observed in La Andrea, are not only income-generating actions, but also develop social and cultural dynamics that contribute to the transformation of the built environment and arguably to the qualification of the social and spatial fabric.
The case of Güzelyalı offers an interesting but different example since commercial informality does not have anything to do with lack of legal procedures like registration or paying taxes. However, in terms of how the economic activities take place and the public space they occupy, a different form of informality occurs. The commercial activities are projected around the park and into the narrow streets, occupying a lot of space with the stuff they sell and contributing to the degradation of the quality of the physical environment. As a result, car parking, lack of waste management, degradation of the green and noise become the most common problems (Varkal 2010). However, despite the environmental and physical problems, the integration of commerce with the public spaces still keeps the potential to contribute positively to the social fabric. Yet the question is how to integrate them and diminish their eventual risks?
Kellett (1995: 27) argues that formal and informal are just two dimensions which are intrinsically interconnected: “… formality and informality from a variety of disciplines has demonstrated that the two sectors are far from independent and separate.” This paper will argue that the so called informal commercial activities are deeply embedded in the social and urban context of Izmir and Bogotá, and far from fight against them, we need to understand these dynamics and integrate them into the “formal” planning of the city and improve their environmental impacts.
References
AlSayyad, N. (2004). Urban Informailty as a 'New' Way of Life. In A. Roy & N. AlSayyad (Eds.), Urban informality: transnational perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia. New York: Lexington Books.
Carmona, M. (2010). Contemporary Public Space: Critique and Classification, Part One: Critique. Journal of Urban Design, 15(1), 123 - 148.
De Soto, H. (1987). El Otro Sendero. Bogotá: Oveja Negra.
Hernandez-Garcia, J. (2012). Open Spaces in Informal Settlements in Bogotá, Expressions of Attachment and Identity. In H. Casakin & F. Bernardo (Eds), The Role of Place Identity in the Perception, Understanding, and Design of Built Environments. USA: Benthan Ebooks. http://benthamscience.com/ebooks/contents.php?JCode=9781608054138
Kellett, P. (1995). Constructing home : the production and consumption of popular housing in Northern Colombia. University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne. United Kingdom.
Ruiperez Palmero, R. (2006). Quien Teme a los Pobladores? Vigencia y Actualizacion del Housing by People de John Turner frente a la Problematica Actual del Habitat Popular en America Latina. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Santos, M. (2000). La Naturaleza del Espacio. Barcelona: Ariel Geografia.
Varkal, M. (2010). Community Participation in Neighborhood Energy Retrofits. The Case of Guzelyali Neighborhood, Izmir, Turkey. Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), University of Erasmus.Rotterdam. The Netherlands.
Informality is not only associated with poverty and marginality; it is increasingly accepted as an alternative way of doing things (AlSayaad 2004). For Hernando De Soto (1987), the informal economy is “the other path” to economic development, a “silent revolution” by poor people to obtain resources to make a living in the cities. The informal economy comprises a large range of activities and circumstances, and perhaps the only common aspect between them is that they are not registered with the government, and among other things, taxes are not paid (Ruiperez Palmero, 2006). Milton Santos (2000) argues that there are two economic circuits, one superior or formal and one inferior or informal; however, both are interconnected, one depends on the other, in the sense that they are part of the same whole. Informal commercial activities in public spaces, as the observed in La Andrea, are not only income-generating actions, but also develop social and cultural dynamics that contribute to the transformation of the built environment and arguably to the qualification of the social and spatial fabric.
The case of Güzelyalı offers an interesting but different example since commercial informality does not have anything to do with lack of legal procedures like registration or paying taxes. However, in terms of how the economic activities take place and the public space they occupy, a different form of informality occurs. The commercial activities are projected around the park and into the narrow streets, occupying a lot of space with the stuff they sell and contributing to the degradation of the quality of the physical environment. As a result, car parking, lack of waste management, degradation of the green and noise become the most common problems (Varkal 2010). However, despite the environmental and physical problems, the integration of commerce with the public spaces still keeps the potential to contribute positively to the social fabric. Yet the question is how to integrate them and diminish their eventual risks?
Kellett (1995: 27) argues that formal and informal are just two dimensions which are intrinsically interconnected: “… formality and informality from a variety of disciplines has demonstrated that the two sectors are far from independent and separate.” This paper will argue that the so called informal commercial activities are deeply embedded in the social and urban context of Izmir and Bogotá, and far from fight against them, we need to understand these dynamics and integrate them into the “formal” planning of the city and improve their environmental impacts.
References
AlSayyad, N. (2004). Urban Informailty as a 'New' Way of Life. In A. Roy & N. AlSayyad (Eds.), Urban informality: transnational perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia. New York: Lexington Books.
Carmona, M. (2010). Contemporary Public Space: Critique and Classification, Part One: Critique. Journal of Urban Design, 15(1), 123 - 148.
De Soto, H. (1987). El Otro Sendero. Bogotá: Oveja Negra.
Hernandez-Garcia, J. (2012). Open Spaces in Informal Settlements in Bogotá, Expressions of Attachment and Identity. In H. Casakin & F. Bernardo (Eds), The Role of Place Identity in the Perception, Understanding, and Design of Built Environments. USA: Benthan Ebooks. http://benthamscience.com/ebooks/contents.php?JCode=9781608054138
Kellett, P. (1995). Constructing home : the production and consumption of popular housing in Northern Colombia. University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne. United Kingdom.
Ruiperez Palmero, R. (2006). Quien Teme a los Pobladores? Vigencia y Actualizacion del Housing by People de John Turner frente a la Problematica Actual del Habitat Popular en America Latina. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Santos, M. (2000). La Naturaleza del Espacio. Barcelona: Ariel Geografia.
Varkal, M. (2010). Community Participation in Neighborhood Energy Retrofits. The Case of Guzelyali Neighborhood, Izmir, Turkey. Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), University of Erasmus.Rotterdam. The Netherlands.
The reality of the slums: present and future state of the megacities
Abstract: The conversion of urban outskirts is certainly one of the most complex problem that contemporary urban planning must address. Suburbs are born as precarious settlements due to the countryside escape and the dynamics of international migration.
There are many studies and projects on different parts of the city -such as directional fabric, services and residences - but there is not a model to control the varied and overcrowded suburbs. Today urban planning knowledge is not enough to find a solution to the problem. Moreover, the socio-economic structure of suburbs is a mix of different cultures that makes the scenery more complex. In fact, all these aspects must be considered in order to avoid theoretically justifiable but improper actions, and to better integrate suburbs with the nearest cities. As a consequence, urban planning techniques based on the so called "zoning" have to be reviewed. Zoning consists of a rational distribution of different urban activities over the assigned areas supported by a hierarchical, in size and paths, infrastructure system to ensure city functionality.
Even though these traditional methods are still useful for technical aspects and in administrative management, they are inadequate to accept sociological and urban irregularities of slums which are considered like enclave with respect to the city. Nevertheless, a mutual 'understanding' among the formal and the informal city paradoxically guarantees a precarious balance of micro economies that seems to justify the maintenance of the so called status quo. This status is justified by micro entrepreneurial activities. They are absolutely competitive because they are characterized from the low cost, the effectiveness of precarious work and insecurity. In slums there are less risks than inadequate buildings inside the city where fires and building collapses have huge legal results and economic damages that involve municipality and, indirectly, managers.
A recent example (may 2013) is the collapse of an eight storey building in Bangladesh, causing the death of 1033 people and 2500 wounded. (Moreover Bangladesh is the largest factory in western clothes).
In general terms public works and services (realized by the municipality in the slums) are very limited. Furthermore, they are not enough to modify structural setting of the various settlements. However, when private speculative interest influences decisions on planning policy, actions on those areas take place in a catalytic manner and ever more invasive ways.
Cross-reading among the two realities (city and slum) it is important to think about people's aspirations in the different contexts. In fact on one hand there are people who live in the city center and aspire to move to suburbs avoiding congestions and pollution. On the other hand, people who live in the slums see the inner cities as an economic and political core.
To summarize, a deep study on urban planning instruments validation is required.
In the metropolitan area it is established a lot of fear between inhabitants. There are different contrasts among residential buildings and parceling, exclusive and fenced residences, and also marginalized outskirts where inequalities produce transgression and crime.
It is difficult to propose comprehensive and partial solutions. Urban asset of the future city is connected to social and economic factors that characterize wealth and poverty, egoism and generosity, openings and closings of the "common spaces". These places can produce new forms of socialization. In this way it is possible to trigger a virtuous integrated process including all the "new city".
There are many studies and projects on different parts of the city -such as directional fabric, services and residences - but there is not a model to control the varied and overcrowded suburbs. Today urban planning knowledge is not enough to find a solution to the problem. Moreover, the socio-economic structure of suburbs is a mix of different cultures that makes the scenery more complex. In fact, all these aspects must be considered in order to avoid theoretically justifiable but improper actions, and to better integrate suburbs with the nearest cities. As a consequence, urban planning techniques based on the so called "zoning" have to be reviewed. Zoning consists of a rational distribution of different urban activities over the assigned areas supported by a hierarchical, in size and paths, infrastructure system to ensure city functionality.
Even though these traditional methods are still useful for technical aspects and in administrative management, they are inadequate to accept sociological and urban irregularities of slums which are considered like enclave with respect to the city. Nevertheless, a mutual 'understanding' among the formal and the informal city paradoxically guarantees a precarious balance of micro economies that seems to justify the maintenance of the so called status quo. This status is justified by micro entrepreneurial activities. They are absolutely competitive because they are characterized from the low cost, the effectiveness of precarious work and insecurity. In slums there are less risks than inadequate buildings inside the city where fires and building collapses have huge legal results and economic damages that involve municipality and, indirectly, managers.
A recent example (may 2013) is the collapse of an eight storey building in Bangladesh, causing the death of 1033 people and 2500 wounded. (Moreover Bangladesh is the largest factory in western clothes).
In general terms public works and services (realized by the municipality in the slums) are very limited. Furthermore, they are not enough to modify structural setting of the various settlements. However, when private speculative interest influences decisions on planning policy, actions on those areas take place in a catalytic manner and ever more invasive ways.
Cross-reading among the two realities (city and slum) it is important to think about people's aspirations in the different contexts. In fact on one hand there are people who live in the city center and aspire to move to suburbs avoiding congestions and pollution. On the other hand, people who live in the slums see the inner cities as an economic and political core.
To summarize, a deep study on urban planning instruments validation is required.
In the metropolitan area it is established a lot of fear between inhabitants. There are different contrasts among residential buildings and parceling, exclusive and fenced residences, and also marginalized outskirts where inequalities produce transgression and crime.
It is difficult to propose comprehensive and partial solutions. Urban asset of the future city is connected to social and economic factors that characterize wealth and poverty, egoism and generosity, openings and closings of the "common spaces". These places can produce new forms of socialization. In this way it is possible to trigger a virtuous integrated process including all the "new city".
Toward the Zones of Impossible - New Modernity and the Encounter of Formal and Informal
Abstract: Today, instead of living in either/or world we are living in the world of and/both condition. In the world of the “Ands”(1) there is not anymore distinctive borders between contradictions such as formal and informal; they are interwoven to each other in many senses. The whole urban reality has become the fluctuant layers consisting of the “Ands”, overlapping each other. This is what makes our today reality, our second Modernity, which is a three dimensional totality of the “Ands”. Within this ambiguity, the images in movement and changes, the confusion of orders, and the cities being overloaded of different realities where the dichotomies of contradictions has lost their traditional meaning, we are dealing with informal “And” formal city and urbanity. However we can’t perceive the cities as binaries of formal and informal anymore; there are only some moments that we can experience the binary or juxtapositions of them although it is rendered or many times tried to be rendered as absolutely separated realities.
Within this ambiguous condition of new Modernity, informality can be studied as zones of operation rather than as absolute excluded sections of the society. If early modernity was an attempt to formalize all the social relations and social spaces to avoid risk and danger through institutions then informality was functioning as leakage bin for risks, dangers and insecurities exhausted from the formal structure. However informality is not an anti-modern condition rather it is the constituting part of it. In this sense informality is perceived as one of the major consequences of modernity, globalization and privatization that leaves a big group of people out of dominant efficient system. This is not only exclusion from the economical flows but also from information, political, social and cultural ones. This exclusion creates new zones of operations.
Among different zones of informality what comes to importance is the ‘zones of encounter’ between formal and informal. The ”conjunction And” as both articulating logic and space of action emerges as a new zone of informality in the encounter of formal and informal. The word “encounter” is a key concept in defining these zones. Negri and Hardt in their “Commonwealth”(2) use this term to “highlight the two-ness of the power relation and the processes of mixture and transformation that result from the struggle of domination and resistance.” In the encounter of formal and informal these “And” spaces, are the spaces where the real active and effective characteristics of informality emerge, change and make changes.
“If formality operates through the fixing of value, including the mapping of spatial value, then informality operates through the constant negotiability of value and un-mapping of space”(3). However informal structures do not always put the dominant formal system at work under radical change. Many forms of informality only functions within the freedom or the possibilities each system leaves to sustain its power. This article studies the emergence and characteristics of zones of informality within the power relations of modernity and its encounter with formality. It also investigates the potentials of informality and how it can go beyond the “possibilities” in the dominant formal systems? While many forms of informal actions function as safety valve, how can they perform as authentic politics that go beyond the borders of “possibility” and into the “impossible”, or as Zizek puts it, become the “art of the impossible”?
1 . http://www.roemervantoorn.nl/societyoftheandp.html
2 . A. Negri & M. Hardt, Commonwealth, 2009, P. 68
3 . A. Roy, Informal Urbanism, p. 5
Within this ambiguous condition of new Modernity, informality can be studied as zones of operation rather than as absolute excluded sections of the society. If early modernity was an attempt to formalize all the social relations and social spaces to avoid risk and danger through institutions then informality was functioning as leakage bin for risks, dangers and insecurities exhausted from the formal structure. However informality is not an anti-modern condition rather it is the constituting part of it. In this sense informality is perceived as one of the major consequences of modernity, globalization and privatization that leaves a big group of people out of dominant efficient system. This is not only exclusion from the economical flows but also from information, political, social and cultural ones. This exclusion creates new zones of operations.
Among different zones of informality what comes to importance is the ‘zones of encounter’ between formal and informal. The ”conjunction And” as both articulating logic and space of action emerges as a new zone of informality in the encounter of formal and informal. The word “encounter” is a key concept in defining these zones. Negri and Hardt in their “Commonwealth”(2) use this term to “highlight the two-ness of the power relation and the processes of mixture and transformation that result from the struggle of domination and resistance.” In the encounter of formal and informal these “And” spaces, are the spaces where the real active and effective characteristics of informality emerge, change and make changes.
“If formality operates through the fixing of value, including the mapping of spatial value, then informality operates through the constant negotiability of value and un-mapping of space”(3). However informal structures do not always put the dominant formal system at work under radical change. Many forms of informality only functions within the freedom or the possibilities each system leaves to sustain its power. This article studies the emergence and characteristics of zones of informality within the power relations of modernity and its encounter with formality. It also investigates the potentials of informality and how it can go beyond the “possibilities” in the dominant formal systems? While many forms of informal actions function as safety valve, how can they perform as authentic politics that go beyond the borders of “possibility” and into the “impossible”, or as Zizek puts it, become the “art of the impossible”?
1 . http://www.roemervantoorn.nl/societyoftheandp.html
2 . A. Negri & M. Hardt, Commonwealth, 2009, P. 68
3 . A. Roy, Informal Urbanism, p. 5
Dancing with the Minotaur: Using Performative Urbanism to Situate Narrative Instruments in the City
Abstract: Tristan Tzara proudly proclaimed the theme of art to be “the world and all that is in it.”
Tzara’s enterprise proposed that creative works, and engagement with them, could tell us as much about the measure of our world as about the work itself. What better place to locate such an agenda than the city, forever an instrument for accommodating multitudes?
Instead of accepting the city as an inert agglomeration of built fabric and the resultant spaces formed by their disposition, we need to discover opportunities and create methodologies whereby we can continue this engagement: to perform the city, as well as perform in it. However, the codification of behaviour as insinuated by the fabric of the city consigns much urban action to the realms of the strictly legislative and the consumerist; a society whose spatial structures are delineated economically by forces of capital, socially specified by cultural production and politically regulated by the state. In terms of affording a necessary ambiguity, architecture as defined by its historic points of utility is discredited: form reduced to image, function bargained down to economics, space subsumed into spectacle. The city as an organism though is fluctuating, multifunctional and ever-changing – demanding an incompletion and informality that affords personal expression and individual interpretation. Given that architecture is a discipline dedicated to valorising the common, how is it then possible to create opportunities to facilitate cultural incongruity, places where a shift in perspective and perception becomes possible?
Performative Urbanism re-frames urban space to offer its occupants agency in determining their roles in that space. The work assumes a critical dimension, resisting descriptive objectivity in favour of a terrain of speculations, allegations and narrative. Like Piranesi’s Campo Marzio, it contains within it the real and the unreal, the past as well as the future. As a decisive fragmentation of time and space, the results posit a disjointed geography of excisions and allegory; importantly, one wide open to interpretation.
Inhabitants become partial authors of their environment and well as producers (and interpreters) of their meanings, reconfiguring understandings of space so that the relationship between performative subject and the architectural object becomes “productively unclear.” Negotiating between the fictive and the real, the participant chooses – space thus defies quantification, and invites a public debate about what is.
The initial sites for these investigations in the contemporary City are terrains vague, vacant and unencumbered spaces. Void as absence, but also promise – territories for mappings and interventions that open spaces between the participants and the site, gaps between the reality of the world and our own interpretation of it.
This work proposes a re-framing of space beyond the material (the indeterminate space of terrain vague) overlaid by individual interpretation (the insinuation of the narrative). This establishes the context within which Performative Urbanism will be developed, and create new ways to both measure and mark the earth, free from the strictures of formal systems of control.
Tzara’s enterprise proposed that creative works, and engagement with them, could tell us as much about the measure of our world as about the work itself. What better place to locate such an agenda than the city, forever an instrument for accommodating multitudes?
Instead of accepting the city as an inert agglomeration of built fabric and the resultant spaces formed by their disposition, we need to discover opportunities and create methodologies whereby we can continue this engagement: to perform the city, as well as perform in it. However, the codification of behaviour as insinuated by the fabric of the city consigns much urban action to the realms of the strictly legislative and the consumerist; a society whose spatial structures are delineated economically by forces of capital, socially specified by cultural production and politically regulated by the state. In terms of affording a necessary ambiguity, architecture as defined by its historic points of utility is discredited: form reduced to image, function bargained down to economics, space subsumed into spectacle. The city as an organism though is fluctuating, multifunctional and ever-changing – demanding an incompletion and informality that affords personal expression and individual interpretation. Given that architecture is a discipline dedicated to valorising the common, how is it then possible to create opportunities to facilitate cultural incongruity, places where a shift in perspective and perception becomes possible?
Performative Urbanism re-frames urban space to offer its occupants agency in determining their roles in that space. The work assumes a critical dimension, resisting descriptive objectivity in favour of a terrain of speculations, allegations and narrative. Like Piranesi’s Campo Marzio, it contains within it the real and the unreal, the past as well as the future. As a decisive fragmentation of time and space, the results posit a disjointed geography of excisions and allegory; importantly, one wide open to interpretation.
Inhabitants become partial authors of their environment and well as producers (and interpreters) of their meanings, reconfiguring understandings of space so that the relationship between performative subject and the architectural object becomes “productively unclear.” Negotiating between the fictive and the real, the participant chooses – space thus defies quantification, and invites a public debate about what is.
The initial sites for these investigations in the contemporary City are terrains vague, vacant and unencumbered spaces. Void as absence, but also promise – territories for mappings and interventions that open spaces between the participants and the site, gaps between the reality of the world and our own interpretation of it.
This work proposes a re-framing of space beyond the material (the indeterminate space of terrain vague) overlaid by individual interpretation (the insinuation of the narrative). This establishes the context within which Performative Urbanism will be developed, and create new ways to both measure and mark the earth, free from the strictures of formal systems of control.
Formalization of African Urban Informality
Abstract: There has been little attempt to define or develop urban theories as an implementation-tool based on findings in African cities. Instead coding has often relied on theories that are based on European and American models. In addition, engaging in fieldwork within African cities has led us to believe that despite legislation and government research in support of their use, implementation of spatial development frameworks has been largely disappointing and there has been a very limited attempt to understand the poor implementation record of the frameworks that have been put into place.
Academic research into the implementation of policies is extremely limited and there is no evidence of any testing or application of the current coding with regards to implementing the government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).
This paper aims to investigate current best practice within the field, as well discuss local traditional and modern planning principles that are worth considering for formalisation.
By using African cities themselves as the starting point, a more local vocabulary and implementing tool could be developed that would be based on the current debate and implementation of urban coding as well as provide new and innovative suggestions for developing urban coding in less traditional settings. The research would thus aim to investigate, develop and evaluate the potential of urban design coding in African cities as an implementing tool for spatial frameworks.
Academic research into the implementation of policies is extremely limited and there is no evidence of any testing or application of the current coding with regards to implementing the government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).
This paper aims to investigate current best practice within the field, as well discuss local traditional and modern planning principles that are worth considering for formalisation.
By using African cities themselves as the starting point, a more local vocabulary and implementing tool could be developed that would be based on the current debate and implementation of urban coding as well as provide new and innovative suggestions for developing urban coding in less traditional settings. The research would thus aim to investigate, develop and evaluate the potential of urban design coding in African cities as an implementing tool for spatial frameworks.
Urbanization and seismic risk : Cross review on the city of Algiers
Abstract: Seismic risk is among the major risks that threaten our country. Actually, Algeria is located on the border of the two tectonic plates that generate moderate earthquakes at large magnitudes. The capital Algiers is considered to be the most vulnerable city of the country. Not only, it bears witness to terrible seismic disasters but it is based on six seismic faults that can move at any time. Added to this phenomenon, Algiers is facing extreme urban mutation. Indeed, it knew since the independence of the country in 1962, a great movement of urbanization combined in an unprecedented spatial phenomenon of extension of urbanized areas, leaned in an important development of non-regulatory urbanization. Of this fact, the various processes of urbanization, by their means of elaborations and actions, were not able to act on urban fabrics so as to protect and develop coherent urban forms.
This situation comes along by many phenomena, following the massive rural exodus and the rapid growth of the urban population, the city has reached an extreme level of saturation challenging on one hand, the development of informal housing in the form of shanty towns and illegal housing in unplanned sites. On the other hand an important spreading of the city on the peripheral spaces causing the extension of the urbanization towards the zones of Mitidja and Sahel, regions which turn out unfavorable on the seismic plan. It is about zones lined by major seismic faults. Precariousness, spontaneity, exclusion, degradation of the urban life, exposure and underestimation of seismic risk are in fact the consequences of an urban mismanagement.
The region of Algiers represents only 0.16 of the national surface, it shelters almost 06 million inhabitants according to the estimations of year 2010, that is 17 % of the national population. It is easy to imagine the necessary areas to meet the needs in the habitat, activities, equipments and services for one million additional inhabitants in the next decade. In the absence of a real urban policy supported in its spatial dimension, it is certain that the future urbanization will be made to the detriment of the natural environment, particularly the agriculture, the surface of which is going to know another reduction to meet the needs of urban areas. So the lands which have to receive the demographic surplus can be only the farmlands of Mitidja, Sahel and coast with all the major seismic risks and ecological, economic dangers and the infringement on the food safety policy.
Faced with these difficulties of the urbanization from Algiers, the instruments of town planning as well as the strategies of actions try with difficulty to take care of a complex situation. The urbanization of a city as Algiers is to be considered as a permanent and continuous work which deserves to be given a particular attention.
In a prospect of sustainable development and risk prevention, the environmental dimension is to be considered in the problem of the town planning in term of practical management.
This situation comes along by many phenomena, following the massive rural exodus and the rapid growth of the urban population, the city has reached an extreme level of saturation challenging on one hand, the development of informal housing in the form of shanty towns and illegal housing in unplanned sites. On the other hand an important spreading of the city on the peripheral spaces causing the extension of the urbanization towards the zones of Mitidja and Sahel, regions which turn out unfavorable on the seismic plan. It is about zones lined by major seismic faults. Precariousness, spontaneity, exclusion, degradation of the urban life, exposure and underestimation of seismic risk are in fact the consequences of an urban mismanagement.
The region of Algiers represents only 0.16 of the national surface, it shelters almost 06 million inhabitants according to the estimations of year 2010, that is 17 % of the national population. It is easy to imagine the necessary areas to meet the needs in the habitat, activities, equipments and services for one million additional inhabitants in the next decade. In the absence of a real urban policy supported in its spatial dimension, it is certain that the future urbanization will be made to the detriment of the natural environment, particularly the agriculture, the surface of which is going to know another reduction to meet the needs of urban areas. So the lands which have to receive the demographic surplus can be only the farmlands of Mitidja, Sahel and coast with all the major seismic risks and ecological, economic dangers and the infringement on the food safety policy.
Faced with these difficulties of the urbanization from Algiers, the instruments of town planning as well as the strategies of actions try with difficulty to take care of a complex situation. The urbanization of a city as Algiers is to be considered as a permanent and continuous work which deserves to be given a particular attention.
In a prospect of sustainable development and risk prevention, the environmental dimension is to be considered in the problem of the town planning in term of practical management.
Problematic of urban informal and impacts for growth and development of cities in Algeria: the case of Arris (Aures)
Abstract: The urban informal is the result of several factors both endogenous and exogenous. The case of the small town of Arris in the Aures is interesting to study this point of view. Indeed, population growth and rural exodus the flows of, amplified by the so-called crisis of the black decade experienced by Algeria, have clearly contributed to the urban sprawl of Arris that stretches along the roads and flood zones. The informal urban fabric, first they were far away from each other then gradually became dense, is at first barely visible while it presides over the development of this town in the mountains. This established fact would result from the small contribution of the state in the realization of social housing to respond to an ever-increasing demand. The proliferation of self-built outside of any regulations in an atmosphere of endless construction integrates as best it could with the rest the built and poses especially problems of equipment and complicate territorial management by local communities quickly overwhelmed by the evolution of the situation. Once installed, the illegal occupants show some signs organizational that will serve as ties with public authorities and will be the beginnings of regularization synonymous with political fait accompli. Thus we witness the construction of mosques and the creation of associations among others. These rampant informal structures end one day or another by impose itself by exerting direct or indirect pressure to servicing the neighborhoods that they form and progressively benefit from various infrastructures (water supply, sewerage, gas, electricity ...) to become over time such as the others neighborhoods. Our aim, through the example of Arris, is to seize the urban informal in its evolution, its manifestations, its fields of action and the identity of those involved. Keyword: The urban informal, Arris, development state.
