Normalizing and regularizing slums: what explains the sidelining of onsite interventions in Europe? Comparing Paris and Madrid
Abstract
Raising the question of normalizing, upgrading or regularizing slums[1] in Europe could be seen as provocative at a time when all local and national governments are very often doing everything they can to raze slums – perceived as the shame of this twenty-first century’s civilized world and as a reflection of housing policy failures since the 1950s, and when associations that support slum dwellers and ensure their daily survival have been campaigning for years for the implementation of integration projects to promote housing and jobs. (First paragraph)
... In Madrid, after the decentralisation of the housing policies from the national to the regional government in the eighties, there were still 3,000 families living in slums and most of them were Gitanos (Nogués Sáez 2010). It was during those initial years of democracy that different institutional organisms were created with the purpose of "eradicating" shantytowns and relocating people either in apartments (the better-off ), 'special typology neighbourhoods', or temporary camps (Aguilera 2016). The 'special typology neighbourhoods' were built purposefully to accommodate Gitanos' difference and they were the sole dwellers of these ghetto-like estates (