The gecekondu origin of Gazi and Zeytinburnu in Istanbul : the informal city made possible
Abstract: The paper considers the urban identity of two former gecekondu settlements of Istanbul, looking for possible relationships with the urban features belonging to the city at the time immediately preceding the genesis and development of informal neighbourhoods. In the big cities of the Mediterranean area, from the second half of the twentieth century the production of informal urban habitat contributes in equal measure with the formal one in reshaping the urban identities. In a historical perspective, birth, transformation and subsequent regularization of informal settlements located on the outskirts of urban centres of ancient origin are all phenomena sharing continuity with the generative dynamics of the Mediterranean cities, carrying on the alternating layering of urban fabrics produced by planning to those spontaneously generated. The informal phenomena thus provide new opportunities for the material expression of the people’s cultural background, through the implementation of individual, group or collective housing and settlement practices. The settlement patterns may result from the continuation of models that are the legacy of age-old cultural elaborations, or by their contamination with cultural inputs coming from the imaginary of modern and contemporary metropolis and from the global culture conveyed by the mass media. In some cases, the direct intervention of the inhabitants in the construction of the urban habitat allows the reproduction of some features of belonging to the local settlement traditions; the action of the inhabitants-builders is expressed continuously for relatively long periods of time that allow coherent development and interconnection with the metropolitan built environment. In other cases, the socially or economically hegemonic actors dominate the formation of the urban habitat by imposing individual visions and urban designs, which are implemented in restricted time periods by destroying the forms spontaneously produced in previous times. The paper examines three case studies belonging to two Istanbul districts, comparing the characteristics of the urban fabric between them and with those of the historical city and trying to reconstruct the generative paths of the urban image produced spontaneously by the inhabitants. To do this, three operational tools for the experimental analysis of informal settlements are defined: the first is based on the analysis of the urban structure and the street layout, the second on the direct exploration aimed to examine the urban landscape, and the third is based on the self-perception of the inhabitants inferred from the analysis of groups of vernacular photographs. The results, compared with the historical formation dynamics of the pre-modern and modern city, show that, under certain conditions, informal practices are able to produce, as well as in the past, a habitat with significant levels of consistency and liveability, based on a strong adherence to the cultural and settlement model expressed by the inhabitants. This paper argues that, to make this possible, priorities are the relative slowness of change and the high degree of shared meta-projectual decision inside the settlement process. The inhabitants of the analysed gecekondu settlements were able to formulate habitat typologies that tend towards its own and recognizable identity. Sometimes it is more of an identity vernacular and far away from the global image of the metropolitan Istanbul, or an identity yet to be defined, even if already clearly urban. In other cases, there is an original synthesis of traditional signs and innovative contributions, able to foresee future transformation scenarios for settlement and optimal integration in the metropolitan area. Through appropriate policies of progressive regularization and institutionalization that recognize these qualities, this type of informal settlement can evolve more easily than others towards established forms of habitat with a defined urban identity.
“We Work it Out”: Informal Roma Settlements in Rome and the Limits of Tactical Urbanism
Abstract: This presentation examines the tactics of survival and everyday resistance practiced by Roma communities in two informal settlements in Rome. Italy’s capital has in recent years seen the intensification of neoliberal forms of urban management which have produced massive private real-estate speculation, reduced access to public space and low cost housing, and exacerbated the securitization of migrants. The Roma minority, who are widely perceived as bringing crime and urban degradation, have been especially hard hit by these processes. Between 2009 and 2013 they were targeted by a municipal policy (the ‘Nomad Plan’) which aimed to demolish all informal Roma encampments in the city and concentrate their inhabitants into 13 state-built mega-camps outside the urban perimeter, isolated from services and contact with other city residents. Although the policy has since been declared discriminatory and illegitimate by Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation, and although the city did not succeed in eliminating all the encampments, the effects on the Roma population have been dramatic, forcing many into intense overcrowding in mega-camps, while those whose settlements have survived live in conditions of even greater precariousness than before.
Our presentation discusses two Roma settlements that have endured in the city despite these policy developments, in a legal limbo between a state of informality which could attract the bulldozers with little advance notice, and tacit, conditional acceptance by the authorities. We analyze how residents have sought to create dignified living conditions through the informal architecture of their homes, their struggles to access water and electricity, their determination to erect places for worship, or simply to create areas of beauty and safety around themselves. We argue that they have thereby practiced a form of DIY (or tactical) urbanism, creating homes that can be dismantled and reassembled relatively easily and generating environments for socialty, ultimately forging public spaces in apparent ‘non-places’: on a highway exchange and in a mall parking lot. While we see this as a form of resistance against increasingly exclusionary urban trends, we do not over-estimate the power of these initiatives. Indeed, we argue that the Roma’s tactics are constrained by the authorities’ erratic reactions to their attempts to improve their conditions: extensions on a home have, for example, been perceived in one case as an unacceptable sign of a community’s rootedness and forcibly demolished, and on another occasion seen as evidence of care, lauded by local officials. Thus informality - a low-stakes approach to creating private and public space - is a double tactic: it is an expression of necessity, will, and desire, and at the same time a way of downplaying the potential power of that expression.
Our presentation discusses two Roma settlements that have endured in the city despite these policy developments, in a legal limbo between a state of informality which could attract the bulldozers with little advance notice, and tacit, conditional acceptance by the authorities. We analyze how residents have sought to create dignified living conditions through the informal architecture of their homes, their struggles to access water and electricity, their determination to erect places for worship, or simply to create areas of beauty and safety around themselves. We argue that they have thereby practiced a form of DIY (or tactical) urbanism, creating homes that can be dismantled and reassembled relatively easily and generating environments for socialty, ultimately forging public spaces in apparent ‘non-places’: on a highway exchange and in a mall parking lot. While we see this as a form of resistance against increasingly exclusionary urban trends, we do not over-estimate the power of these initiatives. Indeed, we argue that the Roma’s tactics are constrained by the authorities’ erratic reactions to their attempts to improve their conditions: extensions on a home have, for example, been perceived in one case as an unacceptable sign of a community’s rootedness and forcibly demolished, and on another occasion seen as evidence of care, lauded by local officials. Thus informality - a low-stakes approach to creating private and public space - is a double tactic: it is an expression of necessity, will, and desire, and at the same time a way of downplaying the potential power of that expression.
Urban management a means to fight against social segregation and urban insecurity
Abstract: The improvement of the safety social housing is thought through a strengthening of crime prevention on one hand and the repression on the other hand. The requalification of these social housing lets us think that the efficiency of the devices of prevention animated by the social players is limited, and that it is not enough to increase the staff of the police to reduce the crime. The insecurity is favored by certain modes of organization of the urban space and partially coproduced by certain fractions of the population and by the deficiencies of the systems of urban management of closeness that allow local groups specifically set up and control the territory .
The improvement of the urban management contributes in a decisive way to the appreciation of the social status of the inhabitants and to the reduction of the social segregation. The deficit of the urban management entails a degradation of the urban spaces which is translated by a depreciation of the concerned districts and their inhabitants. This depreciation leads the most favored social strata (or the least disadvantaged) to leave these areas and to stigmatize them, which increases social segregation. The degradation and the depreciation of districts is perceived as an inattention, even an abandonment and a shape of contempt towards the inhabitants on behalf of public authorities. They lose then confidence in the government policy and therefore does not really recognize as full citizens.
The quality of urban management of a district effect results in a fairly general sociological and political process, which leads to the attention of public authorities towards the citizens is a function of their social status, contrary to the principles equality of the republican ideal that they proclaim. Differences in modes of managing school property according to the districts in which they operate and the people who attend these differences clearly show attention. This is due to the fact that the superior classes have capacities of pressure on public services much more important than the populations in trouble. But it is also connected to the attitude of the persons in charge and the agents of these services, which tend to interiorize their requirements.
The degradation of districts resulting from a deficit of the urban management also means that public authorities lost the control of the public place and are not capable of assuring a social regulation of these spaces. This entails a disintegration of the rules of collective life and a development of the tensions between the inhabitants and the crime. We thus see that the urban management is in the heart of the stakes in citizenship and in social segregation and a major element of the social regulation of the public place, and thus the functioning of the society. As such it is thus a key element of a societal conception of the sustainable development. Unfortunately, the majority of the actors have a weak consciousness of the incidence of the modes of urban management on the social processes, because they share a functional conception of these activities and do not really perceive the social effects, the effects on the urban social functioning of districts. It is thus essential to modify these representations of the urban management. But we saw that it was also necessary to develop the conception relatively techniciste of the sustainable development to integrate these issues.
The improvement of the urban management contributes in a decisive way to the appreciation of the social status of the inhabitants and to the reduction of the social segregation. The deficit of the urban management entails a degradation of the urban spaces which is translated by a depreciation of the concerned districts and their inhabitants. This depreciation leads the most favored social strata (or the least disadvantaged) to leave these areas and to stigmatize them, which increases social segregation. The degradation and the depreciation of districts is perceived as an inattention, even an abandonment and a shape of contempt towards the inhabitants on behalf of public authorities. They lose then confidence in the government policy and therefore does not really recognize as full citizens.
The quality of urban management of a district effect results in a fairly general sociological and political process, which leads to the attention of public authorities towards the citizens is a function of their social status, contrary to the principles equality of the republican ideal that they proclaim. Differences in modes of managing school property according to the districts in which they operate and the people who attend these differences clearly show attention. This is due to the fact that the superior classes have capacities of pressure on public services much more important than the populations in trouble. But it is also connected to the attitude of the persons in charge and the agents of these services, which tend to interiorize their requirements.
The degradation of districts resulting from a deficit of the urban management also means that public authorities lost the control of the public place and are not capable of assuring a social regulation of these spaces. This entails a disintegration of the rules of collective life and a development of the tensions between the inhabitants and the crime. We thus see that the urban management is in the heart of the stakes in citizenship and in social segregation and a major element of the social regulation of the public place, and thus the functioning of the society. As such it is thus a key element of a societal conception of the sustainable development. Unfortunately, the majority of the actors have a weak consciousness of the incidence of the modes of urban management on the social processes, because they share a functional conception of these activities and do not really perceive the social effects, the effects on the urban social functioning of districts. It is thus essential to modify these representations of the urban management. But we saw that it was also necessary to develop the conception relatively techniciste of the sustainable development to integrate these issues.
RUBBER HOMES, towards integrating the informal into architectural practice
Abstract: Despite the attention that the “informal” dimension in the built environment is receiving on an intellectual level, mainstream architectural practice as a whole is still rarely influenced by it. As Rahul Mehrotra noted (361° Conference, Mumbai, 2010), what is learnt in informal settlements in terms of flexibility, resilience, self-building etc. usually gets re-applied in other informal settlements only.
The design process as taught in schools and practiced in offices is a very rigid and regulated discipline. It includes a number of actors, a request, a proposal, a construction phase and an outcome. In their work, architects envision a final “user”, whose constructed needs they shape their design after. The “user” is usually unknown, a virtual product of decades of positivist sociological studies, necessarily an abstraction (A. Forty). In the Modern period, the constructed person of the “user” well fitted the need for standardization; in more recent times, the user lurks in bureaucratic regulations on minimum-size bathrooms and kitchens. Design is indeed performative (J.L. Austin) in that it executes an action through its very configuration, i.e. the layout of a house, for instance, induces a standardized use of space; this allows the architect to deal with Order instead of having to face the undoubtedly scary challenge of designing for Disorder (R. Sennet, The use of Disorder). Still, as recognized studies show (P. Boudon, Lived-in architecture; S. Brand, How buildings learn), it can be claimed that it is very difficult, indeed virtually impossible, for a designer to foresee the actual use[s] that will be made of his own project. The reason can be traced back to the distinct disciplinarity of the architect; his design looks for solutions to the spatial needs of “users” - which might indeed prove efficient in that respect because of the very specific training of the architect, though as noted above such needs are ideal constructs by definition. What the architect cannot “formally” include into the design is the non-spatial unexpected, the contingency that stems, for instance, from a specific economic condition but that, for some reason or other, has a definite impact on the spatiality of a place or building.
The claim of this paper is that “formal” design could benefit from a closer look at the “informal” use of space. “Informal” is not meant here as synonym to “illegal”, rather as an in-flux dimension in which space is made to adapt in ingenious ways, regardless of the initial intention of the designer, planner, builder. As my paper will try to demonstrate through a case study located in the city of Torino, Italy (the title “Rubber Homes” refers to the practice of using decoy addresses to avoid foreclosure and repossession), no matter how regulated and “formalized” the use of space is, there always remains a certain quantity of slack space (J. Till, Architecture Depends) that allows for alternative uses. Since the search for slack space in a predominantly “formal” environment is indeed energy-and time-consuming, it is usually revealed only on particular socio-economic junctures such as the current recession, which on occasions force a certain category of people to look for solutions in the hidden folds of legality.
The aim of my research is to sustain a practice of architecture that does not see a rigid “formality” as the natural outcome of the discipline, but rather one that allows for various interpretations of space to evolve over time, recognizing the risks of unregulated building on the one hand, but also the potential of a more open-ended use of space on the other. A practice of architecture that accepts its inability to foresee the actual use of a project once it outgrows its designed-object identity and becomes part of the built world, and exactly for this reason allows for a certain quantity of undefined slack space to be part of it.
The design process as taught in schools and practiced in offices is a very rigid and regulated discipline. It includes a number of actors, a request, a proposal, a construction phase and an outcome. In their work, architects envision a final “user”, whose constructed needs they shape their design after. The “user” is usually unknown, a virtual product of decades of positivist sociological studies, necessarily an abstraction (A. Forty). In the Modern period, the constructed person of the “user” well fitted the need for standardization; in more recent times, the user lurks in bureaucratic regulations on minimum-size bathrooms and kitchens. Design is indeed performative (J.L. Austin) in that it executes an action through its very configuration, i.e. the layout of a house, for instance, induces a standardized use of space; this allows the architect to deal with Order instead of having to face the undoubtedly scary challenge of designing for Disorder (R. Sennet, The use of Disorder). Still, as recognized studies show (P. Boudon, Lived-in architecture; S. Brand, How buildings learn), it can be claimed that it is very difficult, indeed virtually impossible, for a designer to foresee the actual use[s] that will be made of his own project. The reason can be traced back to the distinct disciplinarity of the architect; his design looks for solutions to the spatial needs of “users” - which might indeed prove efficient in that respect because of the very specific training of the architect, though as noted above such needs are ideal constructs by definition. What the architect cannot “formally” include into the design is the non-spatial unexpected, the contingency that stems, for instance, from a specific economic condition but that, for some reason or other, has a definite impact on the spatiality of a place or building.
The claim of this paper is that “formal” design could benefit from a closer look at the “informal” use of space. “Informal” is not meant here as synonym to “illegal”, rather as an in-flux dimension in which space is made to adapt in ingenious ways, regardless of the initial intention of the designer, planner, builder. As my paper will try to demonstrate through a case study located in the city of Torino, Italy (the title “Rubber Homes” refers to the practice of using decoy addresses to avoid foreclosure and repossession), no matter how regulated and “formalized” the use of space is, there always remains a certain quantity of slack space (J. Till, Architecture Depends) that allows for alternative uses. Since the search for slack space in a predominantly “formal” environment is indeed energy-and time-consuming, it is usually revealed only on particular socio-economic junctures such as the current recession, which on occasions force a certain category of people to look for solutions in the hidden folds of legality.
The aim of my research is to sustain a practice of architecture that does not see a rigid “formality” as the natural outcome of the discipline, but rather one that allows for various interpretations of space to evolve over time, recognizing the risks of unregulated building on the one hand, but also the potential of a more open-ended use of space on the other. A practice of architecture that accepts its inability to foresee the actual use of a project once it outgrows its designed-object identity and becomes part of the built world, and exactly for this reason allows for a certain quantity of undefined slack space to be part of it.
Evidence in damage to health in Informal Workers: an exploratory study
Abstract: Background
Current advances in this field highlight the role played by employment conditions – labor relations (contract type, income and employment rights compliance) – in the ability of individuals to decide about their immediate conditions of life and work, and access to basic health resources and the health system as a whole. Thus, the socially disadvantaged become sick and die more often than those who belong to social groups that occupy privileged positions.
However, health policies have dominated solutions focused on diseases treatment, without incorporating adequate interventions on the "causes of the causes", such as, for example, the actions of the social environment. Consequently, health problems have remained and inequities in health and access to health care have increased, generating more critical situations in the most vulnerable groups, such as informal workers
Objective
The objective of this paper is to show a preliminary overview of evidence published about the impact of the informal employment and the inadequate social security coverage on the informal workers' health.
Methods
A scoping review of published evidence on this topic during the last decade (2001-2012) was conducted, from various sources. It was found a total of 80 publications.
Main Results and Conclusions
Most of extracted studies focused on quantitative research, related to informal workers and “proxies” (unemployed, self-employed workers and micro-entrepreneurs, working poor, temporary workers, women). The 44.1% of them correspond to cross-sectional designs, followed by secondary sources (35.5%) and only 3 cohort studies.
Regarding the geographical distribution of studies, focused primarily on the continents of America and Europe, and a smaller number in Oceania, Asia and Africa.
In general terms, there is little empirical evidence about what actually happens with informal workers and their impact on health. This systematic review, however, has allowed clarifying that there are different types of employment status (proxies) that have been studied in relation with the analysis of informality and its impact on health, but without forgetting that there are isolated studies, of difficult extrapolation, which does not easily allow comparisons and associations.
Research shows that the status of "working poor" associated with low income, would be responsible for exposing people to dangerous conditions and health risks, and that limits access to health services, facilitating the dissemination with deleterious effects.
The informal employment, with its characteristics of instability and insecurity, could express in the area of psychosocial health in various forms ranging from depression, anxiety and stress. Moreover, note that the informal condition not only affects the individual worker, but will also affect the family and immediate surroundings, creating environments more vulnerable and poorer quality of life in general.
For working women, the effects are amplified because along with having an informal job, they also tend to be heads of households. This generates complex life situations where constant tension, the daily difficulties and frustrations over low wages and poor working conditions result in unhappiness.
Current advances in this field highlight the role played by employment conditions – labor relations (contract type, income and employment rights compliance) – in the ability of individuals to decide about their immediate conditions of life and work, and access to basic health resources and the health system as a whole. Thus, the socially disadvantaged become sick and die more often than those who belong to social groups that occupy privileged positions.
However, health policies have dominated solutions focused on diseases treatment, without incorporating adequate interventions on the "causes of the causes", such as, for example, the actions of the social environment. Consequently, health problems have remained and inequities in health and access to health care have increased, generating more critical situations in the most vulnerable groups, such as informal workers
Objective
The objective of this paper is to show a preliminary overview of evidence published about the impact of the informal employment and the inadequate social security coverage on the informal workers' health.
Methods
A scoping review of published evidence on this topic during the last decade (2001-2012) was conducted, from various sources. It was found a total of 80 publications.
Main Results and Conclusions
Most of extracted studies focused on quantitative research, related to informal workers and “proxies” (unemployed, self-employed workers and micro-entrepreneurs, working poor, temporary workers, women). The 44.1% of them correspond to cross-sectional designs, followed by secondary sources (35.5%) and only 3 cohort studies.
Regarding the geographical distribution of studies, focused primarily on the continents of America and Europe, and a smaller number in Oceania, Asia and Africa.
In general terms, there is little empirical evidence about what actually happens with informal workers and their impact on health. This systematic review, however, has allowed clarifying that there are different types of employment status (proxies) that have been studied in relation with the analysis of informality and its impact on health, but without forgetting that there are isolated studies, of difficult extrapolation, which does not easily allow comparisons and associations.
Research shows that the status of "working poor" associated with low income, would be responsible for exposing people to dangerous conditions and health risks, and that limits access to health services, facilitating the dissemination with deleterious effects.
The informal employment, with its characteristics of instability and insecurity, could express in the area of psychosocial health in various forms ranging from depression, anxiety and stress. Moreover, note that the informal condition not only affects the individual worker, but will also affect the family and immediate surroundings, creating environments more vulnerable and poorer quality of life in general.
For working women, the effects are amplified because along with having an informal job, they also tend to be heads of households. This generates complex life situations where constant tension, the daily difficulties and frustrations over low wages and poor working conditions result in unhappiness.
FORMAL AND INFORMAL: ON THE ROAD NETWORK OF THE “UNRURALIZED” TERRITORY
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between formal and informal in the construction and maintenance of the road network of territories where urbanization has taken place over a rural base. The Portuguese municipality of Santa Maria da Feira, located south of the Portuguese city of Porto, will be analyzed. In this municipality, the existing road network corresponds, to a large extent, to its ancient network of Roman and medieval roads.
This paper intends, with the support of drawings made within the scope of the research, to strengthen the idea that the practices carried out by each of the entities acting on the road network (electricity supply, telecommunications, lighting, water, sanitation, transport, waste, urban furniture, signposting), although they arise from high formality procedures, are turning it into an informal “body”.
It will be advocated that informality, commonly associated with contexts where the poorly regulated processes that occur in the private sphere overlap processes (usually more regulated) that occur in the public sphere, may also result from the fragmentation of those entities operating in the public domain of the road network. This fragmentation largely stems from the privatization and installation of a competitive market in basic infrastructures of the road network.
With the State’s withdrawal from the production and management of basic infrastructures, there has been a progressive emphasis on technical, administrative and legal arguments that prevail over spatial arguments, when they exist. Each entity providing infrastructures is increasingly closed in on itself, and processes that were in the public sphere or under public control are becoming increasingly inaccessible to the State and to the ordinary citizen. This closure is particularly significant in times of crisis, when economic arguments, from the entity providing infrastructures, overlap all other arguments.
Presently, there is a low probability that the State defines a common goal or strategy to a road network that is so vast and distinct from that of the consolidated city, which may clarify the actions of the various entities. It is difficult to submit a drawing or a more specific strategy for an extensive road network (in the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira it is 1600km). Regulating with general laws and planning only on the large scale does not allow working positively and specifically the territory. The large scale standardizes a system that, at a closer look, is extremely fragmented.
Aiming at circumscribing the difficulty of working in a fragmented system, the purpose is to present the different spatial units that, within the road network and despite their informality, exist. In part, that unit has to do with the way how, on the road network, some of the basic infrastructures are displayed. Therefore, it is important that they are identified and possibly emphasized. With that information, we will advocate the idea that the typical hierarchical visions of basic infrastructures have to be overcome. The role that each of the basic infrastructures has in characterizing a particular spatial unit is variable. Those logics that have more to do with motorized individual mobility, pedestrians and public transport, as well as lighting, air cabling, furniture, signposting or rainwater collection, may have to be valued.
With the enhancement of an urban practice that considers the possibility of the diverse entities that act on the road network may have a variable positioning, it is hoped that the recurring and generic hierarchies may be overcome. Only then will it be possible to contribute a little more to the protection and emphasis of specific realities, called informal by many at present.
This paper intends, with the support of drawings made within the scope of the research, to strengthen the idea that the practices carried out by each of the entities acting on the road network (electricity supply, telecommunications, lighting, water, sanitation, transport, waste, urban furniture, signposting), although they arise from high formality procedures, are turning it into an informal “body”.
It will be advocated that informality, commonly associated with contexts where the poorly regulated processes that occur in the private sphere overlap processes (usually more regulated) that occur in the public sphere, may also result from the fragmentation of those entities operating in the public domain of the road network. This fragmentation largely stems from the privatization and installation of a competitive market in basic infrastructures of the road network.
With the State’s withdrawal from the production and management of basic infrastructures, there has been a progressive emphasis on technical, administrative and legal arguments that prevail over spatial arguments, when they exist. Each entity providing infrastructures is increasingly closed in on itself, and processes that were in the public sphere or under public control are becoming increasingly inaccessible to the State and to the ordinary citizen. This closure is particularly significant in times of crisis, when economic arguments, from the entity providing infrastructures, overlap all other arguments.
Presently, there is a low probability that the State defines a common goal or strategy to a road network that is so vast and distinct from that of the consolidated city, which may clarify the actions of the various entities. It is difficult to submit a drawing or a more specific strategy for an extensive road network (in the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira it is 1600km). Regulating with general laws and planning only on the large scale does not allow working positively and specifically the territory. The large scale standardizes a system that, at a closer look, is extremely fragmented.
Aiming at circumscribing the difficulty of working in a fragmented system, the purpose is to present the different spatial units that, within the road network and despite their informality, exist. In part, that unit has to do with the way how, on the road network, some of the basic infrastructures are displayed. Therefore, it is important that they are identified and possibly emphasized. With that information, we will advocate the idea that the typical hierarchical visions of basic infrastructures have to be overcome. The role that each of the basic infrastructures has in characterizing a particular spatial unit is variable. Those logics that have more to do with motorized individual mobility, pedestrians and public transport, as well as lighting, air cabling, furniture, signposting or rainwater collection, may have to be valued.
With the enhancement of an urban practice that considers the possibility of the diverse entities that act on the road network may have a variable positioning, it is hoped that the recurring and generic hierarchies may be overcome. Only then will it be possible to contribute a little more to the protection and emphasis of specific realities, called informal by many at present.
Through the Bazaars of Mumbai
Abstract: The taken for granted everyday life of every common man in the Indian city transforms from morning to evening, through celebrations, accommodates informal activity, has layered urbanism, possesses no monumental character and is extremely kinetic in nature. There is a blur between the private and the public thus creating the in between spaces in the city. Truly the in between spaces and the blur between the public and the private is the urban character of traditional cities of India.
The dynamics of the Indian cities will be demonstrated through case studies of traditional Indian cities and the streets of Mumbai which are the heart of the city. Mumbai slowly went through a transition from being an entry port to a manufacturing city. By the end of 19th century, Mumbai had grown to a population of little under 800,000. The textile industry in Mumbai that supported several lives underwent a great decline in the early 19th century. Several mills closed and over 100,000 workers were displaced. There was a simultaneous transfer of mill functions into the unorganized sector (Patel, 2003). Thus, began the revolution of informality in Mumbai! According to the recent statistics, more than 55% of the population walks to work and app. 39% of the population use public transport to work thus leaving less than 5% people using private automobiles in the city (Burdett, 2011). And the local train is most important social space of the common man with it being the life line of the city. Thus the success and the popularity of street markets is because it is on the way for people coming back from work or simply travelling from one part of the city to the other. The streets offer everything starting from a house hold door mat to the latest fashion trends thus forming an important component of the daily life of the common man.
While there is simultaneity, multiplicity, transformation, the kinetic factor in the taken for granted everyday life of a common man in the cities of India, why is the common man inclined to creating gated communities and sprawl? Is it the public policy that is influencing our cities? Leela Fernandez refers to this as the ‘politics of forgetting’ which is not just in the interest of the new middle class but also the State which is playing a role in this class segregation of the social strata (Fernandes, 2004). Is it the lack of comfort in the existing typology? Or is the shift from the existing fabric to the new just a part of the transformation and the evolution of cities? Or is this a cyclical process from dynamic cities to sprawl and isolation and the struggle back to create dynamic cities? What really is the future of Indian Cities? Or to be precise what is the future of the public realm in the cities of India? Does a public space survive without private interest? The phenomenon of public space hybrid is existent in our cities of India. But the perception of these spaces is chaos, over populated and highly crowded. In such a scenario what is the future of public realm in Indian cities? This study will explore the perception of the common man towards their daily lives. In this regard, this study has developed different urban environmental analysis methods that integrate qualitative research methods with spatial/ecological research methods in order to map the complexity of social and ecological systems and spaces as the operative context for design. This study will come up with alternative urban design guidelines that can be adapted to the shift in design ideologies while keeping the dynamics and the essence of simultaneity alive in the Indian cities.
The dynamics of the Indian cities will be demonstrated through case studies of traditional Indian cities and the streets of Mumbai which are the heart of the city. Mumbai slowly went through a transition from being an entry port to a manufacturing city. By the end of 19th century, Mumbai had grown to a population of little under 800,000. The textile industry in Mumbai that supported several lives underwent a great decline in the early 19th century. Several mills closed and over 100,000 workers were displaced. There was a simultaneous transfer of mill functions into the unorganized sector (Patel, 2003). Thus, began the revolution of informality in Mumbai! According to the recent statistics, more than 55% of the population walks to work and app. 39% of the population use public transport to work thus leaving less than 5% people using private automobiles in the city (Burdett, 2011). And the local train is most important social space of the common man with it being the life line of the city. Thus the success and the popularity of street markets is because it is on the way for people coming back from work or simply travelling from one part of the city to the other. The streets offer everything starting from a house hold door mat to the latest fashion trends thus forming an important component of the daily life of the common man.
While there is simultaneity, multiplicity, transformation, the kinetic factor in the taken for granted everyday life of a common man in the cities of India, why is the common man inclined to creating gated communities and sprawl? Is it the public policy that is influencing our cities? Leela Fernandez refers to this as the ‘politics of forgetting’ which is not just in the interest of the new middle class but also the State which is playing a role in this class segregation of the social strata (Fernandes, 2004). Is it the lack of comfort in the existing typology? Or is the shift from the existing fabric to the new just a part of the transformation and the evolution of cities? Or is this a cyclical process from dynamic cities to sprawl and isolation and the struggle back to create dynamic cities? What really is the future of Indian Cities? Or to be precise what is the future of the public realm in the cities of India? Does a public space survive without private interest? The phenomenon of public space hybrid is existent in our cities of India. But the perception of these spaces is chaos, over populated and highly crowded. In such a scenario what is the future of public realm in Indian cities? This study will explore the perception of the common man towards their daily lives. In this regard, this study has developed different urban environmental analysis methods that integrate qualitative research methods with spatial/ecological research methods in order to map the complexity of social and ecological systems and spaces as the operative context for design. This study will come up with alternative urban design guidelines that can be adapted to the shift in design ideologies while keeping the dynamics and the essence of simultaneity alive in the Indian cities.
Ojek, the Informal Motorcycle Taxi: Evidence from Makassar, Indonesia
Abstract: During the last decade, cities in Indonesia are characterized by transportation issues. The rapid growing of economic development impacts on enlargement of urban spatial structure. Distance between urban places becomes farther and when people need to move from place to place, which is not in walking distance, transportation is needed. High demand of people in transportation due to daily mobility and activities in the modern life, and the absence of public transportation push certain persons to create other transportation alternative using motorcycle. At the same times, the booming of motorcycle due to the affordable price and soft loan system accelerate people to own a motorcycle easily. Persons who own motorcycles but jobless think how to utilize motorcycle as transport alternative to carry a personal-based on the agreeable fare; later, it is called ojek. It is a motorcycle taxi, able to carry one passenger on the agreeable fare basis. Recently, ojeks are available in most cities in Indonesia, operate particularly in the area that urban transport is absent. Referring to law and regulation, ojeks remain informal transportation mode in Indonesia. Law (UU) 14/1992 on Road Traffic describes passenger transportation using motorized vehicles, with or without baggage, has to consider passenger’s comfort and safety. Government Regulation No 41/1993 on Road Transport also requires all personal transport activities have to use motorized vehicles, motorcycle, car, bus and special vehicle. Thus, ojek is informal transportation.
This research aims to explore the following research questions, (1) how do ojeks as informal urban transportations exist in Makassar city, and (2) how powerful are ojeks as an alternative urban transportation mode for citizens, and (3) how citizens utilize ojek in their daily activities? Data were collected through field survey in Makassar, the fifth largest city in Indonesia. A number of purposive ojek drivers were asked the power of ojek, including distance of services, area and time of operation, income they earn, and also the problems they face. A set of questionnaires were asked to passengers how helpful the ojek for their daily activities. The finding shows that ojek is really a powerful urban transport, although it is operated illegally. Middle-low level population say ojeks are useful for their activities in terms of fare, time, availability, safety, comfort, and distance.
This research aims to explore the following research questions, (1) how do ojeks as informal urban transportations exist in Makassar city, and (2) how powerful are ojeks as an alternative urban transportation mode for citizens, and (3) how citizens utilize ojek in their daily activities? Data were collected through field survey in Makassar, the fifth largest city in Indonesia. A number of purposive ojek drivers were asked the power of ojek, including distance of services, area and time of operation, income they earn, and also the problems they face. A set of questionnaires were asked to passengers how helpful the ojek for their daily activities. The finding shows that ojek is really a powerful urban transport, although it is operated illegally. Middle-low level population say ojeks are useful for their activities in terms of fare, time, availability, safety, comfort, and distance.
Management and maintenance of common spaces in collective housing. Case of the algerian collective housing
Abstract: The common spaces in the collective housing turn out to be dense and complex places. They are of the domain of the housing environment, but not only; they participate in the daily life while escaping it; they make possible the expression of the familiarity and the solemnity; they operate the passage between the close friend, the domestic and policy; they welcome the individual quite as the collective. So these spaces appear as places of living, rather than habitat.
Historically supports of many utopias, spaces stretched out between the street and the housing, are now carrying a triple project of urbanity: places of comfort and urban quality of life, social condensers and places of experimenting to live-together.
Common areas represent for the inhabitants an important element of their living environment because they allow the transition between the public place and the privative parts. They thus have a value of representative image of their status; certainly, the aspect of the district and the buildings is the first vector of communication as for the status of the occupants, but the lobby also participates in the signalling system of the lifestyle of the occupants by adding a factor of appreciation by the visitor. The inhabitants thus wait that common areas give a positive image for their housing environments.
Only yesterday without interest, the intermediate spaces of the housing are now the theater of a war between the decision-makers and the administrators in front of designers and the researchers. These places of urbanity are more than ever in danger: profitability of the slightest m ², minimization of all the collective costs, the security logics, the preference for the aesthetics on the use value (gardens for eyes not for feet).
Most of the districts in which social relations are conflicting suffer from major deficiencies in management and maintenance, the inhabitants finding no response to their requests and feeling abandoned to their fate by public bodies. These various examples let us think that social relationships between the individuals are spontaneously conflicting, even violent, if they do not join an institutional frame which promulgates rules of cohabitation recognized and relatively accepted by the majority of the population, and if no device comes to regulate the conflicts caused by any collective life. It is necessary that public institutions mediatize the interpersonal relations so that these are not translated by confrontations the outcome of which depends on balance of power between the persons in presence.
The maitenance of common areas presents a certain complexity bound on one hand to the multitude of possible and necessary interventions in these spaces, on the other hand to the diversity of their conceptions and their realizations. Well before to be an architectural question, to promote intermediate quality spaces for the inhabitant, is a policy choice: it is a conscious choice of urban lifestyles and aspirations, which is in the heart of issues citizenship and social segregation and also a major element of the social regulation of the common space, and thus the functioning of the society. It is a commitment for a sustainable urban development.
The present communication thus has more a methodical vocation than an objective of capitalization of solutions or best practice. The intervention will focus on three points. It will focus first of all attempt to present the common spaces, then to highlight a number of stakes, spatial and social, which run the common spaces and finally to expose certain measures of management, maintenance of these spaces which establish an important lever for obtaining the satisfaction of the inhabitants.
Historically supports of many utopias, spaces stretched out between the street and the housing, are now carrying a triple project of urbanity: places of comfort and urban quality of life, social condensers and places of experimenting to live-together.
Common areas represent for the inhabitants an important element of their living environment because they allow the transition between the public place and the privative parts. They thus have a value of representative image of their status; certainly, the aspect of the district and the buildings is the first vector of communication as for the status of the occupants, but the lobby also participates in the signalling system of the lifestyle of the occupants by adding a factor of appreciation by the visitor. The inhabitants thus wait that common areas give a positive image for their housing environments.
Only yesterday without interest, the intermediate spaces of the housing are now the theater of a war between the decision-makers and the administrators in front of designers and the researchers. These places of urbanity are more than ever in danger: profitability of the slightest m ², minimization of all the collective costs, the security logics, the preference for the aesthetics on the use value (gardens for eyes not for feet).
Most of the districts in which social relations are conflicting suffer from major deficiencies in management and maintenance, the inhabitants finding no response to their requests and feeling abandoned to their fate by public bodies. These various examples let us think that social relationships between the individuals are spontaneously conflicting, even violent, if they do not join an institutional frame which promulgates rules of cohabitation recognized and relatively accepted by the majority of the population, and if no device comes to regulate the conflicts caused by any collective life. It is necessary that public institutions mediatize the interpersonal relations so that these are not translated by confrontations the outcome of which depends on balance of power between the persons in presence.
The maitenance of common areas presents a certain complexity bound on one hand to the multitude of possible and necessary interventions in these spaces, on the other hand to the diversity of their conceptions and their realizations. Well before to be an architectural question, to promote intermediate quality spaces for the inhabitant, is a policy choice: it is a conscious choice of urban lifestyles and aspirations, which is in the heart of issues citizenship and social segregation and also a major element of the social regulation of the common space, and thus the functioning of the society. It is a commitment for a sustainable urban development.
The present communication thus has more a methodical vocation than an objective of capitalization of solutions or best practice. The intervention will focus on three points. It will focus first of all attempt to present the common spaces, then to highlight a number of stakes, spatial and social, which run the common spaces and finally to expose certain measures of management, maintenance of these spaces which establish an important lever for obtaining the satisfaction of the inhabitants.
The consequences of the urban spreading on the environment. Case of the city of Constantine
Abstract: The fast urbanization is one of major characteristics of underdeveloped countries. Most of the researchers in the world believe, that it is the rural exodus which began the population growth which is the origin of the housing shortage in the cities of the Third World. Consequently an anarchic and substandard housing developed on the peripheral environment of medium and large cities.
Therefore, and as many Third World countries of the same social, ethnic and political context, Algeria known for decades a more or less similar urbanization.
Following the example of the Algerian cities, Constantine experienced similar growth forms and the same induced problems of this rapid urbanization process. It looks like a microscopic view of urban plague affecting the Algerian territory.
Between 1962 and 1979, for the benefit of the urban and industrial development, the agricultural belts were seriously affected by this urbanization where the influences confront by thousand hectares; plains around Constantine for example, lost on 2500 Ha according to a study made by Constantine's wilaya. During the same period the illicit districts developed in a fast way and spread out, generally on the most fertile, outer-urban farmlands.
The accelerated urbanization increases appreciably the risks, to which are subjected the populations that they are of social, natural or environmental order. The environmental issue is generally expressed in terms of problems (purification, landslide). Concretely the analysis of these cases often sends back to a notion of risk, such the urban growth which arises as an environmental marigold, when it is made on sites little convenient to the construction (on unsuitable slopes or on unstable grounds) and when it generates, what is perceived as a danger.
The urban spreading it is the urban extension which makes faster than the population growth: the consummate surface per capita increases, decoupling population growth and artificialisation of the ground. The problems engendered by this phenomenon are at the same time economic, social and environmental.
The urban spreading asks today questions of social, economic and ecological order, problems of arrangement and management of the space. The extension not mastered by the built entails a degradation of the landscaped and ecological qualities of the natural and agricultural spaces, as well as it contributes largely to the greenhouse effect, by favoring the travels using the car. This tendency stresses still underestimated sociological imbalance, as well as it allows, both for the communities and for the private individuals, economies on the short term and targeted at restricted territories.
The putting in danger of the environment, the absence of consideration of the land needs to come, the carefreeness of the future effects of a spatial segregation is so many facts which illustrate an indifference for the future generations. To include them better and face it, a global view of the phenomenon is essential.
Therefore, and as many Third World countries of the same social, ethnic and political context, Algeria known for decades a more or less similar urbanization.
Following the example of the Algerian cities, Constantine experienced similar growth forms and the same induced problems of this rapid urbanization process. It looks like a microscopic view of urban plague affecting the Algerian territory.
Between 1962 and 1979, for the benefit of the urban and industrial development, the agricultural belts were seriously affected by this urbanization where the influences confront by thousand hectares; plains around Constantine for example, lost on 2500 Ha according to a study made by Constantine's wilaya. During the same period the illicit districts developed in a fast way and spread out, generally on the most fertile, outer-urban farmlands.
The accelerated urbanization increases appreciably the risks, to which are subjected the populations that they are of social, natural or environmental order. The environmental issue is generally expressed in terms of problems (purification, landslide). Concretely the analysis of these cases often sends back to a notion of risk, such the urban growth which arises as an environmental marigold, when it is made on sites little convenient to the construction (on unsuitable slopes or on unstable grounds) and when it generates, what is perceived as a danger.
The urban spreading it is the urban extension which makes faster than the population growth: the consummate surface per capita increases, decoupling population growth and artificialisation of the ground. The problems engendered by this phenomenon are at the same time economic, social and environmental.
The urban spreading asks today questions of social, economic and ecological order, problems of arrangement and management of the space. The extension not mastered by the built entails a degradation of the landscaped and ecological qualities of the natural and agricultural spaces, as well as it contributes largely to the greenhouse effect, by favoring the travels using the car. This tendency stresses still underestimated sociological imbalance, as well as it allows, both for the communities and for the private individuals, economies on the short term and targeted at restricted territories.
The putting in danger of the environment, the absence of consideration of the land needs to come, the carefreeness of the future effects of a spatial segregation is so many facts which illustrate an indifference for the future generations. To include them better and face it, a global view of the phenomenon is essential.
Questioning the formal/informal border in Philippine transportation
Abstract: Jeepneys and trisikel are essential parts of the mobility system in the Philippines. They provide transportation service in all parts of the country and in remote areas as well as – for trisikel – in densely populated neighborhoods that cannot be reached by regular transportation. The seemingly erratic use of these vehicles (informal) is in fact highly organized (formal), in a hierarchical system which allows intermodal transport between buses (and light rail transit in Manila), jeepneys and trisikel. Their use is regulated (formal), with fixed routes for jeepneys and buses (formal), even if there are no fixed schedules (informal), since the classic modus operandi is to wait until the jeepney is really full before it leaves the starting point of its route; provincial buses (Manila to province) tend to leave at fixed hours (formal). However, there some informality in the way passengers get on board or alight, since there are no designated stops, which is also a characteristic of bus sytems, both at the local level in Manila and for provincial buses. The vehicle stops anywhere a customer wants (informal). This may create difficulties in traffic and danger for the passenger when buses or jeepneys stop in the middle of the road. Furious competition between rival bus companies and between jeepneys lead to aggressive behavior from drivers, for lack of enforcement of any code of civility. Trisikel are used much more in the mode of taxis.
Informality comes also in the way jeeps and trisikel may find uses as cargo carriers, when the vehicles are filled with coconuts or bags of rice, even if they are used at other times for passenger traffic. Some jeepneys and trisikel are not for commercial use but for family use, however they may occasionnally be used for public transportation.
Finally, informality comes in the way the vehicles are decorated. In a system made of many small family enterprises, jeepneys, and sometimes trisikel have become supports of artistic expression, reflecting some of the values in Philippine culture, without control by the authorities (informal), which makes the jeepney experience unique in the world.
Informality comes also in the way jeeps and trisikel may find uses as cargo carriers, when the vehicles are filled with coconuts or bags of rice, even if they are used at other times for passenger traffic. Some jeepneys and trisikel are not for commercial use but for family use, however they may occasionnally be used for public transportation.
Finally, informality comes in the way the vehicles are decorated. In a system made of many small family enterprises, jeepneys, and sometimes trisikel have become supports of artistic expression, reflecting some of the values in Philippine culture, without control by the authorities (informal), which makes the jeepney experience unique in the world.
Crossing the Informal City: Traces Between Cairo, Rome, Dar es Salaam.
Abstract: Our proposal moves from the evidence that the concept of informality could sheds light on processes questioning social-spatial planning in its structures of power and rationalities, in several urban contexts. We also believe that adopting informality as a new theoretical framework in urban planning one can challenge its traditional approach and renew its practice and modalities. On the other hand, we would like to consider informality as a continuously changing and internally differentiated “mode” of space production which requires a new analytical framework able to catch its multiform shapes. In order to do so and following Robinson and Glick Schiller and Caglar, we propose a comparative approach to explore how informality produces and is produced in different contexts. Furthermore, adopting a “view from the South” as suggested by V. Watson and A. Roy, we try to explore different conceptual vectors starting from places which are outside the traditional maps of urban theory production.
Our point of departure is to consider the formal/informal dichotomy as a terrain where the spheres of urban formality and informality interact and are interconnected in very multiple ways.
Our second point is to compare heterogeneous urban contexts as the only way to make evident the transversal character of global formalization policies acting at different scales (work, economic production, property rights and local governance).
The case of Cairo aims at analyzing new patterns of contesting urban space. After the January 2011 revolution, the Egyptian civil society has been involved more and more in a process of political participation in many informal quarters of Cairo. These organizations are now evolving through a more political discourse and represent a new challenge for the government when dealing with local communities in Cairo’s informal areas.
The case of Dar es Salaam allows an exploration of those rhetoric and rationalities shaping policies of land titling in the informal settlements. The intersections between them and the life strategies of the people living in the differentiated geography of the informal settlements, can provide a reading of mechanisms of power and exclusion and the multiple ways in which planning discursively constructs itself.
In the case of Rome we focus on the interplay between the “migrants entrepreneurship discourse”, raising at European level, and the everyday realities of an urban neighborhood reshaped by multi-ethnic commercial activities. Questioning the dominant entrepreneurial rhetoric from the viewpoint of the migrants’ ambivalent experiences, we discover how these new attempts to regulate migrations and cities are based on an entrepreneurial paradigm.
Hence, our contribution aims to reflect on the following issues: in the age of migration and globalization, how can we study “informality”? How life strategies and economic and social tactics can be acknowledged as the main way of negotiating and appropriating urban space? Which actors, processes and rhetorics are performing “informality” in the urban context? In which way “informality” is related to public policies and which is the nature of this connection?
Our point of departure is to consider the formal/informal dichotomy as a terrain where the spheres of urban formality and informality interact and are interconnected in very multiple ways.
Our second point is to compare heterogeneous urban contexts as the only way to make evident the transversal character of global formalization policies acting at different scales (work, economic production, property rights and local governance).
The case of Cairo aims at analyzing new patterns of contesting urban space. After the January 2011 revolution, the Egyptian civil society has been involved more and more in a process of political participation in many informal quarters of Cairo. These organizations are now evolving through a more political discourse and represent a new challenge for the government when dealing with local communities in Cairo’s informal areas.
The case of Dar es Salaam allows an exploration of those rhetoric and rationalities shaping policies of land titling in the informal settlements. The intersections between them and the life strategies of the people living in the differentiated geography of the informal settlements, can provide a reading of mechanisms of power and exclusion and the multiple ways in which planning discursively constructs itself.
In the case of Rome we focus on the interplay between the “migrants entrepreneurship discourse”, raising at European level, and the everyday realities of an urban neighborhood reshaped by multi-ethnic commercial activities. Questioning the dominant entrepreneurial rhetoric from the viewpoint of the migrants’ ambivalent experiences, we discover how these new attempts to regulate migrations and cities are based on an entrepreneurial paradigm.
Hence, our contribution aims to reflect on the following issues: in the age of migration and globalization, how can we study “informality”? How life strategies and economic and social tactics can be acknowledged as the main way of negotiating and appropriating urban space? Which actors, processes and rhetorics are performing “informality” in the urban context? In which way “informality” is related to public policies and which is the nature of this connection?
Everywhere and Somewhere: Situating Urban Informality Across Different Contexts
Abstract:
“The Global South is everywhere, but it is also always somewhere, and
that somewhere, located at the intersection of entangled political geographies of dispossession and repossession, has to be mapped with persistent geographical responsibility.” (Sparke 2007)
Congruent to Matthew Sparke’s deconstruction of the Global South as a geographical, bounded territory is also the understanding that informality is not a separate sector. Rather, as recent conceptual approaches to urban informality have shown, the formal and the informal are not two ends of a spectrum, but a complex continuum constituting networks and transactions that transcend any easy boundaries of actors, economies and spaces. This presentation critically explores the usefulness of these conceptual approaches for analyzing ethnographic material from four different contexts: Accra (Ghana), Ordos (China), Bogotá (Columbia) and Berlin (Germany).
“The Global South is everywhere, but it is also always somewhere, and
that somewhere, located at the intersection of entangled political geographies of dispossession and repossession, has to be mapped with persistent geographical responsibility.” (Sparke 2007)
Congruent to Matthew Sparke’s deconstruction of the Global South as a geographical, bounded territory is also the understanding that informality is not a separate sector. Rather, as recent conceptual approaches to urban informality have shown, the formal and the informal are not two ends of a spectrum, but a complex continuum constituting networks and transactions that transcend any easy boundaries of actors, economies and spaces. This presentation critically explores the usefulness of these conceptual approaches for analyzing ethnographic material from four different contexts: Accra (Ghana), Ordos (China), Bogotá (Columbia) and Berlin (Germany).
Territories in transition. Men and womens well-being in different economies
Abstract: Within the field of emerging alternative economies in urban contexts, the research, of the interdisciplinary group named TiLT/Territory in (Libera) Transition, explores the individual and social practice producing changes that are oriented to human well-being. We particularly aim to gain a deep understanding of the relationship between critical consumption lifestyle models and the development of transition processes in the fields of social life, housing, energy, formal and informal economy and work in contrast with the neoliberal community and society model.
The initial hypothesis is that the emerging forms of economy – seen as ways of re-thinking new relationships between individuals and communities and new communitarian lifestyles rather than mere production models – can be interpreted as an attempt to cope with the deep malaise experienced by individuals and the weakening of social ties that are typical of contemporary society, especially in urban contexts.
Well-known in the literature is the case of "transition towns", an example of initiatives based on an alternative perspective focusing on sustainability and liveability in contrast with the current production system.
We believe that the experiences of different economies may indicate the starting point of forms of transition. This transition moves from the current dominant economic model – characterized by dehumanizing systems of production and consumption – to new models of creative adjustment, based on the desire for relationships, on a new materiality, on a deep attention to the intertwining of individual and collective dimension.
City life, with its spaces, practices and relationships, can thus become an interesting observatory of social political and economic transformations. For this reason studying
cities can provide the framework of analysis that is necessary for re-thinking social policies.
Detailed description of the Project
The research focus is on practice bringing about change on social and subjective well-being, on quality of life in urban contexts. The starting point is the emerging phenomenon, more and more widespread in contemporary western societies, of groups and movements proposing radical changes in life-style through a modification in consumption, communitarian practices, job and production process. Literature detects towns and metropolitan areas as key points in which a deep and complex uneasiness (physical, psychological, social, environmental etc.) is expressed to the utmost. At the same time, towns are also the place where a radical change can occur. General aim of this research is to identify and analyse, concretely and in vivo, practices, contexts, politics, personal choices producing a relevant positive effect about uneasiness. A second aim consists of highlighting possible processes of transition towards innovative communitarian, economic, political models. Men and women become the leading actors in such a process, embodying in their actions the model itself.
These general aims will be pursed through the following objectives:
• inquiring subjective and collective well-being brought about by social practices alternative to the neoliberalist model;
• inquiring working patterns and community forms linked to different economies focusing on continuum vs rupture with the neo liberalist socioeconomic system, such as “transition towns”;
• inquiring values, networks, work organization, knowledge production and sharing, innovative forms of consumption and sustainability related to the “transition” paradigm;
• inquiring innovative forms of housing and social living;
• inquiring community self-activation practices and institutions involvement;
• identifying dimensions describing subjective and collective well-being and its relation with self-activation processes;
• defining common and/or differentiation points between different economies in rural and urban contexts.
The initial hypothesis is that the emerging forms of economy – seen as ways of re-thinking new relationships between individuals and communities and new communitarian lifestyles rather than mere production models – can be interpreted as an attempt to cope with the deep malaise experienced by individuals and the weakening of social ties that are typical of contemporary society, especially in urban contexts.
Well-known in the literature is the case of "transition towns", an example of initiatives based on an alternative perspective focusing on sustainability and liveability in contrast with the current production system.
We believe that the experiences of different economies may indicate the starting point of forms of transition. This transition moves from the current dominant economic model – characterized by dehumanizing systems of production and consumption – to new models of creative adjustment, based on the desire for relationships, on a new materiality, on a deep attention to the intertwining of individual and collective dimension.
City life, with its spaces, practices and relationships, can thus become an interesting observatory of social political and economic transformations. For this reason studying
cities can provide the framework of analysis that is necessary for re-thinking social policies.
Detailed description of the Project
The research focus is on practice bringing about change on social and subjective well-being, on quality of life in urban contexts. The starting point is the emerging phenomenon, more and more widespread in contemporary western societies, of groups and movements proposing radical changes in life-style through a modification in consumption, communitarian practices, job and production process. Literature detects towns and metropolitan areas as key points in which a deep and complex uneasiness (physical, psychological, social, environmental etc.) is expressed to the utmost. At the same time, towns are also the place where a radical change can occur. General aim of this research is to identify and analyse, concretely and in vivo, practices, contexts, politics, personal choices producing a relevant positive effect about uneasiness. A second aim consists of highlighting possible processes of transition towards innovative communitarian, economic, political models. Men and women become the leading actors in such a process, embodying in their actions the model itself.
These general aims will be pursed through the following objectives:
• inquiring subjective and collective well-being brought about by social practices alternative to the neoliberalist model;
• inquiring working patterns and community forms linked to different economies focusing on continuum vs rupture with the neo liberalist socioeconomic system, such as “transition towns”;
• inquiring values, networks, work organization, knowledge production and sharing, innovative forms of consumption and sustainability related to the “transition” paradigm;
• inquiring innovative forms of housing and social living;
• inquiring community self-activation practices and institutions involvement;
• identifying dimensions describing subjective and collective well-being and its relation with self-activation processes;
• defining common and/or differentiation points between different economies in rural and urban contexts.
Informality among government workers: qualitative study in Chile and Colombia
Abstract: More than 50% of employed workers in Latin America are in the informal sector (ILO, 2012a) and more than 60% are unprotected by social security (Cecchini y Rossel, 2013). This situation could increase as a consequence of growing in labour market deregulation and in the different forms of organization flexibility. According to ILO current recommendations, all workers whose employment relationship is not regulated by labour or social legislation, are workers with informal employments (ILO, 2012b).
The objective of this research is to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms that cause inequities in health, well-being and access to social protection among informal workers of both genders, based on their own descriptions and perceptions of these issues.
The research is focused on a group frequently ignored in its informal status, and whose presence has been increasing in Latin-American countries. This paper presents a qualitative study developed in Chile and Colombia among workers with informal employment within formal sector, to be more precise, government workers. This focus is related to the absence of previous studies, and to the necessity of a better understanding of the characteristics of non-typical informal employment and the consequences of these employment arrangements on health, wellbeing and access to social protection. At the same time the trend towards the downsize of the State in Latin America (Fleury, 2001) has been considered. That is expressed in a growing shares of temporary, subcontracted or other forms of atypical employments in the State.
This paper shows the concealment of dependency in the labour relations of this group of employees. Workers describe this issue as “precarisation of already precarious employment”, characterized by the realization of the conditions of instability, vulnerability and lack of rights. These workers tend to see themselves as individuals subjects that are enforced to self-manage their health, economic security and different sorts of risks they enface in their life.
Furthermore, it is identified a group of barriers to access to social security and health systems that are faced by these workers and their families.
The objective of this research is to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms that cause inequities in health, well-being and access to social protection among informal workers of both genders, based on their own descriptions and perceptions of these issues.
The research is focused on a group frequently ignored in its informal status, and whose presence has been increasing in Latin-American countries. This paper presents a qualitative study developed in Chile and Colombia among workers with informal employment within formal sector, to be more precise, government workers. This focus is related to the absence of previous studies, and to the necessity of a better understanding of the characteristics of non-typical informal employment and the consequences of these employment arrangements on health, wellbeing and access to social protection. At the same time the trend towards the downsize of the State in Latin America (Fleury, 2001) has been considered. That is expressed in a growing shares of temporary, subcontracted or other forms of atypical employments in the State.
This paper shows the concealment of dependency in the labour relations of this group of employees. Workers describe this issue as “precarisation of already precarious employment”, characterized by the realization of the conditions of instability, vulnerability and lack of rights. These workers tend to see themselves as individuals subjects that are enforced to self-manage their health, economic security and different sorts of risks they enface in their life.
Furthermore, it is identified a group of barriers to access to social security and health systems that are faced by these workers and their families.
The creative city: an "idea" or a design tool: The Case Study of Barcelona
Abstract: Due to the economic changes of recent years, cities are turning to new models of urban development, which will help in sustainability of the city, the quality of life and accelerate the urban economy. Cities intend to become competitive, i.e. more attractive to the tourist public, investors, business establishment and of course to the residents. Their aim is to raise the urban hierarchy system. There are many factors that can determine the competitiveness and which city can be considered competitive.
Creativity is an innovative concept, which emphasizes the new, progress and constant change that thrives mainly on democratic environments. Appear new elements and attributes that make up where the model of creative city. The creative economy and creative industries are factors / elements that compose the model of creative city. The way they came, the particular characteristics and whether it is effective this model city, are issues to be developed and explored in this paper.
Gradually the concept of creative city and the creative economy integrated in the policy of many European cities. Herein, selected the case of Barcelona, a city which suffered major reshaping the urban landscape due to some major events that took place, the main event of the Olympic Games in 1992, and years later the Forum of Cultures 2004. Due to the great success of the Games, which were one of the major determinants of the overall development of the city and the high traffic of the city after them, the government entered into a strategic planning process and implementing policies related to the model of creative city. Feature is the Strategic Plan 2003 which set a vision creative city. Alongside the European urban system hierarchy as to the best city installation company in 2010 Barcelona is in 5th place while the corresponding hierarchy in 1990 was in 11th place.
The questions posed and investigated in this paper is whether the creativity of a city is the result of design or point and selective interventions. The model of creative city can be seen as a modern tool of strategic planning of cities and may become a tool for achieving competitiveness of the city? Finally, how will direct the strategy and how it will be implemented.
Creativity is an innovative concept, which emphasizes the new, progress and constant change that thrives mainly on democratic environments. Appear new elements and attributes that make up where the model of creative city. The creative economy and creative industries are factors / elements that compose the model of creative city. The way they came, the particular characteristics and whether it is effective this model city, are issues to be developed and explored in this paper.
Gradually the concept of creative city and the creative economy integrated in the policy of many European cities. Herein, selected the case of Barcelona, a city which suffered major reshaping the urban landscape due to some major events that took place, the main event of the Olympic Games in 1992, and years later the Forum of Cultures 2004. Due to the great success of the Games, which were one of the major determinants of the overall development of the city and the high traffic of the city after them, the government entered into a strategic planning process and implementing policies related to the model of creative city. Feature is the Strategic Plan 2003 which set a vision creative city. Alongside the European urban system hierarchy as to the best city installation company in 2010 Barcelona is in 5th place while the corresponding hierarchy in 1990 was in 11th place.
The questions posed and investigated in this paper is whether the creativity of a city is the result of design or point and selective interventions. The model of creative city can be seen as a modern tool of strategic planning of cities and may become a tool for achieving competitiveness of the city? Finally, how will direct the strategy and how it will be implemented.
Everyday activities capable of hope: informal living and urban policies
Abstract: In the glossy 'legal' cities of the northern countries is growing another city, in which people live in a informal, precarious, declined way.
The economic crisis, that since 2008 has been to add to the other global crises already in place, has condemned to poverty and to the loss of housing many people, including those belonging to the middle class.
The inhabitants of these lifestyle practices are not just marginal, the poor, migrants, nomads, who, for various reasons, can not access houses of the city, even if the marginal population is the most affected.
The lack of public services is making it increasingly difficult to gain access to these of all those who would need and right. This deficiency leads people capable of political action and self-organization to compensate for deficiencies in public administration through public policy from below, which are not only self-help, but also outward-facing, so we have jobs that provide services cultural, and meeting spaces for recreational activities.
These are positioned in the mid-zone between legal and legitimate and give rise to some very interesting experiences.
The dialectical encounter between the two cities (the legal and illegal) is the heart of a new policy by the outcome unpredictable. However with the hope of a joint action: to build a new city in which it can converge in a creative action, every diversity historically structured.
The policies are faced with a new challenge: to build the space and time of a new communication, as a condition to give meaning to the needs of the urban. A policy can recognize the value of social practices, to listen and to support the unfolding of the self-organizing capacity and creativity of the people.
The economic crisis, that since 2008 has been to add to the other global crises already in place, has condemned to poverty and to the loss of housing many people, including those belonging to the middle class.
The inhabitants of these lifestyle practices are not just marginal, the poor, migrants, nomads, who, for various reasons, can not access houses of the city, even if the marginal population is the most affected.
The lack of public services is making it increasingly difficult to gain access to these of all those who would need and right. This deficiency leads people capable of political action and self-organization to compensate for deficiencies in public administration through public policy from below, which are not only self-help, but also outward-facing, so we have jobs that provide services cultural, and meeting spaces for recreational activities.
These are positioned in the mid-zone between legal and legitimate and give rise to some very interesting experiences.
The dialectical encounter between the two cities (the legal and illegal) is the heart of a new policy by the outcome unpredictable. However with the hope of a joint action: to build a new city in which it can converge in a creative action, every diversity historically structured.
The policies are faced with a new challenge: to build the space and time of a new communication, as a condition to give meaning to the needs of the urban. A policy can recognize the value of social practices, to listen and to support the unfolding of the self-organizing capacity and creativity of the people.
Water access as part of the right of housing
Abstract: The boundary between the formal and informal can be investigated through many interpretations.
What we support is that water access as part of the right to housing is one of the possible interpretations.
Improving the quality of life and the living space is based primarily on meeting the demand and the right to the city, primarily through the strengthening of basic services. Among them, access to water is one of the main factors affecting the phenomenon of social and spatial exclusion, and the precariousness of living conditions is often more evident in the countries of the South of World. Most of them must deal with an extremely complex situation, where the quantitative problem rather generalized - with some regional cases very critical - is compounded by the qualitative problem - concentrated in the more urban areas, industrial districts and poles of agriculture.
It is in these scenarios that public service, including in the form of public-private partnership, provides often only the most affluent areas leaving the initiative to various forms of self-organization in the informal areas, in the marginal neighbourhoods excluded from the planned city.
There is a lack of equity socio-spatial manifested by poor service for low-income populations in the economically disadvantaged areas, or in the areas not strategically important or difficult to reach.
Compared with the shortcomings often highlighted in the public and private management, the presence of heterogeneous and independent entity is added to the "classic" configuration of the relationship between public and private sectors. International and Decentralized Cooperation - intervening in an autonomous way or sometimes in collaboration with the state apparatus - make substantial contributions to access water, influencing related implementation and regulation forms.
The case study of a peri-urban area of the Senegalese capital Dakar has been selected as examples of context with high priority on the issue of water in the dualism between formal and informal. In Senegal, as in most African countries, the process of urbanization and settlement development was mainly characterized by top-down interventions, a questionable result of the authoritarian colonial actions and, later, of the inappropriate land management regulations.
In a metropolis like Dakar, institutions and planning tools are poorly equipped to deal with urban changes and leave large gaps, which are covered by other social forms particularly in marginal areas. This allows the development of a "culture of the suburbs" where it is impossible to define the limits of what is included and what is left out.
In the more peripheral contexts of Dakar as the municipality of Malika, traditional villages spread in the peninsula were swallowed by fast urban expansion starting from the modern era. Its geographic location in the metropolitan hinterland invests Malika of an important role. Link between Dakar and the rural world, the city is sometimes temporary, but often definitive destination of urban migrants and environmental refugees.
The inadequate response to the growing housing demand give rise to informal constructions, whose daily life level, basic services condition and water supply are very precarious. The intervention of International Cooperation has worked for years to make up for these shortcomings with important and sometimes controversial results.
The study therefore aims to highlight the socio-spatial issues related to water access with attention to the relationship and boundaries between the formal and informal, in order to outline the social, cultural and housing features that can not be put aside.
What we support is that water access as part of the right to housing is one of the possible interpretations.
Improving the quality of life and the living space is based primarily on meeting the demand and the right to the city, primarily through the strengthening of basic services. Among them, access to water is one of the main factors affecting the phenomenon of social and spatial exclusion, and the precariousness of living conditions is often more evident in the countries of the South of World. Most of them must deal with an extremely complex situation, where the quantitative problem rather generalized - with some regional cases very critical - is compounded by the qualitative problem - concentrated in the more urban areas, industrial districts and poles of agriculture.
It is in these scenarios that public service, including in the form of public-private partnership, provides often only the most affluent areas leaving the initiative to various forms of self-organization in the informal areas, in the marginal neighbourhoods excluded from the planned city.
There is a lack of equity socio-spatial manifested by poor service for low-income populations in the economically disadvantaged areas, or in the areas not strategically important or difficult to reach.
Compared with the shortcomings often highlighted in the public and private management, the presence of heterogeneous and independent entity is added to the "classic" configuration of the relationship between public and private sectors. International and Decentralized Cooperation - intervening in an autonomous way or sometimes in collaboration with the state apparatus - make substantial contributions to access water, influencing related implementation and regulation forms.
The case study of a peri-urban area of the Senegalese capital Dakar has been selected as examples of context with high priority on the issue of water in the dualism between formal and informal. In Senegal, as in most African countries, the process of urbanization and settlement development was mainly characterized by top-down interventions, a questionable result of the authoritarian colonial actions and, later, of the inappropriate land management regulations.
In a metropolis like Dakar, institutions and planning tools are poorly equipped to deal with urban changes and leave large gaps, which are covered by other social forms particularly in marginal areas. This allows the development of a "culture of the suburbs" where it is impossible to define the limits of what is included and what is left out.
In the more peripheral contexts of Dakar as the municipality of Malika, traditional villages spread in the peninsula were swallowed by fast urban expansion starting from the modern era. Its geographic location in the metropolitan hinterland invests Malika of an important role. Link between Dakar and the rural world, the city is sometimes temporary, but often definitive destination of urban migrants and environmental refugees.
The inadequate response to the growing housing demand give rise to informal constructions, whose daily life level, basic services condition and water supply are very precarious. The intervention of International Cooperation has worked for years to make up for these shortcomings with important and sometimes controversial results.
The study therefore aims to highlight the socio-spatial issues related to water access with attention to the relationship and boundaries between the formal and informal, in order to outline the social, cultural and housing features that can not be put aside.
The Condition of Informality: the Mechanism of Informal Activities in Structure of Governance, Autonomy and Places
Abstract: This paper is aimed to study the mechanism behind the informal activities in public spaces. It focuses on several international cases from monumental axis in Brasilia, Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, Occupied stadium in Southern Korea and the political revolts in different squares in recent years, etc.
It aims to argue that informality is highly based on the context including the governance, autonomy of people and the design of public space.
In order to describe this mechanism, two dimensions of context: status of governance and autonomy of people are listed as the key counterparts. Their interrelations would create four models of contexts, conflicting, guiding, liberal and harmonious. These four models related to correspondent informal actions from people, that are protestant, guided, spontaneous and harmonious.
The place plays as the container of informality, though not decisive. Four kinds of places: neutral, manipulated, forgotten and inducing are introduced to explain the spatial interference by designers. Among them the inducing place is the possible feasible way for designer to intentionally provoke informality.
In the end an ideal model with cardinal axis is figured to explain the condition of informality and several types of informal spatial design for architects, planners and artists will be presented.
It aims to argue that informality is highly based on the context including the governance, autonomy of people and the design of public space.
In order to describe this mechanism, two dimensions of context: status of governance and autonomy of people are listed as the key counterparts. Their interrelations would create four models of contexts, conflicting, guiding, liberal and harmonious. These four models related to correspondent informal actions from people, that are protestant, guided, spontaneous and harmonious.
The place plays as the container of informality, though not decisive. Four kinds of places: neutral, manipulated, forgotten and inducing are introduced to explain the spatial interference by designers. Among them the inducing place is the possible feasible way for designer to intentionally provoke informality.
In the end an ideal model with cardinal axis is figured to explain the condition of informality and several types of informal spatial design for architects, planners and artists will be presented.
HOUSING FACILITIES OF COLLECTORS OF POST-CONSUMER WASTE CLOTHING IN MUMBAI CITY
Abstract: As part of an ongoing restructuring process, middle class Indian families are moving from extended families to nuclear ones and relocating to mega-cities; they have more disposable income, give and receive more clothes, purchase more fashionable items, and have fewer avenues for disposal of them (Norris, 2010:9). Increasingly rapid changes in fashion and overconsumption have indirectly influenced the growth of the informal economy and those in the recycling sector. Clothes that are discarded from urban households are collected by rag collectors in exchange for stainless steel utensils/plastic articles. This is a unique mobile door-to-door recycling service in India. These collectors are not rag pickers but men and women who are migrants and trade in used clothes, known as bhandivale in Mumbai City, Maharashtra State. They specialize in collecting, sorting and selling clothes in the second-hand market. Unlike rag-pickers, studies on bhandivale who make a living exclusively by the redistribution of clothes in Mumbai are limited. The objective of this study was to understand the present housing conditions of bhandivale in Mumbai City.
A Descriptive Research Design was selected. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to study their income, type of housing materials used in housing, and housing conditions. The research Design made use of survey and non-participant observation to elicit the data. Primary data was collected by the use of a semi-structured Interview and observation schedule. The samples were drawn through non-probability convenience sampling design using snowball technique.The housing and living conditions are an indicator of their socio-economic status in the society. This also depends on the area or location in the City and the materials used for housing. The income earned by the various sub-castes in the bhandivale families and the income spent on basic amenities such as water and electricity directly influences the living conditions.
The study revealed that they are unskilled, untrained and not educated beyond primary schooling. Yet they are able to judge the value a garment will fetch in the second-hand market. As cited in the literature the Gujarati speaking Waghri there are two more sub castes namely Marathi speaking Kunchikorve and Gondhali communities belong to schedule caste/tribe involved in the trade of redistribution of used clothes. They have migrated to Mumbai City from the States neighboring Maharashtra and remote villages within the State, for two or more generations from the neighbouring States. They have been earning a living by trading in used clothes. A comparison was done in the weekly income earned. They reside in a large concentration in the areas of Matunga and Dahravi Labour Camps while the Waghri remain dispersed in the Western and Eastern suburbs of the City. It was observed that the type of housing that they live in differed in the material used. This could be based on the income, affordability and number of earning members in the family. The amount of expenditure on water and electricity also depended on the housing facility. There were four types of housing facilities used by the bhandivale. The Waghri are economically backward and live in different types of huts/ shanties. The Gondhali and Kunchikorve are better educated and enjoy better living conditions as compared to the bhandivale belonging to the Waghri. Most of them have benefitted by the Govement projects of Slum Rehabilitation Authority.The SRA apartment buildings or called flats which are provided with elevator, water and sanitation facilities have given them a better standard of living. A greater majority of the bhandivale of the Gondhali caste seem to be earning a higher income.
A Descriptive Research Design was selected. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to study their income, type of housing materials used in housing, and housing conditions. The research Design made use of survey and non-participant observation to elicit the data. Primary data was collected by the use of a semi-structured Interview and observation schedule. The samples were drawn through non-probability convenience sampling design using snowball technique.The housing and living conditions are an indicator of their socio-economic status in the society. This also depends on the area or location in the City and the materials used for housing. The income earned by the various sub-castes in the bhandivale families and the income spent on basic amenities such as water and electricity directly influences the living conditions.
The study revealed that they are unskilled, untrained and not educated beyond primary schooling. Yet they are able to judge the value a garment will fetch in the second-hand market. As cited in the literature the Gujarati speaking Waghri there are two more sub castes namely Marathi speaking Kunchikorve and Gondhali communities belong to schedule caste/tribe involved in the trade of redistribution of used clothes. They have migrated to Mumbai City from the States neighboring Maharashtra and remote villages within the State, for two or more generations from the neighbouring States. They have been earning a living by trading in used clothes. A comparison was done in the weekly income earned. They reside in a large concentration in the areas of Matunga and Dahravi Labour Camps while the Waghri remain dispersed in the Western and Eastern suburbs of the City. It was observed that the type of housing that they live in differed in the material used. This could be based on the income, affordability and number of earning members in the family. The amount of expenditure on water and electricity also depended on the housing facility. There were four types of housing facilities used by the bhandivale. The Waghri are economically backward and live in different types of huts/ shanties. The Gondhali and Kunchikorve are better educated and enjoy better living conditions as compared to the bhandivale belonging to the Waghri. Most of them have benefitted by the Govement projects of Slum Rehabilitation Authority.The SRA apartment buildings or called flats which are provided with elevator, water and sanitation facilities have given them a better standard of living. A greater majority of the bhandivale of the Gondhali caste seem to be earning a higher income.
Plumbing, Property and Infrastructure: Housing in Downtown Bucharest
Abstract: Most studies of housing repairs emphasize domestic cycles, semiotic processes associated with lifestyle choices, the “aesthticization” of everyday life or crafted consumption facilitated by human-non-human hybrids. I situate housing repairs in a different theoretical approach, inspired by social studies of infrastructure, originated in science and technology studies and urban geography. Such studies, following Susan Leigh-Star’s insights, claim that infrastructure becomes visible only in moments of crisis and malfunctioning. I question that claim, based on the way long term tenants in nationalized houses in Romania conceptualize as ownership the repairs and repeated material engagements with the homes they occupied. Without crisis or malfunctioning, the up-keeping and repairs of capillary endings of urban infrastructure are politically mobilized, made visible and collectivized as a key argument for tenants’ rights to occupy and own such houses. If artifacts are said to have politics, then plumbing and user interventions on infrastructure are political too. Infrastructure and its repairs are proprietarian, encoding tenants’ “proper historicity” in a wide range of material engagement with their houses: connectivity to municipal infrastructure for gas, water and electricity, plumbing, modifications of walls, replacement of windows, window frames or roofs. I point to other cases of politicizing infrastructure ranging from avant-garde, to green architecture or voluntary disruptions of urban infrastructure. I conclude with a more general discussion of the way plumbing and domestic/urban infrastructure have been referenced within anthropology as an index of cultural distance.
Informal housing : a form of production of built environment. Case of algerian cities
Abstract: Since independence, Algerian cities know a high rate of urbanization because of the rural exodus and attraction of urban life style.These factors have encouraged the emergence and the development of informal housing: based on the production of housing without administration and architects. The inhabitant engages in the manufacture of his living space at their convenience through a process of appropriation of space.
This type of housing became dominant and represent for10-50% of the urban space. As a result ,the urban landscape is described by disorder and dysfunction.
The paper examines the causes,characteristics and the problems of informal housing in algerian cities in order to help to improve the situation and prevent further decay for sustainable development.
This type of housing became dominant and represent for10-50% of the urban space. As a result ,the urban landscape is described by disorder and dysfunction.
The paper examines the causes,characteristics and the problems of informal housing in algerian cities in order to help to improve the situation and prevent further decay for sustainable development.
The informal city as a breeding ground for the future
Abstract: Our environment is constantly subjected to transformations, due to social and economic changes. When confronted to the inertness of the built environment, this process can however interrupt the continuity of the urban fabric. Abandoned by a previous use(r) and un-adapted to current demands urban spaces can sometimes fall out of the formal/functional spatial stock. Re-appropriation and reincorporation of these places is not always self-evident. In the current context of economical crisis urban redevelopment projects are moreover often being delayed, postponed or even cancelled. Therefore many cities have to deal with a number of undefined, informal urban spaces awaiting re-destination. We will call these 'waiting spaces'.
In this contribution we want to investigate the significance of these places for the city and for urbanism. Against the background of the theories of Lefebvre, the Situationists and Bauman and Vattimo, we will explore the characteristics of these places through the descriptions that are assigned to them. A common term used to describe this kind of places is ‘terrain vague’ (Lebebvre, Sola-Morales), but other designations are liminal places (Turner, Zukin, Sennett, Shields), interstices (Nicolas-Le Strat, aaa), ruins (Piranesi, Jackson), second order spaces (Remy & Voyé), heterotopia (Foucault, De Cauter, Dehaene, Shane), thirthplaces (Soja), non-places (Augé), loose space (Franck and Stevens), drosscape (Berger) and ‘free zones’ (urban unlimited).
The exploration will amount to the conclusion that these spaces have the ability to form a parallel city, existing simultaneously with the official city. And that in this informal, ‘intermittent’ (Farone & Sarti) or ‘porous’ (Benjamin, Vigano & Secchi, Supertanker, Nan Ellin) city resistance to the oppressive power structures becomes possible, the inclusive character of the city can be questioned, unexpected things can happen and the future of the city could be altered. That is why they will be particularly interesting for urbanism.
In this contribution we want to investigate the significance of these places for the city and for urbanism. Against the background of the theories of Lefebvre, the Situationists and Bauman and Vattimo, we will explore the characteristics of these places through the descriptions that are assigned to them. A common term used to describe this kind of places is ‘terrain vague’ (Lebebvre, Sola-Morales), but other designations are liminal places (Turner, Zukin, Sennett, Shields), interstices (Nicolas-Le Strat, aaa), ruins (Piranesi, Jackson), second order spaces (Remy & Voyé), heterotopia (Foucault, De Cauter, Dehaene, Shane), thirthplaces (Soja), non-places (Augé), loose space (Franck and Stevens), drosscape (Berger) and ‘free zones’ (urban unlimited).
The exploration will amount to the conclusion that these spaces have the ability to form a parallel city, existing simultaneously with the official city. And that in this informal, ‘intermittent’ (Farone & Sarti) or ‘porous’ (Benjamin, Vigano & Secchi, Supertanker, Nan Ellin) city resistance to the oppressive power structures becomes possible, the inclusive character of the city can be questioned, unexpected things can happen and the future of the city could be altered. That is why they will be particularly interesting for urbanism.
Building the city with "informal" tools : The "district architects" role in the transformation of Mexico City.
Abstract: In Mexico, low income city districts are mostly built with "informal" methods. Municipalities are searching for new strategies of urban management, firstly to address the lack of building security and physical risks those areas may represent, and secondly to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants. One of the key strategy is to bring back architects in the heart of "informal" neighbourhoods.
This research investigates the nature, scope and value of the work undertaken by this type of architects, through the case of Mexico City 's "district's architects".
In Mexico, architects can work for two major programmes : the housing enhancement program (P.M.V.), and the district improvement program (P.M.B.) - both programmes are currently developed in other Latin American countries but not with such an important group of architects as in Mexico.
We have completed a six-month field investigation, with the completion of fifty interviews and visits, to finally present the methods of six district's architects.
They are a new generation of professionals, who bring experiences form their predecessors, from Cuba or Uruguay, in a constant search for new dynamics of involvement of the population. Together with teams of academics and students from the main public universities of Mexico city, they redefine and re-test permanently the scope and the organisation of the municipality programs. Since ten years, they have been developing an extended palettes of tools to approach the very diverse type of local situations.
The major challenge everyone has to face, is to find its own way to combine both systems formal and informal. Some improvise informal building techniques, others teach inhabitants to play with architecture principles, the last ones learn how to mix city's official regulations with the informal rules of the area.
Most of the projects realized however still lack sustainability approach, and some fail to create real satisfactory living spaces, but still, most of them shows that many architects are ready to reinvest a social architectural practice towards solving critical challenges of urban development.
This research investigates the nature, scope and value of the work undertaken by this type of architects, through the case of Mexico City 's "district's architects".
In Mexico, architects can work for two major programmes : the housing enhancement program (P.M.V.), and the district improvement program (P.M.B.) - both programmes are currently developed in other Latin American countries but not with such an important group of architects as in Mexico.
We have completed a six-month field investigation, with the completion of fifty interviews and visits, to finally present the methods of six district's architects.
They are a new generation of professionals, who bring experiences form their predecessors, from Cuba or Uruguay, in a constant search for new dynamics of involvement of the population. Together with teams of academics and students from the main public universities of Mexico city, they redefine and re-test permanently the scope and the organisation of the municipality programs. Since ten years, they have been developing an extended palettes of tools to approach the very diverse type of local situations.
The major challenge everyone has to face, is to find its own way to combine both systems formal and informal. Some improvise informal building techniques, others teach inhabitants to play with architecture principles, the last ones learn how to mix city's official regulations with the informal rules of the area.
Most of the projects realized however still lack sustainability approach, and some fail to create real satisfactory living spaces, but still, most of them shows that many architects are ready to reinvest a social architectural practice towards solving critical challenges of urban development.
Urban Parasites: poetics and politics of marginal architecture in Egyptians suburbs.
Abstract: People came from the country side to central Cairo; looking for better opportunities during the past 50 years in a vast movement of internal migration. A Movement that has been spreading the capital's map to further limits, a number of those internal immigrants found their place as urban nomads in the unfinished satellite cities around Cairo, And this is an investigation of the parasitical existence of these unique forms of self built edifices, within a philosophical discourse; this text aims to dissect such phenomenon in a trial to comprehend its aesthetics.(Image1)
In the city of 6 October; a city that has been growing in the past 25 years, we find small one story and often one room cottage standing next to an uninhabited five story building or a luxurious villa. These cottages are made from leftovers of any found material in such context such as: broken bricks, wood, cartoon boards, metal plates, etc; In order to create a space that accommodates a traditional life style; It consists of some of the oldest spatial matrices, spaces and functions that are usually found in the traditional architecture of the Egyptian farmer; a vernacular that can be traced back to ancient Egypt.
Such edifices are not an illegal form of housing for it is there to serve a purpose set by their employer -the legal owner of the property- however they are not the authorized format of building in such areas. In fact; it is often considered as informal housing and it receives the same injustice when it comes to service distribution, for an example: there is no sewage system available for them and they have to illegally connect to electricity, even if the land has sufficient infrastructure, for they are expected to evacuate once the legitimate owner arrives to reside or claims his property for a specific function, hence the structure's temporality.
Yet, this temporary status did not prevent those people -with very minor resources- from creating a variety of spaces to cater to their -simple and sophisticated in the same time- needs. The research team has documented many categories of spaces such as; Small residences, retail outlets, outhouses, gardens, animal houses and recreation spaces. Most of these spaces stand unnoticed by the formal residents of the city and when noticed seem out of context.
This paper is also concerned with the social tissues and flows among different types of dwellers within the hierarchical segregation that is already embedded in the society. By following a critical approach to dealing with issues such as Identity, Class, Race and Gender; to learn the reasons of segregation policies in urban contexts and the reasons or exclusion.
In the city of 6 October; a city that has been growing in the past 25 years, we find small one story and often one room cottage standing next to an uninhabited five story building or a luxurious villa. These cottages are made from leftovers of any found material in such context such as: broken bricks, wood, cartoon boards, metal plates, etc; In order to create a space that accommodates a traditional life style; It consists of some of the oldest spatial matrices, spaces and functions that are usually found in the traditional architecture of the Egyptian farmer; a vernacular that can be traced back to ancient Egypt.
Such edifices are not an illegal form of housing for it is there to serve a purpose set by their employer -the legal owner of the property- however they are not the authorized format of building in such areas. In fact; it is often considered as informal housing and it receives the same injustice when it comes to service distribution, for an example: there is no sewage system available for them and they have to illegally connect to electricity, even if the land has sufficient infrastructure, for they are expected to evacuate once the legitimate owner arrives to reside or claims his property for a specific function, hence the structure's temporality.
Yet, this temporary status did not prevent those people -with very minor resources- from creating a variety of spaces to cater to their -simple and sophisticated in the same time- needs. The research team has documented many categories of spaces such as; Small residences, retail outlets, outhouses, gardens, animal houses and recreation spaces. Most of these spaces stand unnoticed by the formal residents of the city and when noticed seem out of context.
This paper is also concerned with the social tissues and flows among different types of dwellers within the hierarchical segregation that is already embedded in the society. By following a critical approach to dealing with issues such as Identity, Class, Race and Gender; to learn the reasons of segregation policies in urban contexts and the reasons or exclusion.
Informality: A Landscape Design Strategy
Abstract: Since it has fall into the agenda, informality is regarded as something being opposite of the formal frameworks and legal languages and it has been reinterpreted in several ways. It is commonly understood as a state of exception and ambiguity or as a dynamic that releases energies within the urban landscape – slums, pavement-hawkers, self-organizing urban services and landscapes. Whatever the context is it represent the situations that is introduced by designer, developed by ordinary people and informed by everyday life.
Informality in landscape design is linked with urban sociology and urban culture since it evolves from the participatory actions of different social groups and reflects the unique structure of the city. From material palette used in design through the activity pattern which is open to manipulation and interpretation of people, informal landscapes are differ from the formal way of producing designed landscapes. Informality when it comes to urban landscape reflects the changing social and political atmosphere as it is attached to the places owned by public.
With its narratives, landscape has the potential to reveal new designs in which “process” and “experience” on “unformed landscapes” become prominent. The state of association of people may emerge new forms which cannot be foreseen or thought before.
In this paper we evaluate informality and its expansions over contemporary landscape design practices. Informal landscapes redefine designer’s engagement with social agenda, political debates and changing economies.
This paper aims to investigate how the concept of informality can be used as a landscape design strategy by looking different case studies as they were produced in different socio-cultural environment all over the world.
The methodology of the paper is based on case study approach and interpretation of the intended design strategies embedded in those cases. The results of this research will inform contemporary landscape design agenda as it represents different themes and contexts of informality in landscape design.
Informality in landscape design is linked with urban sociology and urban culture since it evolves from the participatory actions of different social groups and reflects the unique structure of the city. From material palette used in design through the activity pattern which is open to manipulation and interpretation of people, informal landscapes are differ from the formal way of producing designed landscapes. Informality when it comes to urban landscape reflects the changing social and political atmosphere as it is attached to the places owned by public.
With its narratives, landscape has the potential to reveal new designs in which “process” and “experience” on “unformed landscapes” become prominent. The state of association of people may emerge new forms which cannot be foreseen or thought before.
In this paper we evaluate informality and its expansions over contemporary landscape design practices. Informal landscapes redefine designer’s engagement with social agenda, political debates and changing economies.
This paper aims to investigate how the concept of informality can be used as a landscape design strategy by looking different case studies as they were produced in different socio-cultural environment all over the world.
The methodology of the paper is based on case study approach and interpretation of the intended design strategies embedded in those cases. The results of this research will inform contemporary landscape design agenda as it represents different themes and contexts of informality in landscape design.
A concise critique on informal land use in Athenian suburbs: the restrictions and the potential of local authorities and national policies.
Abstract: Land Use formulation is a part of spatial and urban planning in cities, which is inextricably related to the detailed city-plans, development plans and master-plans, deriving immediately from the state's responsibility and authority. City-plans define centralities, networks, geometrical characteristics and therefore land uses. However, several times has been observed, that the predicted land uses are disregarded both by individuals and authorities in the local level.
Informality in urban planning, in Greece, encompasses a variety of illegalities regarding informal settlements, informal individual housing, disrespect of building regulations as well as illegalities in land use policies. The latter, regarding informal land uses and governance, will be explored in this paper as observed in the Greek environment which will also be specialized in a specific municipality in Athens.
Many synonyms have been used in scientific research and literature to refer to informal land use. These include spontaneous, irregular, unplanned, marginal, squatter and informal settlements (UNHSP, 2003c ), though in this paper, the term 'informal land use' is used to describe implemented land uses that are in opposition to the official planning regulations.
Recent empirical observations have shown (World Bank, 2006 ; Bakogiannis, 2012 ) that the above is an expression of inadequate control and governance, sometimes inappropriate, failed or not up-to-dated regulations. The delays in city-plan' implementation (in several cases even more than 20 years) and the lack of plan revisions are common phenomena in various Greek cities which create inconsistencies between existing and statutory land uses, due to different development trends or circumstances (traffic conditions, noise levels, new urban theories etc.).
This paper explores cases of informal land uses in affluent Athenian suburbs such as Kifisia, New Erithrea, Halandri etc. In such cases, the statutory land uses indicate purely residential areas which allow retail relevant to daily necessities (grocery, bakery, pharmacy etc.), although the current situation presents growing urban centres. The rapid population growth and the coming development created new needs, not predicted by the previous city plan framework, which led to a number of violations regarding planning regulations. Supermarkets, cafe-restaurants, offices et cetera have managed to fit in areas with the permission of 'ultra vires' local council decisions.
This is perceived as an overall status developed in these upper-class parts of the city, which were initially created solely for residential areas, and highlights the lack of provision for the detected tendencies of urbanization by the urban planner.
The complexities that will be analyzed lie within the legislative framework that allows and/ or does not cease a particular level of intervention of local authorities in the formulation of the national planning policies as well as within the new status quo of those areas that surpassed the planning standards.
Informality in urban planning, in Greece, encompasses a variety of illegalities regarding informal settlements, informal individual housing, disrespect of building regulations as well as illegalities in land use policies. The latter, regarding informal land uses and governance, will be explored in this paper as observed in the Greek environment which will also be specialized in a specific municipality in Athens.
Many synonyms have been used in scientific research and literature to refer to informal land use. These include spontaneous, irregular, unplanned, marginal, squatter and informal settlements (UNHSP, 2003c ), though in this paper, the term 'informal land use' is used to describe implemented land uses that are in opposition to the official planning regulations.
Recent empirical observations have shown (World Bank, 2006 ; Bakogiannis, 2012 ) that the above is an expression of inadequate control and governance, sometimes inappropriate, failed or not up-to-dated regulations. The delays in city-plan' implementation (in several cases even more than 20 years) and the lack of plan revisions are common phenomena in various Greek cities which create inconsistencies between existing and statutory land uses, due to different development trends or circumstances (traffic conditions, noise levels, new urban theories etc.).
This paper explores cases of informal land uses in affluent Athenian suburbs such as Kifisia, New Erithrea, Halandri etc. In such cases, the statutory land uses indicate purely residential areas which allow retail relevant to daily necessities (grocery, bakery, pharmacy etc.), although the current situation presents growing urban centres. The rapid population growth and the coming development created new needs, not predicted by the previous city plan framework, which led to a number of violations regarding planning regulations. Supermarkets, cafe-restaurants, offices et cetera have managed to fit in areas with the permission of 'ultra vires' local council decisions.
This is perceived as an overall status developed in these upper-class parts of the city, which were initially created solely for residential areas, and highlights the lack of provision for the detected tendencies of urbanization by the urban planner.
The complexities that will be analyzed lie within the legislative framework that allows and/ or does not cease a particular level of intervention of local authorities in the formulation of the national planning policies as well as within the new status quo of those areas that surpassed the planning standards.
INFORMALITY IN PUBLIC PLACES: STREETS, SQUARES, PASSAGES AND URBAN NICHES -The Case of Kadikoy
Abstract: Kadikoy (Chalcedon), as one of the main centers of the Anatolian shore line of İstanbul, is definitiley busy and active in 24 hrs in many ways. This paper will try to represent several levels of informality during day and night, in different seasons, by different age groups, through the open and semi-open public spaces located from the shore line of Kadikoy to Bahariye and Moda. The method used here is heuristic as it incorporates the author’s observations, experiences, memories gathered during 36 years of living in the district. Certain spots will specifically be chosen along the main and secondary streets in the region, as well as parks, squares and niches interwoven in urban fabric which are full of different urban narratives to demonstrate the informal patterns which are actually widely shared and accepted. Therefore a lively list of the types of informal use in the selected district and its turning to social, economic, artistic, sportive, recreational, religious, legal or illegal scenarios will be displayed as a case to lie the ground for informality theories. The method in order to present the case will include visual material, as well as comparative scenarios of Kadikoy without the lively contribution of its informality. The risk coming from formal planning decisions and informal but socially shared cases will be compared. Which dynamic clues can be obtained from such comparisons to support the multi-purpose everyday use of public place or what type of flexible planning decisions which can be generated thinking through the informality of Kadikoy will be discussed.
Informality and the Spanish housing policy
Abstract: During the years corresponding to the second half of the twentieth century, the urban cores of Spain were object of a deep economical, political and social transformation. Those were years in which the effects of the Civil War (1939-1945) and the industrial takeoff –especially remarkable after the Stabilization Plan (1959)- supposed a clear turning point with respect to the development and growth pattern seen so far. This understanding becomes evident in terms of the housing policy, axis that supports the content of this work in two determined periods.
On one side, the proposal tackles the genesis of those informal settlements that arose in the peripheries of the big cities since the first post-war years until the 60s. These settlements were characterized by a typological easiness and spontaneous parcelation that allowed the quasi-immediacy in its construction, out of any expected planning process. Facing the consolidated historical city, these areas became a non-negligible percentage of the constructed city, although its inhabitants belonged to the most marginalized social classes with barely any economical resources.
On the other, the proposal studies the present state of these settlements, adding, besides, a comparison with the exorbitant growth of the Spanish periphery. This comparison is formulated from three study standpoints: first, its condition of peripheral piece to the concentric growth that has defined the development of the Spanish cities, and the present value of proximity to the center of the middle twentieth century settlements; second, the social classes that inhabit the above mentioned settlements, and the condition of informality that defines their economical and labor situation; last, the level of accessibility, equipment and basic infrastructure that those parts of the city show, and its submission to the growth strategy defined in the contemporary city.
Consequently, the object of the work poses, essentially, how the different public policies that are designed in a context of crisis not only make possible a new opening to the notion of informality in the contemporary city but, besides, favor the understanding of how this new condition of informality is made explicit by the threat that its submission to the merely economical interests represents.
On one side, the proposal tackles the genesis of those informal settlements that arose in the peripheries of the big cities since the first post-war years until the 60s. These settlements were characterized by a typological easiness and spontaneous parcelation that allowed the quasi-immediacy in its construction, out of any expected planning process. Facing the consolidated historical city, these areas became a non-negligible percentage of the constructed city, although its inhabitants belonged to the most marginalized social classes with barely any economical resources.
On the other, the proposal studies the present state of these settlements, adding, besides, a comparison with the exorbitant growth of the Spanish periphery. This comparison is formulated from three study standpoints: first, its condition of peripheral piece to the concentric growth that has defined the development of the Spanish cities, and the present value of proximity to the center of the middle twentieth century settlements; second, the social classes that inhabit the above mentioned settlements, and the condition of informality that defines their economical and labor situation; last, the level of accessibility, equipment and basic infrastructure that those parts of the city show, and its submission to the growth strategy defined in the contemporary city.
Consequently, the object of the work poses, essentially, how the different public policies that are designed in a context of crisis not only make possible a new opening to the notion of informality in the contemporary city but, besides, favor the understanding of how this new condition of informality is made explicit by the threat that its submission to the merely economical interests represents.
Typo morphological Reading of auto built habitat: Case of Menaa, region of the Aures
Abstract: The attractiveness of the aurès mountains and villages was held through exceptional landscapes, but also a harmony that man has created over time between habitat and environment. Human establisment of Menaa, among other in the Aures region, has a rural economy. The old kernel is grouped, its fabric is dense and erect away from farmland. Its position is specific, the dwellings are perched, of Ancestral origin, recognized by its urban and architectural character which is the result of several variables shaping: topographical, social and building materials, combined with a knowledge make from a local culture. Since the 1970s, a new type is introduced is spreading in the old fabric and outside its limits as an extension, following the road, described as unfinished. A self constructed type that responds to the aspirations of the users. Compared to the ancien is informal. In front of the absence of land and insufficiency of houses within the old kernel,. The younger have built their new homes according to their aspirations, their conceptions of the world, their new way of life and their needs, encroaching in the most part of the time, agricultural space. A new type, expressed in different forms, spatially and morphologically, the ancien type, through which, they create a personal environment and solve their own architectural problems, sometimes inspired by tradition, another time of modernity. Each one seeks the best formula which corresponds to its situation and the current socio-cultural and economic requirements. Housing intil now constructed achieved, certainly, a degree alarming in their relation with their rural environment, present a specific typology. it can be read through a typo morphological analysis of a corpus of a number of houses in the same village.
Urban informality and the struggle for rights: the sinuous road to citizenship
Abstract: Over the last decade we signalised a renewed interest among urban designers for informal urbanization. In their contribution to the discourse on informality we often find an overvaluation of the positive aspects of urban informality. This premises often brings the argument that western governments and planners should learn from its informal settlements in the global south.
In this text we challenge this viewpoint with an historical overview of the political history of São Paulo (Brazil) informal periphery.
Our hypothesis is that the informal urbanization of the periphery of São Paulo is closely tied to the emancipation of the working classes during the second half of the twentieth century in Brazil. The formation of immense deprived peripheries in São Paulo triggered the emergence of an organised movement for participation and democracy building. This movement and its actions have brought changes in the way participation in decision-making processes have evolved in the country. With this account, we seek to demystify the romanticisation of informal urbanisation in western accounts, and draw the attention of architects and planners to other layers of meaning in informal urbanisation, connecting it to issues of citizenship, struggle for rights and emancipation.What should receive more attention is how the informal becomes included in the formal systems such as the judicial system and liberal democratic government. This tremendously important process of formalization is often overlooked in the debate on informality.
In this text we challenge this viewpoint with an historical overview of the political history of São Paulo (Brazil) informal periphery.
Our hypothesis is that the informal urbanization of the periphery of São Paulo is closely tied to the emancipation of the working classes during the second half of the twentieth century in Brazil. The formation of immense deprived peripheries in São Paulo triggered the emergence of an organised movement for participation and democracy building. This movement and its actions have brought changes in the way participation in decision-making processes have evolved in the country. With this account, we seek to demystify the romanticisation of informal urbanisation in western accounts, and draw the attention of architects and planners to other layers of meaning in informal urbanisation, connecting it to issues of citizenship, struggle for rights and emancipation.What should receive more attention is how the informal becomes included in the formal systems such as the judicial system and liberal democratic government. This tremendously important process of formalization is often overlooked in the debate on informality.
The Post-Socialist Urban Restructuring in Romania: A Global Perspective on the Main Changes of the Romanian Cities
Abstract: This paper examines the main changes generated by the process of urban restructuring in Romania. The topic of urban restructuring is wide acknowledge in a whole body of the current scientific literature and it seems to be placed in a central position especially in the Central and Eastern European Countries once with the communism’s breakdown. Once with the new post-socialist policies designated through the lens of the contemporary neoliberalism, the urban settlements of the former communist countries supported many transformations in terms of their spatial and functional issues. In this respect, their economic adjustment to the new requirements of the international markets shaped new patterns within the cities and differently changed their spatial structure with diverse results. On such background, this paper deciphers the main transformations within the Romanian cities pointing out the contemporary trends of the urban development during the post-socialist period. Through the contemporary neoliberal policies, the Romanian cities and towns experienced different situations that changed their spatial and functional features. The major economic transformations in the Romanian post-socialist cities engendered multiple changes that, more or less, altered the Romanian urban settlements during the last two decades. Consequently, the former communist urban structures have changed in different extents in relation with the main characteristics of the cities, with their local resources, with their local policies related to the national post-1990 political background. In this frame, this paper argues that urban restructuring is a post-socialist process that both ordered and disordered the inner patterns of the cities. The intensities of these actions are closely connected to the rank of the cities as well as with their local resources. Therefore, the post-socialist urban restructuring in Romania appears as a continuous process that still stresses the urban settlements favoring their adjustment to the European requirements of the cities development. In order to understand these issues this article provides a global perspective and an overall reflection on the main spatial and functional changes generated by the post-socialist urban restructuring in Romania. On one hand, there are highlighted the major changes produced by now and, on the other, the paper discuss several further actions in order to redress the negative impacts of the urban restructuring process in the Romanian cities and towns.
Retaking Istanbul, rethinking the city.
Abstract: The aim of the paper is to understand the process that led the uprising started in may 2013 in Istanbul from an urban protest to a nationwide one, an then back to an urban level.
If the intellectual progressists has kicked off the protest, by challenging the renewal project of Taksim that included the demolition of Gezi Park, after the aggression of the police, a heterogeneous mixture of people from all social classes, gender and age, headscarved or not, partecipated in the uprising in order to reverse the direction of the neoliberal plannig. The logic of profit-making underpinning public policies is excluding the environment and the urban space in general from the sphere of the public, thus local residents aren't getting any benefit. Their right to the city is denied. Actually the claim of most of the groups leading the movement seem to be the defense of the commons rather than a new definition of public space, but above is a claim for a new balance in which the State authorities do not interfere in the urban space and everyday life.
Resisting against violence helped to write a new chapter in the history of re-appropriation of common goods. It is not only the hegemony of the State in the production of urban space to be under attack, it is the whole idea of sovreignty that is now being questioned. The idea of a city shaped on a government design is no longer compatible with the aspirations of freedom and emancipation that is growing together with the season of economic growth that the country is experiencing. So the struggle for a more inclusive and partecipated urban planning has switched to the national level.
Through the resistance and the occupation of Gezi park a new discourse on democracy started to rise, along with a new kind of social unity and solidarity.
The multitude that for three weeks occupied Taksim square and Gezi Park wearing gas mask on their face has gained its right to the city. And now they are changing themselves by changing the city. Humor-laced graffiti, flash mobs, satirical websites and other forms of communication are spreading as a new form of resistance. Besides that, people are gathering in all the parks for open air meetings. Civic disobedience has become the new weapon to face authoritarism, but also to exercise citizenship in urban space. Thus, the quality of urban life is a reflection of the quality of democracy.
If the intellectual progressists has kicked off the protest, by challenging the renewal project of Taksim that included the demolition of Gezi Park, after the aggression of the police, a heterogeneous mixture of people from all social classes, gender and age, headscarved or not, partecipated in the uprising in order to reverse the direction of the neoliberal plannig. The logic of profit-making underpinning public policies is excluding the environment and the urban space in general from the sphere of the public, thus local residents aren't getting any benefit. Their right to the city is denied. Actually the claim of most of the groups leading the movement seem to be the defense of the commons rather than a new definition of public space, but above is a claim for a new balance in which the State authorities do not interfere in the urban space and everyday life.
Resisting against violence helped to write a new chapter in the history of re-appropriation of common goods. It is not only the hegemony of the State in the production of urban space to be under attack, it is the whole idea of sovreignty that is now being questioned. The idea of a city shaped on a government design is no longer compatible with the aspirations of freedom and emancipation that is growing together with the season of economic growth that the country is experiencing. So the struggle for a more inclusive and partecipated urban planning has switched to the national level.
Through the resistance and the occupation of Gezi park a new discourse on democracy started to rise, along with a new kind of social unity and solidarity.
The multitude that for three weeks occupied Taksim square and Gezi Park wearing gas mask on their face has gained its right to the city. And now they are changing themselves by changing the city. Humor-laced graffiti, flash mobs, satirical websites and other forms of communication are spreading as a new form of resistance. Besides that, people are gathering in all the parks for open air meetings. Civic disobedience has become the new weapon to face authoritarism, but also to exercise citizenship in urban space. Thus, the quality of urban life is a reflection of the quality of democracy.
TRADE AND COLLECTIVE SPACE IN SANTIAGO DE CHILE: SOME CLUES FOR UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEMPORARY URBAN SPACE?
Abstract: One of the main elements that distinguish a city is its urban fabric, the structure of blocks and streets that defines the relationship between full and empty, private and public realm, living spaces and circulation spaces, elements that have been little explored in the contemporary city. The block, private space par excellence, is distinguished from the public space of the street through the plot line, which in the traditional city usually coincides with the facade of the buildings. This essential urban limit is accompanied in the twentieth century by a second line, the sill, which separates the pedestrian and the vehicles space.
In the contemporary city the presence of these two lines is sometimes more confused. They may cross, double or even disappear in some points, changing the traditional access conditions and the permeability of space. Giving rise to the formation of remarkable urban spaces, which confuses the public and the private, full and empty space, and where different types of users and displacements meet. Areas of intensive use and urban vitality associated whit the everyday circuits and needs of the citizens.
How are these spaces, which use them and how and how are conceived and managed, are the key questions of the research: "The private and the public in the production of vital public spaces. Co-production of urban spaces in Santiago, Chile", which gives origin to this paper. We hypothesize that, under certain conditions, trade dedicated spaces can configure more complex social logics beyond the mere trade function, to take other functions of the public sphere. The research aims to define which these conditions are in the context of Santiago, by focusing on the analysis of three places with great vitality in use and which are managed by private. It is structured as a case study, including qualitative (semi-open), quantitative (surveys) and mixed techniques (field observation, photographic and planimetric survey, route charts, etc.).
The paper focuses on two of these places, attending their functional and morphological contrast: a fair-market located near the foundational center, and a shopping center conveniently situated in the first peri-urban area, flanked by an urban highway two metro lines. The first one, enrolled in a traditional urban fabric whit continuous façade, where the market stands out as a particular pedestrian domain area, defined by the decrease of the grain and weight of the buildings, and the alternation of indoor and outdoor surfaces. Forming a more porous and transferable ambit, where sales, circulation, pedestrian and vehicular spaces overlap, depending on the pace and scope of market.
The second case, the shopping center, is inscribed as a large volume that stands in the middle of the open and fragmented tissue of the periphery. Represents nonetheless a sub-center of great identity and collective use beyond commercial activity, which intensifies through its network of inner galleries the pedestrian circuits of the environment, and is surrounded by a set of parking concourses, driveways, intermodal connections and pedestrian surfaces, which provide a contact thickness, or a buffer, for the relationship with both the immediate environment and with the rest of the city.
With careful observation and analysis of the morphology, use and management of these areas we expect to contribute some clues for the understanding and design of the contemporary urban fabric. Making special emphasis on collective spaces, which even not being conventional public spaces, are essential part of public life and the daily experience of citizens.
In the contemporary city the presence of these two lines is sometimes more confused. They may cross, double or even disappear in some points, changing the traditional access conditions and the permeability of space. Giving rise to the formation of remarkable urban spaces, which confuses the public and the private, full and empty space, and where different types of users and displacements meet. Areas of intensive use and urban vitality associated whit the everyday circuits and needs of the citizens.
How are these spaces, which use them and how and how are conceived and managed, are the key questions of the research: "The private and the public in the production of vital public spaces. Co-production of urban spaces in Santiago, Chile", which gives origin to this paper. We hypothesize that, under certain conditions, trade dedicated spaces can configure more complex social logics beyond the mere trade function, to take other functions of the public sphere. The research aims to define which these conditions are in the context of Santiago, by focusing on the analysis of three places with great vitality in use and which are managed by private. It is structured as a case study, including qualitative (semi-open), quantitative (surveys) and mixed techniques (field observation, photographic and planimetric survey, route charts, etc.).
The paper focuses on two of these places, attending their functional and morphological contrast: a fair-market located near the foundational center, and a shopping center conveniently situated in the first peri-urban area, flanked by an urban highway two metro lines. The first one, enrolled in a traditional urban fabric whit continuous façade, where the market stands out as a particular pedestrian domain area, defined by the decrease of the grain and weight of the buildings, and the alternation of indoor and outdoor surfaces. Forming a more porous and transferable ambit, where sales, circulation, pedestrian and vehicular spaces overlap, depending on the pace and scope of market.
The second case, the shopping center, is inscribed as a large volume that stands in the middle of the open and fragmented tissue of the periphery. Represents nonetheless a sub-center of great identity and collective use beyond commercial activity, which intensifies through its network of inner galleries the pedestrian circuits of the environment, and is surrounded by a set of parking concourses, driveways, intermodal connections and pedestrian surfaces, which provide a contact thickness, or a buffer, for the relationship with both the immediate environment and with the rest of the city.
With careful observation and analysis of the morphology, use and management of these areas we expect to contribute some clues for the understanding and design of the contemporary urban fabric. Making special emphasis on collective spaces, which even not being conventional public spaces, are essential part of public life and the daily experience of citizens.
Outruling semi-formal rules in urban development: a new phase in the commodification of urban space
Abstract: Government policies in the 2000s have prompted a new phase of commodification of urban space by defining property rights in and around cities more rigorously. This phase has been characterised by the restructuring of landed social relations in cities which in previous years were organised in more or less semi-formal ways. This new phase is a diversion from the pre-1980s when government policies brought about flexible rules in urban development bearing a larger scope for less-regulated activity to promote industrial development. It also departs from the 1980s and 90s when governments carried out squatter regulation schemes –thus taking significant steps in the commodification of land– to compensate for the decline in wage incomes in the early 1980s, and to contain masses of waged-labour, small tradepersons and artisans economically and politically. On the other hand, in the 2000s, governments have tended to increase the scope of commodified land and property to increase government income by the sale of public lands –cleared from all claims and defined as property– and the more scrupulous taxation of urban property. The same tendency has also been framed by the pursuit to develop mortgage markets in Turkey, a pursuit which could not be achieved within the range of the semi-formal rules predominating urban legal space. This study attempts to analyse government policy and national scale quantitative data on the restructuring of landed social relations in urban areas in the 2000s. The study makes use of legal and policy documents as well as national statistics and the reports of various public and private organisations concerned with urban land and property markets. The paper also aims to set these developments in context by referring to first and second hand data on economic circumstances in the same years.
Land Grab, Urban Poor and the Future Vision for Our Cities
Abstract: As cities continue to be the engines of economic growth for most of the world, including countries in the developing and the underdeveloped world, there has been increasing pressure on cities all over the world to sustain and further growth. Always neglected from the positive aspects of development, slums bear the social costs by way of poor quality of life and insecure housing. The acceptance of relocation as an option by all the governments dealing with the issue of slums adds to the woes of the slum dwellers. Apart from being a cost- ineffective policy, resettlement is also an unsustainable option displacing the slum dwellers off their livelihoods. In Chennai, a city in the South of India, a proposal to clean Cooum, a river that runs across the city, has projected a displacement of 14, 000 slum dwellers who live on the banks of that river as against developing it in-situ. The proposal that initially suggested in-situ development of more than 44% of the slum dwellers was affected by political and corporate intervention leading to a complete resettlement. Minimising the social and economic costs, in –situ development is a favoured policy across the world as shown by case studies in India, Brazil, Egypt and Kenya. However, the failure in all the above countries to implement the policy indicates a clear lack of commitment by the government and its agencies. In many cases where in-situ had not been possible due to certain structural and economical factors, policies were framed recognising the slum dwellers as the key stakeholders, irrespective of security of tenure.
Urban Informality: A Critical Analysis of Dharavi (Mumbai) for Social Design
Abstract: Streets lined up with hawkers selling everything from safety pins to fruits to suitcases with a fascinating backdrop of shops; Dharavi (Mumbai) is always like being on a treadmill. Be it a holiday or just another day, it’s always busy, chaotic and dynamic all at the same time. Several small scale manufacturers and varied industries contribute to the economics of the neighborhood. Almost every house can be described as a tool house. It is a perfect example of doing more with less but at the same time it cannot be ignored that Dharavi needs better infrastructure. Although several redevelopment plans have been proposed, neither of them is really in the interest of the people of the neighborhood.
The slum rehabilitation authority’s (SRA) vision is to create monochromatic buildings, which are more like a vertical slum. The existing hierarchy of rich social spaces in the user-generated city of Dharavi is lost in the dead corridor of the SRA buildings. According to Indian architect Charles Correa, these plans are more like “illusions with very little vision”.
The existing social network is one of the many aspects of urban form in Dharavi. This neighborhood is a reflection of its physical and social design, socioeconomic and political factors. The urban landscape in Dharavi exists in several layers. Circulation, architecture, habitation, social spaces, social networks, land use patterns, hydrology, water infrastructure are the several aspects that define the urban landscape of Dharavi. Once a small fishing village, today Dharavi 500 acres of triangular marsh land is home to 600,000 people from all over the country and has a count of more than 1044 manufacturing units of all kinds. It has evolved over the decades. With Bandra Kurla Complex and the International Airport as it its neighbors, Dharavi is located in a very prime location. This self made city of Dharavi no doubt needs better infrastructure, but razing the existing is not the solution. If the city of Dharavi is razed completely, the complex urban landscapes that have generated over the decades will be dismissed.
With the increasing urban population, urban informality is not limited to Dharavi and Mumbai, but it is a global concern. As a field of study, informal urbanism provides an alternative way of comprehending emerging urban practices that are shaped by the inhabitants as basis for exploring the potentials of design for “adaptation” and innovation” (Brillembourg et al., 2010). In this regard, this study has developed different methods for critical analysis that integrate qualitative research methods with spatial/ecological research methods in order to map the complexity of social and ecological systems and spaces as the operative context for design. Furthermore, it questions the adaptability of low-cost materials and technologies in developing rich cultural ecologies and quality spaces for the local people. Consequently, this study attempts to explore the design interventions that can be made to the dynamic neighborhood of Dharavi without compromising the existing social richness of the space.
This study will explore alternate approaches and design solutions that will address the existing infrastructure keeping in mind the life and work spaces that have been created and bring about a change through design in the perception of Dharavi by the rest of the city. A holistic approach to the informal settlements all over the world needs a deep rooted understanding of existing complex systems and the interrelationships of these settlements and the rest of the city. This research will develop an understanding of how and why an informal settlement is formed and how can a designer address this situation.
The slum rehabilitation authority’s (SRA) vision is to create monochromatic buildings, which are more like a vertical slum. The existing hierarchy of rich social spaces in the user-generated city of Dharavi is lost in the dead corridor of the SRA buildings. According to Indian architect Charles Correa, these plans are more like “illusions with very little vision”.
The existing social network is one of the many aspects of urban form in Dharavi. This neighborhood is a reflection of its physical and social design, socioeconomic and political factors. The urban landscape in Dharavi exists in several layers. Circulation, architecture, habitation, social spaces, social networks, land use patterns, hydrology, water infrastructure are the several aspects that define the urban landscape of Dharavi. Once a small fishing village, today Dharavi 500 acres of triangular marsh land is home to 600,000 people from all over the country and has a count of more than 1044 manufacturing units of all kinds. It has evolved over the decades. With Bandra Kurla Complex and the International Airport as it its neighbors, Dharavi is located in a very prime location. This self made city of Dharavi no doubt needs better infrastructure, but razing the existing is not the solution. If the city of Dharavi is razed completely, the complex urban landscapes that have generated over the decades will be dismissed.
With the increasing urban population, urban informality is not limited to Dharavi and Mumbai, but it is a global concern. As a field of study, informal urbanism provides an alternative way of comprehending emerging urban practices that are shaped by the inhabitants as basis for exploring the potentials of design for “adaptation” and innovation” (Brillembourg et al., 2010). In this regard, this study has developed different methods for critical analysis that integrate qualitative research methods with spatial/ecological research methods in order to map the complexity of social and ecological systems and spaces as the operative context for design. Furthermore, it questions the adaptability of low-cost materials and technologies in developing rich cultural ecologies and quality spaces for the local people. Consequently, this study attempts to explore the design interventions that can be made to the dynamic neighborhood of Dharavi without compromising the existing social richness of the space.
This study will explore alternate approaches and design solutions that will address the existing infrastructure keeping in mind the life and work spaces that have been created and bring about a change through design in the perception of Dharavi by the rest of the city. A holistic approach to the informal settlements all over the world needs a deep rooted understanding of existing complex systems and the interrelationships of these settlements and the rest of the city. This research will develop an understanding of how and why an informal settlement is formed and how can a designer address this situation.
Stocked Trash Fabrics and Fire hazards
Abstract: With the growing supply chain and sustainable development model, companies are getting emergent concern with the ethical issues that can potentially damage their image among customers. Recent fire incidents in apparel industry of South Asia especially in Bangladesh resulting in heavy losses of life and goods severely damaged the company’s image particularly of retail industry. The current study is aimed to identify the potential hazards that lead to fire incidents in textile and garments factories in Pakistan. The data was accumulated using literature, industrial practices, Code of Conduct reports and surveys of textile and garments industry. A total of 86 Social Compliance Audit reports either conducted directly by buyers or a third party of 60 different textile and garment factories(Nov., 2010 – Jan., 2013) in Pakistan were analyzed and surveyed. A strong link based on empirical findings, correlation 0.72, is established between inappropriate storage of waste stored in the form of rejected fabrics and stocks, poorly insulated wires and open electrical connection near stocked fabrics as potential hazards of fire and blocked emergency exits that can lead incidents of fires, losses of life and injuries. The current research will help all the stakeholders, on the whole and the outsourcing retail industry, in specific, to carry a proactive approach for training and development in the apparel and textile industry to avoid such incidents in future and sustainable supply chain.
Comparative study of socio-spatial segregation in Brazilian and Portuguese cities: the Brazilian legacy as source of analytical concepts of urban informality.
Abstract: Urban informality is closely related to social exclusion and urban segregation, phenomenons that interest in the world thousands of people, especially in the Global South. Brazil is one of the countries where segregation acquires a very marked spatial and cultural identity: the favela represents this segregation in both physical and symbolic perspectives. The fragmentation of the urban and social fabric of Brazilian cities is a mirror of the economic and cultural legacy of colonization and of the current socio-economic inequality.
On the other hand, the process of migration from third countries to Europe and the new poverties generated by the recent economic crisis, is creating new dynamics of use and transformation of urban space in large and medium-sized cities. In European cities, during the past 60 years carefully planned, are again emerging informal spaces and informal uses of public spaces, mostly by immigrant communities. In Portugal, country that is facing since a long time a migration process mostly from former colonies, it becomes interesting to study this new phenomenon structuring the city trough the comparison with the Brazilian reality.
The paper aims to understand this new European dynamic trough the analyse the urban informality of Brazilian context as source of analytical concepts in a comparative prospective, identifying similar characteristics and differences in the use of urban space by the immigrant communities and define the contours of the new socio-spatial segregation in European cities.
Moreover, in Brazil a vast literature on the informal use of the urban space has been developed and interesting regeneration programs of the informal areas focusing on the social and urban inclusion of the population have been implemented. The critical analysis of public policies and programs developed by the Brazilian government will help to identify best practices toward building multicultural and socially fairer (or less segregated) cities.
On the other hand, the process of migration from third countries to Europe and the new poverties generated by the recent economic crisis, is creating new dynamics of use and transformation of urban space in large and medium-sized cities. In European cities, during the past 60 years carefully planned, are again emerging informal spaces and informal uses of public spaces, mostly by immigrant communities. In Portugal, country that is facing since a long time a migration process mostly from former colonies, it becomes interesting to study this new phenomenon structuring the city trough the comparison with the Brazilian reality.
The paper aims to understand this new European dynamic trough the analyse the urban informality of Brazilian context as source of analytical concepts in a comparative prospective, identifying similar characteristics and differences in the use of urban space by the immigrant communities and define the contours of the new socio-spatial segregation in European cities.
Moreover, in Brazil a vast literature on the informal use of the urban space has been developed and interesting regeneration programs of the informal areas focusing on the social and urban inclusion of the population have been implemented. The critical analysis of public policies and programs developed by the Brazilian government will help to identify best practices toward building multicultural and socially fairer (or less segregated) cities.
Changing space experiences in Istanbul: public places and everyday life
Abstract: We are passing through times of sudden changes in everyday life experiences in Istanbul. An amazing one is for defending of a world famous public place Taksim Square, Gezi Park. Public places as other places of the city change so quickly and turn to be gated private areas and part of the consumer society, so we are losing our common living areas along with the feeling of collective lives, solidarity and social memory. We may discuss that they are not disappearing as such but are reshaped in different forms, scales and purposes. Istanbul has always been changing in its modern history but during AKP governments since 2002 with the application of neo-liberal policies and with the winds of globalization there are manifest sudden changes and clashes as well as the gradual transformations. The city is losing its working class neighborhoods and urban culture in hand with the introduction of pragmatic and casual construction projects having no connection with the urban culture and interrelated with the urban structures, creating islands with the loss of the center as in the case of Taksim Square. We are losing our ‘right to the city’ as the urban space changes through intervention of new pragmatic urban ideals of capital. We are either made believed or displaced by force.
We individuate spaces as Simmel says but in contemporary urban context, the rhythm of life and how it flows change in time and in different corners of metropolis, Istanbul. Spatiality effects the existence and the perception. In a metropolis we live in a corner of our own, where daily life experiences are still of importance. We follow same routes from home to work as Kavafis stated once. There are certain breaking points in our ordinary daily lives; whereas cities have certain junctions, points of intersection, carrefours where we pass and meet each other every day as ordinary inhabitants using urban space. In this paper I like to discuss urban experiences in selected points in Istanbul where we can detect changing class and space relations, social marginalization, individualization and losing the feeling of solidarity and alignment with new social experiences in urban context.
Walking in the midst of apartment blocks at Ataşehir…
Living behind the closed Paşabahçe Glass Factory…
Getting on Metrobus at Zincirlikuyu/Mecidiyeköy…
We individuate spaces as Simmel says but in contemporary urban context, the rhythm of life and how it flows change in time and in different corners of metropolis, Istanbul. Spatiality effects the existence and the perception. In a metropolis we live in a corner of our own, where daily life experiences are still of importance. We follow same routes from home to work as Kavafis stated once. There are certain breaking points in our ordinary daily lives; whereas cities have certain junctions, points of intersection, carrefours where we pass and meet each other every day as ordinary inhabitants using urban space. In this paper I like to discuss urban experiences in selected points in Istanbul where we can detect changing class and space relations, social marginalization, individualization and losing the feeling of solidarity and alignment with new social experiences in urban context.
Walking in the midst of apartment blocks at Ataşehir…
Living behind the closed Paşabahçe Glass Factory…
Getting on Metrobus at Zincirlikuyu/Mecidiyeköy…
The effectiveness of Community Policing: Its role and impact on Social Capital
Abstract: This paper attempts to investigate the impact on the concept of social capital with the implementation of Community Oriented Policing (COP) strategies in Barbados. Understandably, Social Capital has its utility in gauging and evaluating the effectiveness and implementation of Community Oriented Policing as it is of perennial importance to COP issues which includes authentic discourse and confidence between groups in society. It should also be noted that the ability to jointly spigot into several resources, and the aptitude of persons to jointly toil to decipher a range of problems. Interviews conducted in Barbados reveal that COP cannot be successful without the existence of social capital building in the midst of population, law enforcement entities and civil society.
Rethinking Urban Form: Alternative approach to developing local town with vernacular settlement.
Abstract: Within many provincial cities or regency towns in Indonesia, there laid numerous pockets of vernacular settlements that were originally existed, and some can still be found, before the towns were built. Most of these towns that have historical timeline are usually inherited colonial urban settlement and administrative centers. The form of the towns were and are being developed conforming typical modern urban models imposed by central government through its Public Works agency. As the towns continually grow the scattered vernacular settlements were either confined in and therefore transformed or were removed in favor for the modern type of housing to flourish. Few of the settlements managed to survive on their land and maintain their inherited form, but they suffer being isolated or separated from their cultural resources and claimed natural environment as the towns continues to encircle them. Towns were often planned and built without considering the patterned landscape structure of the existing settlements. Pragmatism and modernism in planning land use and urban space that derive from standardized town planning ignore local potentialities and thus remove opportunities to build localized urban form that differs from universality.
Vernacular settlements that are located within or around the towns were culturally selected and built correspond to their cultural landscape. The structure of a typical settlement unify all components encompassing dwellings organization, multi-use open court, farm land and hunting territory. The centre of the settlement is located at the most important space that is generally sanctified. The spatial pattern is generally not adaptive to any extension and therefore unique to its geographical nature. Removing the pattern settlements from their genius loci are damaging the cultural landscape. In trying to repair the damage there are possible alternatives approach to develop the slow growing town by integrating local and urban pattern.
This paper is suggesting and proposing an alternative of town planning in regions where vernacular settlements are still exist. In keeping these living heritage while adapting to the growing modern towns a integrating system of the two world (traditional and modern) is required. However the required system should be on ground by which the quality and the cultural factor of the vernacular settlement must be able to sustained. The method of cooperating the two system is by using semiology structural analysis. The case study is in Waikabubak, Western Sumba, Eastern Indonesia.
Vernacular settlements that are located within or around the towns were culturally selected and built correspond to their cultural landscape. The structure of a typical settlement unify all components encompassing dwellings organization, multi-use open court, farm land and hunting territory. The centre of the settlement is located at the most important space that is generally sanctified. The spatial pattern is generally not adaptive to any extension and therefore unique to its geographical nature. Removing the pattern settlements from their genius loci are damaging the cultural landscape. In trying to repair the damage there are possible alternatives approach to develop the slow growing town by integrating local and urban pattern.
This paper is suggesting and proposing an alternative of town planning in regions where vernacular settlements are still exist. In keeping these living heritage while adapting to the growing modern towns a integrating system of the two world (traditional and modern) is required. However the required system should be on ground by which the quality and the cultural factor of the vernacular settlement must be able to sustained. The method of cooperating the two system is by using semiology structural analysis. The case study is in Waikabubak, Western Sumba, Eastern Indonesia.
From informal to formal in a decision making – creating a creative city centre
Abstract: In the paper the author deals with questions of creating a creative city within a revitalization process. In the first theoretical part, there are presented some general ideas of a world-wide understood creativity in cities. The author emphasizes the importance of a creative potential and intellectual powers of local community within a revitalization process. It is especially significant in the context of a city centre renewal which is a heart of a city and the most prestigious and valuable part of it. The introduction of a creativity in a general meaning of functions, architectural and urban forms and non-material and short-time events is a great opportunity for a city centre activization.
There is presented in a research part a case study of city centre of Poznan, a polish city in a Great Poland region. This part presents two aspects – some formal issues of decision making in polish conditions at a local level and some informal actions providing a creativy within a city. The author, as a scientist and a an academic teacher, undertake a lot of actions in order to examine a possibility of a creativity introduction to a centre of Poznan. In that part it is presented some work conducted in cooperation with Municipality and during the semester studies with students of Faculty of Architecture Poznan University of Technology.
The informal activities heading at an introduction of creative functions to a city centre is shown on an example of the research conducted with students. There is presented a methodology of a division of existing public spaces within a system of a city centre according to a possibility of a creativity potential to be developped. The author also presents some of her own experience in some informal and formal activities pomoting creativity in a renewal of a city centre.
The discussion is how informal can become formal and can have an influence on social and spatial activization of a city centre within a revitalization process. There are presented some undertakings in a field of creativity that took place in Poznan and the author of the paper took part in.
There is presented in a research part a case study of city centre of Poznan, a polish city in a Great Poland region. This part presents two aspects – some formal issues of decision making in polish conditions at a local level and some informal actions providing a creativy within a city. The author, as a scientist and a an academic teacher, undertake a lot of actions in order to examine a possibility of a creativity introduction to a centre of Poznan. In that part it is presented some work conducted in cooperation with Municipality and during the semester studies with students of Faculty of Architecture Poznan University of Technology.
The informal activities heading at an introduction of creative functions to a city centre is shown on an example of the research conducted with students. There is presented a methodology of a division of existing public spaces within a system of a city centre according to a possibility of a creativity potential to be developped. The author also presents some of her own experience in some informal and formal activities pomoting creativity in a renewal of a city centre.
The discussion is how informal can become formal and can have an influence on social and spatial activization of a city centre within a revitalization process. There are presented some undertakings in a field of creativity that took place in Poznan and the author of the paper took part in.
When formal becomes informal
Abstract: Contemporary city is a rapidly transforming organism whose main driving force is the people. Residents of the city are not only the city users but also the creators thus the city space must meet their expectations. Therefore, activities undertaken in an urban space must take into account a public interest. There must be provided favorable conditions for socio-economic development of a city. The participation of local community within a process of city renewal is essential so as to obtain approval for urban projects and to answer the needs of people. The participation is needed at all levels of designing spatial and social changes – from the first idea and vision creation to the implementation and use.
The public spaces are the most important elements of urban structure. They also have an impact on all the other city space parts. A harmonic development and proper use of all these elements is necessary to maintain a sustainable development of a city. The main problem of urban space development in polish conditions is that cities seem not to be very flexible in its functional and spatial structure so it is difficult to introduce the changes easily. As a result, polish cities do not answer the needs of the users and do not provide a proper space quality and living standard. One can witness a decline of the city space attractiveness and a public space degradation.
The revitalization of public space is extremely complicated, long-term and expensive process. In polish conditions, despite the fact that in theoretical aspect the programme of a renewal was prepared, the application is not fully succesful. One of the main reasons for this failure is the lack of emotional identity between the place and city users. The other reason is a lack of confidence in local authorities - on the one hand and overformalized procedures - on the other hand, are the major obstacles to the implementation of the conceptions of a city renewal. No corrective action undertaken by local authorities increases frustration among the people and even greater sense of helplessness. Fortunately, it many cases it is possible to work out a consensus and the to solve the burning issue. Then the theoretical idea takes real shape and is formalized by the fact of its existance in the public space.
Contemporary public spaces in order to cope with the expectations of modern society must be not only livable, convenient and safe but need to be inspiring. A particular play between a space and a city user seems to be a key element in creation of a place identity, because it is a completely informal action. It is like the infinity of possible scenarios, not close to the convention. Interactive elements of a public space equipment often become the main attraction and even the visual and material markers of a place. Therefore it is very important to combine such type of spatial equipment with the existing unbuilt and nuilt urban structure in all: spatial, functional and semantic meanings. The classification of the public space in the context of its possibility to introduce the interactive installation of different scales is the main subject of the article. The observations presented in the paper are based on the author's experiences in that field.
The public spaces are the most important elements of urban structure. They also have an impact on all the other city space parts. A harmonic development and proper use of all these elements is necessary to maintain a sustainable development of a city. The main problem of urban space development in polish conditions is that cities seem not to be very flexible in its functional and spatial structure so it is difficult to introduce the changes easily. As a result, polish cities do not answer the needs of the users and do not provide a proper space quality and living standard. One can witness a decline of the city space attractiveness and a public space degradation.
The revitalization of public space is extremely complicated, long-term and expensive process. In polish conditions, despite the fact that in theoretical aspect the programme of a renewal was prepared, the application is not fully succesful. One of the main reasons for this failure is the lack of emotional identity between the place and city users. The other reason is a lack of confidence in local authorities - on the one hand and overformalized procedures - on the other hand, are the major obstacles to the implementation of the conceptions of a city renewal. No corrective action undertaken by local authorities increases frustration among the people and even greater sense of helplessness. Fortunately, it many cases it is possible to work out a consensus and the to solve the burning issue. Then the theoretical idea takes real shape and is formalized by the fact of its existance in the public space.
Contemporary public spaces in order to cope with the expectations of modern society must be not only livable, convenient and safe but need to be inspiring. A particular play between a space and a city user seems to be a key element in creation of a place identity, because it is a completely informal action. It is like the infinity of possible scenarios, not close to the convention. Interactive elements of a public space equipment often become the main attraction and even the visual and material markers of a place. Therefore it is very important to combine such type of spatial equipment with the existing unbuilt and nuilt urban structure in all: spatial, functional and semantic meanings. The classification of the public space in the context of its possibility to introduce the interactive installation of different scales is the main subject of the article. The observations presented in the paper are based on the author's experiences in that field.
Disharmony in the Poznan city centre as a modus vivendi of a St. Martin street and the Imperial Castle
Abstract: The following paper is an excerpt of conducted by author research about the arts in the city. The main topic of a research is an obiecton as a tool of creation ansd social activization within the public spaces. The research is illustrated on a case study of a city of Poznan.
Poznan is one of the oldest Polish cities and the cradle of its statehood, together with Gniezno and Ostrow Lednicki. This is where the most important events took place within thousand years of a history of the old State of Polan and even the entire Central Europe. Unfortunately, the dynamic course of history hindered in maintaining many architectural objects and valuable pieces of art or technique which were the material confirmation of the importance and rank of those historical events.
The disadvantageous combination of political and economic events led to the loss of independence of the Polish Kingdom at the end of the eighteenth century. The Great Poland and a city of Poznan came under the Prussian rule. In the early twentieth century, there was erected in Poznan in the newly created district, the last imperial castle in Europe. It was built for emperor Wilhelm,. That was a material sign of imperial character of German domination on the Polish community in the Polish native city. The castle was built in a historical style.
At the end of the World War II, the top of the castle tower was totally destroyed.That was the part of a building that in the highest degree symbolized the power of the invader. The authorities of a reborning Polish state considered many options according to the castle future: from the destruction to the reshaping of a building, including a significant reduction of a tower height so as to adapt the architectural form a the castle to the nature of the existing urban tissue. One of the most significant and well-known conception of this restoration was a conceptual design by famous architect of that time - Roger Sławski.
Currently, there is a Cultural Centre in the former Imperial Castle. It serves as a center of culture and art in Poznan. Unfortunately, the St. Marcin street where the castle is located, is currently in decline in spatial and social meaning. Until the 90s of the twentieth century, this street used to be the most representative part of the city centre in terms of commercial offer and public services. One of the most important reasons of this decline is, in author's opinion, the fact that most of Adam Mickiewicz University faculties were removed to the campus located on the outskirts of Poznan.
The historical paradox of the Imperial Castle and the devaluation of its spatial surrounding, especially St. Martin street is a starting point for the author's research about the quality of public space within the Poznan city centre. The research focuses on the compositional networking of focal areas in the aesthetics aspects, especially in the context of the spatial artifacts that diharmonize the space. This spatial examination is conducted in order to seek proper proposals for implementation of obiectons in a Poznan city centre. The obiectons are defined by author as spatial forms generating cultural contents corresponding with the existing surrounding in a sensual way.
Obiectons are understood as spatial forms of cultural function. The proper form of obiecton is defined through the examination of the relationship with the existing context and a spatial dialogue with the place. The obiectons are understood as a form defined as a result of an acceptation of a different scale, form of art and social impact. They play a variable role and change the meaning in time and provide the unfinite possibility of interactivity with the viewer.
The following research is understood as a search for new forms of obiectons to be located in a public space of Poznan. The main purpose of the research is to examine the ideological connections between the existing architectural context and signs of the past in the meaning of their coexistance. The necessity of eliminating a disharmony between the built tissue of a spatial surrounding and an equipment in the city space. Obiectons are potential artistic and sociological chance to create a new identity and an important mean of communication between city residents and the city space.
Poznan is one of the oldest Polish cities and the cradle of its statehood, together with Gniezno and Ostrow Lednicki. This is where the most important events took place within thousand years of a history of the old State of Polan and even the entire Central Europe. Unfortunately, the dynamic course of history hindered in maintaining many architectural objects and valuable pieces of art or technique which were the material confirmation of the importance and rank of those historical events.
The disadvantageous combination of political and economic events led to the loss of independence of the Polish Kingdom at the end of the eighteenth century. The Great Poland and a city of Poznan came under the Prussian rule. In the early twentieth century, there was erected in Poznan in the newly created district, the last imperial castle in Europe. It was built for emperor Wilhelm,. That was a material sign of imperial character of German domination on the Polish community in the Polish native city. The castle was built in a historical style.
At the end of the World War II, the top of the castle tower was totally destroyed.That was the part of a building that in the highest degree symbolized the power of the invader. The authorities of a reborning Polish state considered many options according to the castle future: from the destruction to the reshaping of a building, including a significant reduction of a tower height so as to adapt the architectural form a the castle to the nature of the existing urban tissue. One of the most significant and well-known conception of this restoration was a conceptual design by famous architect of that time - Roger Sławski.
Currently, there is a Cultural Centre in the former Imperial Castle. It serves as a center of culture and art in Poznan. Unfortunately, the St. Marcin street where the castle is located, is currently in decline in spatial and social meaning. Until the 90s of the twentieth century, this street used to be the most representative part of the city centre in terms of commercial offer and public services. One of the most important reasons of this decline is, in author's opinion, the fact that most of Adam Mickiewicz University faculties were removed to the campus located on the outskirts of Poznan.
The historical paradox of the Imperial Castle and the devaluation of its spatial surrounding, especially St. Martin street is a starting point for the author's research about the quality of public space within the Poznan city centre. The research focuses on the compositional networking of focal areas in the aesthetics aspects, especially in the context of the spatial artifacts that diharmonize the space. This spatial examination is conducted in order to seek proper proposals for implementation of obiectons in a Poznan city centre. The obiectons are defined by author as spatial forms generating cultural contents corresponding with the existing surrounding in a sensual way.
Obiectons are understood as spatial forms of cultural function. The proper form of obiecton is defined through the examination of the relationship with the existing context and a spatial dialogue with the place. The obiectons are understood as a form defined as a result of an acceptation of a different scale, form of art and social impact. They play a variable role and change the meaning in time and provide the unfinite possibility of interactivity with the viewer.
The following research is understood as a search for new forms of obiectons to be located in a public space of Poznan. The main purpose of the research is to examine the ideological connections between the existing architectural context and signs of the past in the meaning of their coexistance. The necessity of eliminating a disharmony between the built tissue of a spatial surrounding and an equipment in the city space. Obiectons are potential artistic and sociological chance to create a new identity and an important mean of communication between city residents and the city space.
Living Bridges on The River Nile: A Vision to Enhance Urban Space Informality and Usage
Abstract: Bridges are prominent features of many landscapes, they are often justifiably called on to meet public objectives beyond their transportation function. Some of bridges sidewalks are subject to unplanned uses as well. The areas underneath some bridges have become makeshift shelters and homes to homeless people or unplanned urban spaces. Most cities have begun to pay attention to the landscape design of urban rivers and tried not only to protect the ecological environment but also provide a place of recreation for the public.
Over the past few decades in Egypt, much of the Nile's riverfront has been systematically occupied by an assortment of private projects, this unplanned privatization of the riverfront has physically, visually and symbolically separated the Nile from the general public. The best alternative for people who wants to enjoy the riverfront was to informally use bridges sidewalk and underneath as an unplanned urban spaces and sitting areas.
This paper will explore the term " Living Bridges ", and examine the different ways of informality in using the urban spaces adjacent to the waterfront bridges. Paper assumes that adapting creative solutions in using bridges sidewalk and underneath can solve many urban spaces informality problems, add visual value, and create more enjoyable spaces and functions on the waterfront,. To examine that, some important goals must be achieved through the research process:
- Evaluate some successful international examples of waterfront bridges in the world, and explore the most important lessons learned.
- Address the different informal types of uses on Cairo nile river bridges and its location.
- The conceptualization of possible solutions to re-use existing Bridges urban spaces to change it into vibrant and pleasant areas and not only as a way of connection.
Through the research process, the users will be involved in the evaluation and proposed solutions to engage the community and achieve more positive interactions.
Over the past few decades in Egypt, much of the Nile's riverfront has been systematically occupied by an assortment of private projects, this unplanned privatization of the riverfront has physically, visually and symbolically separated the Nile from the general public. The best alternative for people who wants to enjoy the riverfront was to informally use bridges sidewalk and underneath as an unplanned urban spaces and sitting areas.
This paper will explore the term " Living Bridges ", and examine the different ways of informality in using the urban spaces adjacent to the waterfront bridges. Paper assumes that adapting creative solutions in using bridges sidewalk and underneath can solve many urban spaces informality problems, add visual value, and create more enjoyable spaces and functions on the waterfront,. To examine that, some important goals must be achieved through the research process:
- Evaluate some successful international examples of waterfront bridges in the world, and explore the most important lessons learned.
- Address the different informal types of uses on Cairo nile river bridges and its location.
- The conceptualization of possible solutions to re-use existing Bridges urban spaces to change it into vibrant and pleasant areas and not only as a way of connection.
Through the research process, the users will be involved in the evaluation and proposed solutions to engage the community and achieve more positive interactions.
Public Facilities and the Poor’s Economic, Education and Health Benefit
Abstract: With the rapid growth of Indonesia urban development, poverty is globally moving into the cities. Few conditions that caused by poverty are: people who don’t have a sustainable access created slum area; almost everyday, cities are filled with vagrants and beggars; a large gap in education and health services between the rich and the poor; the formation of slum area caused by the population growth from the rapid flow of urbanization or migration. According to Jung et al, government expenditures for public facilities was purposed to eradicate poverty level in cities. However, the development of public facilities as one of city attractions can cause the migration of poor people to the cities. Dozen of public facilities like health, education, trade and open space gave attractions and opportunities for poor people multiplier effects. According to Klojen District Detailed Plan year 2010-2030, Klojen District is planned as the center for regional service for Malang urban area, East Java, Indonesia. Klojen District functioned as the center for education, trade, public service and public administration. This research used Geoda spatial regression to identify the relation between public facilities and the poor’s benefits. Using spatial regression, Moran’s I test and Local Indicator Spatial Autocorrelation (LISA), can be concluded that the condition of "neighbouring" public facilities has an effect on the poor benefits in another public facilities. Public facilities variables that correlate with the poor benefit are accessibility, capacity, sidewalk width and pavement, parking space, open space, lighting, security post and the number of visits.
Re-appropriation of Public Spaces In Isfahan, Iran
Abstract: In cities around the world, individuals/groups are creating a new way of using public spaces for living, working and playing. They are re-purposing abandoned buildings, transforming parking spaces of cities, or turning streets into a club or a theater. Public spaces become a practice place; they are being re-appropriated through visual or verbal tactics of the ordinary citizens. Instances of re-appropriated public spaces are new expressions to the notions of public spaces, and constitute new forms of citizenship or new forms of right to the city. However, currently case studies cover examples from the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, less attention given to Islamic countries, in particular, Iran. Therefore, this paper investigates the collective or individual intentions as well as intangible impacts of act of (re)appropriation of public spaces in Islamic society of Isfahan, Iran. Two instances of The Singing Bridge and Fire Jumping Rituals explores and demonstrates this significance in Islamic country of Iran, Isfahan. The first is to study re-appropriation practices through observation including photography and video-taping mapping when and where public users practice as well as how they re-appropriate public spaces. It then followed by conducting 40 qualitative semi-structure interviews to document history and motivations/original purposes of these actions.
Formal-Informal: Search in the urban productive dialogue Shaping the urban structure of Elagami area, Alexandria, Egypt
Abstract: Abstract
Cities council has been concerned for a long time in search of the best way to integrate the informal into the development process of Egyptian cities. The informal is a potential source of employment, economic activity and human resources that no developing economy can disregard or obviate.
The dialogue between formal and the informal is difficult, as they employ incompatible procedures and mechanisms. There is need however to try to work out of understanding and collaboration to foster the potential of both. The challenge is not only to add benefits but also to achieve a multiplier effect on the complementarity of both, using each of them such that they can better perform in the Egyptian context.
The dialogue between the formal and informal in the Egyptian spatial-physical realm cannot dismiss the informal economy as a causality factor of urban processes: the informal urban sector. In informality not only the informal economy or informal urban sector are relevant. The informal social phenomena and the informal governance processes are as relevant to understand the complex informal mechanisms.
This paper debating the spatial issues in urban context of Alexandria city as a metropolitan. Alexandria experiencing rapid urban growth in framework of weak institutional setting. It is the second largest city in Egypt, and in this paper focus in the specific place of Elagmi that placed the west of Alexandria city as very crowded district; formal-informal, tourism- residential uses, and rapid urbanization growth: harnessing and integrating the informal urban sector.
Cities council has been concerned for a long time in search of the best way to integrate the informal into the development process of Egyptian cities. The informal is a potential source of employment, economic activity and human resources that no developing economy can disregard or obviate.
The dialogue between formal and the informal is difficult, as they employ incompatible procedures and mechanisms. There is need however to try to work out of understanding and collaboration to foster the potential of both. The challenge is not only to add benefits but also to achieve a multiplier effect on the complementarity of both, using each of them such that they can better perform in the Egyptian context.
The dialogue between the formal and informal in the Egyptian spatial-physical realm cannot dismiss the informal economy as a causality factor of urban processes: the informal urban sector. In informality not only the informal economy or informal urban sector are relevant. The informal social phenomena and the informal governance processes are as relevant to understand the complex informal mechanisms.
This paper debating the spatial issues in urban context of Alexandria city as a metropolitan. Alexandria experiencing rapid urban growth in framework of weak institutional setting. It is the second largest city in Egypt, and in this paper focus in the specific place of Elagmi that placed the west of Alexandria city as very crowded district; formal-informal, tourism- residential uses, and rapid urbanization growth: harnessing and integrating the informal urban sector.
METRO RAIL TRANSPORT SYSTEM (MRTS) IN URBAN TRANSPORT PLANNING- A CASE STUDY
Abstract: OBJECTIVE
A large number of traffic planners, institutions and organizations are turning to MRTS, as a sustainable answer to the traffic hazards faced in urban environment . We analysed the feasibility of developing MRTS based traffic system in a well planned city of India.
METHODOLOGY
To elucidate the relation between feasibility of MRTS and technical parameters involved in its planning, we have selected the city of CHANDIGARH in INDIA, as a model to serve as a paradigm for illustrating the success of MRTS in solving these hazards
The technical parameters incorporated in the study include PEAK HOUR PER DIRECTION TRIPS (PHPDT), CITY BUS TRANSPORT SUPPLY INDEX (CBTSI), CONGESTION INDEX, TRIP LENGTH, WALKABILITY INDEX, PARKING SYSTEM ANALYSIS and POPULATION SIZE. Social & Economic factors and their consequent impacts have also been studied.
RESULTS
• The PHPDT value lies far outside the desirable range, not justifying for a MRTS.
• CBTSI value is very low, Congestion Index is ‘Zero’, and Walkability Index is highest for the city.
• Parking analysis reveals that construction of Metro will further add to the parking woes of the city.
• Presently, the Population Size of the City, is quite less than the required population needed for the succesful implementation of MRTS.
CONCLUSION
The results of the above mentioned study demonstrate that MRTS may not be the best feasible solution to Chandigarh, although local administration is going ahead for implementing MRTS for the Chandigarh City as per Rail India Technical and Economic Survey (R.I.T.E.S) report. The design of the city, its population size, architectural constraints, average ridership, per capita income and accessibility of the metro and other factors don’t justify MRTS for Chandigarh. The decision of the local administration might be to provide most modern transport system to the city residents, despite possible non-feasibility of MRTS for Chandigarh.
A large number of traffic planners, institutions and organizations are turning to MRTS, as a sustainable answer to the traffic hazards faced in urban environment . We analysed the feasibility of developing MRTS based traffic system in a well planned city of India.
METHODOLOGY
To elucidate the relation between feasibility of MRTS and technical parameters involved in its planning, we have selected the city of CHANDIGARH in INDIA, as a model to serve as a paradigm for illustrating the success of MRTS in solving these hazards
The technical parameters incorporated in the study include PEAK HOUR PER DIRECTION TRIPS (PHPDT), CITY BUS TRANSPORT SUPPLY INDEX (CBTSI), CONGESTION INDEX, TRIP LENGTH, WALKABILITY INDEX, PARKING SYSTEM ANALYSIS and POPULATION SIZE. Social & Economic factors and their consequent impacts have also been studied.
RESULTS
• The PHPDT value lies far outside the desirable range, not justifying for a MRTS.
• CBTSI value is very low, Congestion Index is ‘Zero’, and Walkability Index is highest for the city.
• Parking analysis reveals that construction of Metro will further add to the parking woes of the city.
• Presently, the Population Size of the City, is quite less than the required population needed for the succesful implementation of MRTS.
CONCLUSION
The results of the above mentioned study demonstrate that MRTS may not be the best feasible solution to Chandigarh, although local administration is going ahead for implementing MRTS for the Chandigarh City as per Rail India Technical and Economic Survey (R.I.T.E.S) report. The design of the city, its population size, architectural constraints, average ridership, per capita income and accessibility of the metro and other factors don’t justify MRTS for Chandigarh. The decision of the local administration might be to provide most modern transport system to the city residents, despite possible non-feasibility of MRTS for Chandigarh.
Unfolding the patterns of informality in the city of Queretaro (MX)
Abstract: Most spatio-morphological studies have centered their attention in what is known as the “formal” city. The form and evolution of this kind of development in Latin America have been ruled by political forces from the establishment of cities with the arrival of the Spanish. Even before that, the organisation of most of these Pre-hispanic settlements was ruled by cosmogonic forces: top-down processes. Bill Hillier calls them “cities of reproduction” because the main purpose underlying their structure is the reproduction of certain political or social structures. In the other hand, we find ancient European cities with organic origin and morphology, that is, they are guided by local rules of growth or bottom-up processes. Opposed to the last ones, these, as Hillier proposes, are “cities of production” because the underlying structure is economic transaction through social interaction.
This work explores the urban structure of a third kind of settlement, way less explored than the other ones, the so-called informal or irregular settlements in the city of Querétaro. This is done by means of the analysis of their urban, morphological and spatial patterns, to find that, even when they are within the vicinity of “formal” Latin American cities, their structure corresponds to that of cities of production, reinforcing social interaction and economic transaction spontaneously at the local scale. The contribution of this places against contemporary deurbanism is also discussed.
This work explores the urban structure of a third kind of settlement, way less explored than the other ones, the so-called informal or irregular settlements in the city of Querétaro. This is done by means of the analysis of their urban, morphological and spatial patterns, to find that, even when they are within the vicinity of “formal” Latin American cities, their structure corresponds to that of cities of production, reinforcing social interaction and economic transaction spontaneously at the local scale. The contribution of this places against contemporary deurbanism is also discussed.
The Dynamic Use of the Linear Urban Spaces, with Special Reference to Cairo, Egypt
Abstract: The growth pattern of giant cities in developing countries is distinct and very special, yet not identical. Its gigantic structure contains many informal urban areas. During its growth course, it engulfs many adjacent urban villages, while still retaining definite urban characteristics. This growth pattern engenders an unceasing challenge for urban planners and urban designers during their course of trying to homogenize this titanic urban environment on all levels.
One of the challenges is creating and designing linear urban spaces with a preliminary use of connecting urban areas for dynamic interdependence essential for the vitality of the city. These urban spaces inherit the physical and non-physical problems of the contiguous informal urban areas throughout its path. Here the problems are revealed. Always, informal urban areas suffer from a high-density population, with a lack of urban spaces to accommodate social, commercial and recreational activities. When these congested urban areas are served by and exposed to this type of linear vast urban spaces, the opportunity of creating many customary and out of the ordinary outdoor activities occurs. Desperate communities don’t waste this opportunity.
This paper documents and analyzes the dynamic use of one of the most interesting and vibrant linear urban spaces in Greater Cairo, Egypt (El-Bahr El-Azam road). It debates the phenomena of functional and urban deterioration of linear urban spaces adjacent to congested formal and informal urban areas. The paper also discusses the opportunities of adapting those types of urban spaces to be responsive to community needs.
One of the challenges is creating and designing linear urban spaces with a preliminary use of connecting urban areas for dynamic interdependence essential for the vitality of the city. These urban spaces inherit the physical and non-physical problems of the contiguous informal urban areas throughout its path. Here the problems are revealed. Always, informal urban areas suffer from a high-density population, with a lack of urban spaces to accommodate social, commercial and recreational activities. When these congested urban areas are served by and exposed to this type of linear vast urban spaces, the opportunity of creating many customary and out of the ordinary outdoor activities occurs. Desperate communities don’t waste this opportunity.
This paper documents and analyzes the dynamic use of one of the most interesting and vibrant linear urban spaces in Greater Cairo, Egypt (El-Bahr El-Azam road). It debates the phenomena of functional and urban deterioration of linear urban spaces adjacent to congested formal and informal urban areas. The paper also discusses the opportunities of adapting those types of urban spaces to be responsive to community needs.
SOCIAL PRACTICES IN HOUSING INTERMEDIATE OUTDOOR SPACES Between formal design and informal use. Case of study: Mass housing in Algeria.
Abstract: The residential area has always been the support of life and practices related to perceptions of its inhabitants. The match between practices and conceptual qualities of the space was not always assured, especially in collective (mass) housing. Products of emergency’s situation experienced by Algeria after independance, the intermediate outdoor spaces attended mainly to the use of the name of "dormitory" and participated on affecting the satisfaction of residents to their housing estates.
To identify the characteristics of the intermediate outdoor space that influence on inhabitant’s satisfaction and their social practices, the study is based on an approach involving the opinion of the people at the center of interest. By using a scientific survey based on: observation of behaviors and practices within the intermediate outdoor space, its evaluation using an analytical model developed on the basis of specific criteria (from specialised literature) and finally, the questionnaire to understand people’s perception.
The study proposes a remedy to the structural rigidity of the intermediate outdoor space by redefining (acting or operating) on its boundaries and hierarchy, thus its different components to promote aspects of social interaction, sense of community, control and appropriation of space and to respond (meet) to specific needs of different groups space users. The regulation of complementary activities and the establishment of a participatory multidisciplinary formal production of mass housing with other suggestions seem to be possible solutions to the problems raised.
To identify the characteristics of the intermediate outdoor space that influence on inhabitant’s satisfaction and their social practices, the study is based on an approach involving the opinion of the people at the center of interest. By using a scientific survey based on: observation of behaviors and practices within the intermediate outdoor space, its evaluation using an analytical model developed on the basis of specific criteria (from specialised literature) and finally, the questionnaire to understand people’s perception.
The study proposes a remedy to the structural rigidity of the intermediate outdoor space by redefining (acting or operating) on its boundaries and hierarchy, thus its different components to promote aspects of social interaction, sense of community, control and appropriation of space and to respond (meet) to specific needs of different groups space users. The regulation of complementary activities and the establishment of a participatory multidisciplinary formal production of mass housing with other suggestions seem to be possible solutions to the problems raised.
Informality as unsustainable dystopia, and imperatives for a paradigm shift in planning
Abstract: This paper contends that, informality in all its conceptualizations in the scholarly and empirical literature, and in spite of all the arguments made in its favor, denotes a phenomenon that is increasingly undermining governmental efforts to make cities livable, safe and sustainable. More specifically from an environmental design perspective, informality is simply 'unsustainable dystopia' and its self-perpetration in cities has become a tragedy of the commons and a direct and dangerous threat to the public interest. The paper advocates a paradigm shift in the way that governments address informality as an unavoidable reality. Policies and programs must shift from current social and human welfare-oriented approaches that sympathetically react to informality to strategic spatial planning and integration initiatives that proactively address the causalities of informality. Citing examples from cities in both developing and developed countries, specific imperatives for the shift in paradigm will be discussed. The paper will conclude by arguing that the advocated shift in planning paradigm will help societies accentuate the potentials of informality while limiting its liabilities.
Informal Economy as a necesary condition for contemporary accumulation patterns.
Abstract: The incorporation of the notion of "Informal Employment", introduced by the ILO to widen the classic idea of "Informal Sector", and the resulting drift toward a concept of "Informal Economy", had serious theoretical consequences in the study of a phenomenon that since the 1970s was exclusively associated with marginality, backward traditional activities or activities that had been excluded from the processes of productive modernization.
Although this vision has enabled the observation of the phenomenon focusing on the employment conditions, particularly with respect to social and labor protection, its inclusion causes a range of theoretical and analytical difficulties that should be addressed and necessarily solved in order to avoid blurring the concept in two set of indicators with no relation to each other, in which case the Informal Economy would not be an explanatory element in itself.
On which aspect does the conceptual unity of the Informal Economy lie? What do the Informal Sector and the Informal Employment have in common? When we talk about informality, are we talking about a traditional phenomenon, associated to lack of modernization? Is it one related to recent transformations in labor, such as work flexibility and the deregulation of labor and market? The search for the conceptual unity of informality necessarily implies finding it in this contradiction, between the supposedly traditional-backward and the emerging, learning whether there is a true distance between them or, on the contrary, an organic interweaving of the forms of capitalist production.
Inquiring into this contradictory relation must be done through the analysis of the current production relations and the international organization of labor, where the Informal Economy is materially linked to Formal Economy. Here, it is essential to analyze the phenomena of the articulation of national and international value chains as well as the outsourcing and offshoring processes which establish themselves as the nodes articulating the formal and the informal world.
This analysis is carried out within the context of an analysis of the current models of development in Latin America and the accumulation patterns supporting them. It is suggested that this phenomenon should be understood as an example of "Accumulation by Dispossession" where the Informal Economy and its social and economic consequences become a general pattern in the global capitalism.
Although this vision has enabled the observation of the phenomenon focusing on the employment conditions, particularly with respect to social and labor protection, its inclusion causes a range of theoretical and analytical difficulties that should be addressed and necessarily solved in order to avoid blurring the concept in two set of indicators with no relation to each other, in which case the Informal Economy would not be an explanatory element in itself.
On which aspect does the conceptual unity of the Informal Economy lie? What do the Informal Sector and the Informal Employment have in common? When we talk about informality, are we talking about a traditional phenomenon, associated to lack of modernization? Is it one related to recent transformations in labor, such as work flexibility and the deregulation of labor and market? The search for the conceptual unity of informality necessarily implies finding it in this contradiction, between the supposedly traditional-backward and the emerging, learning whether there is a true distance between them or, on the contrary, an organic interweaving of the forms of capitalist production.
Inquiring into this contradictory relation must be done through the analysis of the current production relations and the international organization of labor, where the Informal Economy is materially linked to Formal Economy. Here, it is essential to analyze the phenomena of the articulation of national and international value chains as well as the outsourcing and offshoring processes which establish themselves as the nodes articulating the formal and the informal world.
This analysis is carried out within the context of an analysis of the current models of development in Latin America and the accumulation patterns supporting them. It is suggested that this phenomenon should be understood as an example of "Accumulation by Dispossession" where the Informal Economy and its social and economic consequences become a general pattern in the global capitalism.
Informal meets formal: theoretical and practical implications of the criminal nexus of asylum policy regimes
Abstract: This paper arises as a theoretical review of concepts surrounding human mobility related issues and contrasting those with an institutionalist approach. Highlithing the fluidity of the frontiers between the formal and the informal, the legal and the illegal, the licit and the illicit (Telles: 2009), we propose an analysis of those concepts applied to urban refugees as a group highly vulnerable to human trafficking (UNHCR, 2001). The urban context added complexity to existent social networks, engendering new forms of sociability that were empowered by the globalization interconectivity. In this new context, the traditional paradigms of knowledge were resignified. Traditional institutionalist approach takes for granted that the absence of the state generates the informality; nevertheless, in this paper we affirm the precise opposite: it’s not the lack of institutional actions or state policies that determine the existence or even the intensity of such practices. In fact, the inconstancy of the frontiers mentioned above allows the contact between these two poles, transforming this contact in a dynamics that affects both categories and actions of each side. The origin of such critique comes from the analysis of the Brazilian urban refugees case in which international smugglers instrumentalize the legal/formal refugee status concession apparatus to (1) profit from the asylum seeker state’s imanent vulnerability to empathize authorities and (2) take the bureaucratic waiting process to access the ultimate objective, that is to be trafficked to other countries. Hence, in this case, the pursuit of a formal refugee status is not the end but the means to land into the informal human Market with non-intentional formal support.
Planning and Informality - A Case of Street Vending Activities in Delhi, India
Abstract: Planning documents in the form of master plans and other statutory documents are generally criticized for their being exclusionary to activities considered ‘informal’. With Delhi, India as a case study, which as per various estimates has three to five lakh (0.3-0.5 million) street vendors, was perhaps the first city in India which had a statutory planning document that in 1990 incorporated detail provisions for street vending linked to various uses in the city particularly the formal commercial activities in the city. It would appear that introduction of planning provisions of informal activities in the statutory planning document has largely gone unacknowledged by the local urban bodies as well as the non-governmental organisations in the city.
In the latest revision of the plan notified in 2007, these provisions, influenced by NGO-led national level policy discourse on street vending, have been revised and seem to have been diluted particularly in its relation to the formal commercial spaces in the city. The idea of various options of commercial spaces from a small kiosk to large shops appears to have been lost in the revised plan prepared in the context of wider urban reforms. This paper begins with review of the statutory planning document for the city to understand the nature of planning provisions for ‘informal activities’ in the last two revisions of the plan i.e. 1990 and 2007 and the nature of representation of these spaces in these documents.
Second part of the paper, through a detail case study of a selected vending areas examines the implementation of provisions for such spaces in a city. Much of the street vending activity with its location on the footpaths conflicts with the requirements of the pedestrains to walk on the footpaths. This paper studies the role of different actors; central ministry, courts, local bodies, professionals, non governmental organisations, street vendors in finding a resolution to the conflict.
In the latest revision of the plan notified in 2007, these provisions, influenced by NGO-led national level policy discourse on street vending, have been revised and seem to have been diluted particularly in its relation to the formal commercial spaces in the city. The idea of various options of commercial spaces from a small kiosk to large shops appears to have been lost in the revised plan prepared in the context of wider urban reforms. This paper begins with review of the statutory planning document for the city to understand the nature of planning provisions for ‘informal activities’ in the last two revisions of the plan i.e. 1990 and 2007 and the nature of representation of these spaces in these documents.
Second part of the paper, through a detail case study of a selected vending areas examines the implementation of provisions for such spaces in a city. Much of the street vending activity with its location on the footpaths conflicts with the requirements of the pedestrains to walk on the footpaths. This paper studies the role of different actors; central ministry, courts, local bodies, professionals, non governmental organisations, street vendors in finding a resolution to the conflict.
Transgressing the Consumption Culture: A Comparative Case Study on Informal Services in Mexico and Brazil
Abstract: From knife sharpeners, to mechanics and cobblers, informal services aimed at repairing goods rather than producing them are to be found in great numbers across Mexico and Brazil. With their labour these men and women elongate the life of a good, postponing its disposal and the possible consumption of a replacement. By generating value outside the production chain, these services create a space to transgress the culture of consumption. Bridging theoretical contributions from cultural studies and political economy, this paper argues that the reparation of damaged goods as a service within the informal economy serves as a form of resistance against the consumption based economy. Taking into account the fact that this is an innovative approach to understand informality and culture in the context of Latin America, this academic contribution borrows from ethnographic works and primary empirical evidence its grounds to develop the aforementioned argument. Accordingly, this paper intends to bring an anthropological perspective to understand local dynamics of resistance against the global political and cultural phenomena of mass consumption.
ADVANTAGE OF LIDAR PROLIFILING IN IRREGULAR SETTLEMENT
Abstract: The demand for new housing for low income families in Brazil amounts to 7.2 million and approximately 80% is concentrated in the urban areas, according to the Ministry of Cities.The informal settlements compete with despised areas by the Real Estate Market, either due to environmental related restrictions and / or constructive restrictions. The result is ever-increasing population who constitute the slopes, wetlands or mangroves as appropriate to installresidences. This research aims the classification of buildings subject tolandslide risk. The study area is the irregular settlement known as Cafezal cluster in Belo Horizonte. The study includes the innovative profiling laser sensor for digital modeling of the physical surface. Sensor embedded onto an aircraft enables significant advances in relation to the knowledge of the behavior of the topography compared with aerial photographs. Due to the shading, the chaotic and difficult access to the buildings spatial arrangement does not pose obstacles that made aerial images vulnerable. The method can be divided into three steps: 1. selection and collection of relevant digital orthophotos to the study area; 2. polygon of the area critical to the landslides risk is traced in the sequence;3. From the collection of the Cafezal Cluster orthophotos is highlighted the contours and intricacies of the buildings in the ArcGIS application. This measure has firm intention to update the basemap of the settlement and hence obtain the space parameter. It may sound trite, but the settlements, unlike the formal grid of most Brazilian cities the buildings are not treated individually but as a group, spatially represented by a polygon; 4. Finally in parallel, a routine in Matlab application platform compares the geographic location of the villa with the patterned surface and other physical parameters of important geological character for the classification (high, medium or moderate).This measure serves to outline a preliminary script for C + +programming , it includes features of the graphical interface application that Matlab does not reach. Furthermore, the technique with latest generation mechanisms in spatial data analysis is the main component for urban management renowned and shared in several countries.Although far from the scope, the results make the administrators of the Municipality of Belo Horizonte think of solutions and projects, even as technique subsidy in the resources guarantee from the National Fund for Social Housing (Fundo Nacional de Habitação de Interesse Social - FNHIS). Furthermore, there is a federal law - N° 11.124 of 2005 which states in its art. 12, that the states and municipalities when adhering to the National System for Social Housing, are committed to elaborate their Local Plans for Social Housing(Planos Locais de Habitação de Interesse Social – PLHIS). These projects, among others, aims at promoting the land tenure regularization which urbanize 70% of the settlements or putting them in the urbanization process by the end of 2016.
Promotion of best practices in Self-Help housing in Colombia. Acknowledging realities and overcoming paradigms.
Abstract: Informal housing production in Colombia, the most common way for poor population to guarantee a place to live, has been shaping the urban landscape of the major cities in this country. Several authors claim that between 20 and 50 percent of the homes located in the main cities of Colombia were built informally, many of them by their owners, without the compliance of constructive or urban regulation. Amidst this scenario arise various concerns that are, first, the possible recognition of the social practices of self-production and upgrading of informal housing as an alternative to reduce the housing deficit, and consequently, the evaluation of the constructive, comfort and vulnerability conditions of this type of construction, and secondly, the reflection and design of strategies, from different social sectors and from different areas of knowledge, to address this issue.
In this regard, two years ago the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation - SWISSCONTACT has been operating, in Bogota and other cities of Colombia, a program that has focused on the design and implementation of new projects with direct impact on the upgrading of Self-Help houses located in slums. As part of this work, SWISSCONTACT have developed various studies focused on the characterization of informal housing in issues as structural resistance, livability and sustainability, which have served as a framework for the implementation of training programs to various stakeholders (construction workers, owners, and construction material sellers) in order to improve the social practices surrounding the self-help housing. This exercise has had the participation of various consultants and support organizations, as La Salle University, and at this time, after its first phase of implementation, is in a process of evaluation and feedback for its improvement.
This work presents a summary of this process in order to socialize the lessons obtained, based on the following objectives: i. Characterize the field of informal housing production in Bogota, ii. Identify and analyze the different constructive practices present in informal sectors of Bogota, iii. Define new forms of intervention to improve self-help housing conditions iv. Present conclusions and contributions about the design of new strategies for intervention in slums.
In this regard, two years ago the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation - SWISSCONTACT has been operating, in Bogota and other cities of Colombia, a program that has focused on the design and implementation of new projects with direct impact on the upgrading of Self-Help houses located in slums. As part of this work, SWISSCONTACT have developed various studies focused on the characterization of informal housing in issues as structural resistance, livability and sustainability, which have served as a framework for the implementation of training programs to various stakeholders (construction workers, owners, and construction material sellers) in order to improve the social practices surrounding the self-help housing. This exercise has had the participation of various consultants and support organizations, as La Salle University, and at this time, after its first phase of implementation, is in a process of evaluation and feedback for its improvement.
This work presents a summary of this process in order to socialize the lessons obtained, based on the following objectives: i. Characterize the field of informal housing production in Bogota, ii. Identify and analyze the different constructive practices present in informal sectors of Bogota, iii. Define new forms of intervention to improve self-help housing conditions iv. Present conclusions and contributions about the design of new strategies for intervention in slums.
Homeless in South Florida: Living on the streets in portable informal shelters.
Abstract: ABSTRACT:
The problem of inadequate housing has been reaching colossal proportions. In many developing countries, the informal settlements can be considered a solution for inhabitants unable to afford a formal shelter. However, in the most developed countries, the possibilities to invade land and build informal settlements are very limited due to government regulation. Developing countries promote the use of provisional shelters and other programs for their homeless population, but unfortunately not all homeless populations are provided these or any other options. The homeless population typology has been changing in the last 20 years. Whereas they consisted mainly of single, addicted men and many with psychological problems, who preferred the freedom of living on the streets, they now include families. In the case of South Florida, the tropical climate allows for a relatively comfortable life in the outdoors if shade is provided; hence many homeless from the northern areas of United States prefer to live in the Sunshine state, at list during the winter months. originated, their spatial distribution, the length of time they had lived on the streets, and finally their own housing satisfaction. A comparison between the cities is represented.
Keeping their possessions in shopping carts some of the homeless collect discarded elements that they recycle to either sell or use as materials to create improvised shelters used mainly at night for privacy and protection from the elements. The intent of this paper is to report the results of surveys and interviews with a group of homeless concentrated in the downtown region of the cities of Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The empirical survey aimed to ascertain from where homeless
The paper offers examples of small portable shelters, which were designed and built, during the past three years, by architecture students of The School of Design and Social Inquiry at Florida Atlantic University to be donated to homeless. The use of portable shelters is complicated in that it raises issues of social standing and dignity. The government must implement plans to provide the homeless an alternative to living on the street along with the services necessary to rehabilitate their lives. Although the portable shelters designed by the students will not solve homelessness problems, the intervention is an experiment that can temporarily improve the wellbeing of those that are homeless during a limited time period Additional research is needed to identify better ways to deliver proper housing to this population group.
The problem of inadequate housing has been reaching colossal proportions. In many developing countries, the informal settlements can be considered a solution for inhabitants unable to afford a formal shelter. However, in the most developed countries, the possibilities to invade land and build informal settlements are very limited due to government regulation. Developing countries promote the use of provisional shelters and other programs for their homeless population, but unfortunately not all homeless populations are provided these or any other options. The homeless population typology has been changing in the last 20 years. Whereas they consisted mainly of single, addicted men and many with psychological problems, who preferred the freedom of living on the streets, they now include families. In the case of South Florida, the tropical climate allows for a relatively comfortable life in the outdoors if shade is provided; hence many homeless from the northern areas of United States prefer to live in the Sunshine state, at list during the winter months. originated, their spatial distribution, the length of time they had lived on the streets, and finally their own housing satisfaction. A comparison between the cities is represented.
Keeping their possessions in shopping carts some of the homeless collect discarded elements that they recycle to either sell or use as materials to create improvised shelters used mainly at night for privacy and protection from the elements. The intent of this paper is to report the results of surveys and interviews with a group of homeless concentrated in the downtown region of the cities of Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The empirical survey aimed to ascertain from where homeless
The paper offers examples of small portable shelters, which were designed and built, during the past three years, by architecture students of The School of Design and Social Inquiry at Florida Atlantic University to be donated to homeless. The use of portable shelters is complicated in that it raises issues of social standing and dignity. The government must implement plans to provide the homeless an alternative to living on the street along with the services necessary to rehabilitate their lives. Although the portable shelters designed by the students will not solve homelessness problems, the intervention is an experiment that can temporarily improve the wellbeing of those that are homeless during a limited time period Additional research is needed to identify better ways to deliver proper housing to this population group.
“Suburban Re-structuring and Dense Agglomeration Resilience in the midst of the ‘Ethnocity’: The case of Miami's Cuban community 'Unrooting' and the Foreclosure Crisis” *
Abstract: In June of 2001, Time Magazine described Miami as the “capital of Latin America” and “a laboratory for the U.S. - if not the Americas - of a new kind of city in terms of international business and ethnicity." Miami-Dade had - by then - become the largest metropolitan area in the US with a Hispanic majority. The country as a whole is following this trend: by 2003, Latinos [have] surpassed African Americans as the largest minority population in the United States, and over the years 2000 to 2010, Latino population growth accounted for approximately half of the country’s overall growth.
The financial and mortgage crisis, onset from 2008 through very recently, has created tremendous upheaval in the midst of Latino migrant communities in Miami, and the mortgage crunch propelled Miami-Dade County to be the third most-affected city in foreclosures rates in the nation. Throughout the years of more available housing purchase credit, the typical arrangement for families of immigrant extraction (i.e. Cuban, Nicaraguan, Colombian); was to acquire property massively in series, sometimes on the same street, or very nearby each other, within a particular city/neighborhood. In this sense the family spatial structure was maintained due to the proximity of the dwellings, allowing for a sense of community and/or family ethnic enclave. The consequences of the foreclosing crisis has been the re-appropriation on the part of the Banks of selected properties from the individual ownerships composing the family housing structure, as they go unpaid in their mortgages, due to the increasing unemployment and/or the business economical decline. Progressively and as the houses/properties are lost to the Bank expropriation one by one, the family moves around onto the next houses/properties still being saved from foreclosure, and progressively the family structure gets reduced to one house/dwelling (as the last resource of keeping an active roof over), while density at one dwelling and overcrowding increases.
The immediate result of such dense agglomeration in one dwelling leads to informal transformations of usable non-living spaces (i.e. garages, back porch, sun room); into new dwelling spaces for incoming relatives. Local municipalities, incurring high fines, deem these transformations illegal, but they become more and more recurrent in the present financial-strained context. The suburb is not only re-structuring, but also increasing its density due to these urban and economic phenomena.
In this sense, the suburb communities become authentic ‘ghost towns’ with entire streets devoid of inhabitants, while only one or two houses become the hosting spaces of the entire former family spatial structure in the neighborhood. It is in this particular case, that the ‘American Dream’ of numerous migrants arriving in Miami into the center of a hosting familiar structure, and in search of a better life prospect; has been ‘unrooted’ from their original hosting spatial structure, which was allowed and nurtured in the past by the easier access to property and cheap mortgage credit.
The paper not only intends to examine the particulars of this phenomenon, but to also to evaluate the aspect of urban resilience in the specific context of multinational migration, and how this changes the patterns of city growth, demographics and density, in the midst of a growing ‘informalization’ of urban practices produced by the phenomenon of cultural derivation through Hispanic migration and patterns or urban ethnicity.
* The concepts of Ethnocity and Ethnospace has been named as part of an in-progress PhD dissertation: ‘Fractal City’ or New Babylon? Urban geographies of multiculturalism and the 'Ethnocity', at the Department of Urban Geography, Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in Barcelona, Spain.
The financial and mortgage crisis, onset from 2008 through very recently, has created tremendous upheaval in the midst of Latino migrant communities in Miami, and the mortgage crunch propelled Miami-Dade County to be the third most-affected city in foreclosures rates in the nation. Throughout the years of more available housing purchase credit, the typical arrangement for families of immigrant extraction (i.e. Cuban, Nicaraguan, Colombian); was to acquire property massively in series, sometimes on the same street, or very nearby each other, within a particular city/neighborhood. In this sense the family spatial structure was maintained due to the proximity of the dwellings, allowing for a sense of community and/or family ethnic enclave. The consequences of the foreclosing crisis has been the re-appropriation on the part of the Banks of selected properties from the individual ownerships composing the family housing structure, as they go unpaid in their mortgages, due to the increasing unemployment and/or the business economical decline. Progressively and as the houses/properties are lost to the Bank expropriation one by one, the family moves around onto the next houses/properties still being saved from foreclosure, and progressively the family structure gets reduced to one house/dwelling (as the last resource of keeping an active roof over), while density at one dwelling and overcrowding increases.
The immediate result of such dense agglomeration in one dwelling leads to informal transformations of usable non-living spaces (i.e. garages, back porch, sun room); into new dwelling spaces for incoming relatives. Local municipalities, incurring high fines, deem these transformations illegal, but they become more and more recurrent in the present financial-strained context. The suburb is not only re-structuring, but also increasing its density due to these urban and economic phenomena.
In this sense, the suburb communities become authentic ‘ghost towns’ with entire streets devoid of inhabitants, while only one or two houses become the hosting spaces of the entire former family spatial structure in the neighborhood. It is in this particular case, that the ‘American Dream’ of numerous migrants arriving in Miami into the center of a hosting familiar structure, and in search of a better life prospect; has been ‘unrooted’ from their original hosting spatial structure, which was allowed and nurtured in the past by the easier access to property and cheap mortgage credit.
The paper not only intends to examine the particulars of this phenomenon, but to also to evaluate the aspect of urban resilience in the specific context of multinational migration, and how this changes the patterns of city growth, demographics and density, in the midst of a growing ‘informalization’ of urban practices produced by the phenomenon of cultural derivation through Hispanic migration and patterns or urban ethnicity.
* The concepts of Ethnocity and Ethnospace has been named as part of an in-progress PhD dissertation: ‘Fractal City’ or New Babylon? Urban geographies of multiculturalism and the 'Ethnocity', at the Department of Urban Geography, Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in Barcelona, Spain.
Informal Public Open Spaces designed by water
Abstract: “Although the process of formalization is the dominant trend in modern social life, informality is the essential element in constructing trust relationships and, thus, in any cooperative arrangement aimed at improving the quality of life. [...] Only a society that achieves an optimal balance between informality and formality of interactional practices is in position to create the conditions to cooperation and innovation»1.
Water has accompanied both man’s life and landscape conformation, setting the rhythm of their changes and evolution and answering practical and symbolic needs. In this way it became an element of comunication or separation, means of defense but also possible source of danger.
Life and man cannot be without it yet they need to protect themselves from it.
Water thanks to its nature becomes promoter of human relations and artifice of different places (dockings along sea or river borders, terrace on water, places for recreation, places for rest, pauses inside cities...). If on one hand its role of basic common good has always been recognized, in modern times even entering everyday life on an individual level, on the other the presence of water in public open space, that in the beginning of the past century was regarded more as a threat and an obstacle to city expansion, losing its old aggregative and social character, nowadays it becomes renovating resource for urban requalification re-considering, re-interpreting and re-inventing its presence.
This new role is assigned to water because it’s able to ignite unique possibilities of relation and use linked mainly, but not only, to evocative and symbolic qualities and also to functional and ludic values of this extraordinary element, since interacting with water it’s an informal and collective activity.
Architectural elements of the project in contact with water aren’t really answering to a function but to an use/experience that man can have with it. The design of these elements changes the use of space and consequently the way to live places of the cities, offering new possibilities linked to an informality made by the presence of this element.
If in architecture the use of water as actual construction material is clear (as Carlo Scarpa2 used it), grasping its potential gets more difficult when it becomes actively part of the space3 entrusted to the architectural design that will shape its features providing it with an informality that is necessary to render the place inhabitable and inhabitated.
1. Barbara A. Misztal. 1999. Informality: Social Theory and Contemporary Practice. London: Biddles Ltd.
«Scarpa lavorava l'acqua, lavorava la luce, lavorava le superfici dei soffitti a stucco lucido con piani fra loro inclinati per ottenere un certo riverbero dovuto al movimento della luce e dell'acqua e all'intersezione dei piani»
2. R. Giovanardi, Carlo Scarpa e l'acqua, Cicero, Venezia, 2006. [Scarpa worked water, worked light, worked ceiling surfaces with polished plaster thanks to inclined planes, to obtaine some reverb due to light and water movement and to intersection of planes] Author translation.
3. (Raum): «it’s acting-and making space that speaks in the word space. This means to make a clearing, to consolidate. To make space brings freedom, openness for man to settle in and live in [...] to make space is to make a free gift of places. It is a happening that speaks and is hidden at the same time in making space» Heidegger, M., (1969). Die kunst der Raum, St. Gallen: Erker Verlag. (trad. It. Heidegger, M. (2000). L’arte e lo spazio. Genova: Il nuovo melangolo.
Water has accompanied both man’s life and landscape conformation, setting the rhythm of their changes and evolution and answering practical and symbolic needs. In this way it became an element of comunication or separation, means of defense but also possible source of danger.
Life and man cannot be without it yet they need to protect themselves from it.
Water thanks to its nature becomes promoter of human relations and artifice of different places (dockings along sea or river borders, terrace on water, places for recreation, places for rest, pauses inside cities...). If on one hand its role of basic common good has always been recognized, in modern times even entering everyday life on an individual level, on the other the presence of water in public open space, that in the beginning of the past century was regarded more as a threat and an obstacle to city expansion, losing its old aggregative and social character, nowadays it becomes renovating resource for urban requalification re-considering, re-interpreting and re-inventing its presence.
This new role is assigned to water because it’s able to ignite unique possibilities of relation and use linked mainly, but not only, to evocative and symbolic qualities and also to functional and ludic values of this extraordinary element, since interacting with water it’s an informal and collective activity.
Architectural elements of the project in contact with water aren’t really answering to a function but to an use/experience that man can have with it. The design of these elements changes the use of space and consequently the way to live places of the cities, offering new possibilities linked to an informality made by the presence of this element.
If in architecture the use of water as actual construction material is clear (as Carlo Scarpa2 used it), grasping its potential gets more difficult when it becomes actively part of the space3 entrusted to the architectural design that will shape its features providing it with an informality that is necessary to render the place inhabitable and inhabitated.
1. Barbara A. Misztal. 1999. Informality: Social Theory and Contemporary Practice. London: Biddles Ltd.
«Scarpa lavorava l'acqua, lavorava la luce, lavorava le superfici dei soffitti a stucco lucido con piani fra loro inclinati per ottenere un certo riverbero dovuto al movimento della luce e dell'acqua e all'intersezione dei piani»
2. R. Giovanardi, Carlo Scarpa e l'acqua, Cicero, Venezia, 2006. [Scarpa worked water, worked light, worked ceiling surfaces with polished plaster thanks to inclined planes, to obtaine some reverb due to light and water movement and to intersection of planes] Author translation.
3. (Raum): «it’s acting-and making space that speaks in the word space. This means to make a clearing, to consolidate. To make space brings freedom, openness for man to settle in and live in [...] to make space is to make a free gift of places. It is a happening that speaks and is hidden at the same time in making space» Heidegger, M., (1969). Die kunst der Raum, St. Gallen: Erker Verlag. (trad. It. Heidegger, M. (2000). L’arte e lo spazio. Genova: Il nuovo melangolo.
Manifold Vicissitudes: discerning effects of liberalization on natural, built and social landscapes through the case of malad, mumbai
Abstract: This paper looks at the radical alterations caused by neoliberalization on ways of living, built form and natural landscapes through the case of Malad, a suburb in Mumbai.
Upto the 1990s, Malad was a nondescript suburb in Mumbai consisting of a fishing village and housing for an ethnically diverse middle class. It became an ideal location for various forms of development because of relatively low real estate rates coupled with strong connectivity by rail to the remainder of the city. The landscape of Malad became speckled with call centers and malls. The service industry of call centers was outsourced mainly from USA and malls were introduced as havens of consumerism. Glass and steel structures for these functions were built on a garbage dump that was hitherto ramming shifty marshland. The emergence of these impacted not only the environment, but also led to changes in built form and social structures.
These changes are being discerned by shadowing call center workers, a new demographical addition to the area. Their spaces of work, rest, leisure and consumption are being explored to shed light on additions and transformations in housing, infrastructure and amenities.
This research has led to seemingly distinct findings that have a profound impact on each other. By exploring spaces and activities, a broad range of interrelated inferences, from the dramatic changes in the environmental system to property ownership, tenements and flexible use of spaces has been derived. A mapping of temporal use of space helps one articulate the proliferation of nighttime programs dotting the urban streetscape during the night. These changes share a relation with the existing landscape that varies from abrasive to symbiotic. The paper helps bring about a systemic, holistic understanding of these shifts and tensions through observations that are embedded in the nuances of daily existence.
Upto the 1990s, Malad was a nondescript suburb in Mumbai consisting of a fishing village and housing for an ethnically diverse middle class. It became an ideal location for various forms of development because of relatively low real estate rates coupled with strong connectivity by rail to the remainder of the city. The landscape of Malad became speckled with call centers and malls. The service industry of call centers was outsourced mainly from USA and malls were introduced as havens of consumerism. Glass and steel structures for these functions were built on a garbage dump that was hitherto ramming shifty marshland. The emergence of these impacted not only the environment, but also led to changes in built form and social structures.
These changes are being discerned by shadowing call center workers, a new demographical addition to the area. Their spaces of work, rest, leisure and consumption are being explored to shed light on additions and transformations in housing, infrastructure and amenities.
This research has led to seemingly distinct findings that have a profound impact on each other. By exploring spaces and activities, a broad range of interrelated inferences, from the dramatic changes in the environmental system to property ownership, tenements and flexible use of spaces has been derived. A mapping of temporal use of space helps one articulate the proliferation of nighttime programs dotting the urban streetscape during the night. These changes share a relation with the existing landscape that varies from abrasive to symbiotic. The paper helps bring about a systemic, holistic understanding of these shifts and tensions through observations that are embedded in the nuances of daily existence.
THE AMBIGUOUS IMAGES OF KAMPUNGS AND KOTA: DIFFERENCE, CONTRAST OR CONFLICT?
Abstract: Jakarta is a city of different and conflicting images. It is a big city or kota, and as well a big kampung, a complex city and a city of contrast: the traditional and modern, the informal and formal, and the unplanned and planned. There is apparently a great contrast between the world of the kampungs and that of kota—the first impressions that might be gained by an observer from afar. The phenomenon of differences between kampung and kota can be simplified to be the difference or contrast between qualitative value and quantitative value; social and human development; personal and interpersonal relationships versus management; day-to-day needs and aspirations versus business orientation; all-round competence versus specialization; mutual self-help versus top-down relationship; self-sufficiency versus top-down dependency; local versus inter-local and global but centralizing; and community versus down-town. This paper discusses some aspects of these ambiguous images to seek a different perception of the relationship between them. It is obvious that a blurred form of contrast between kampungs and kota seems to emerge. This paper explores related references and investigates the lived experience of people in kampungs and kota and then discussing them together to develop the finding of the images of kampung and kota.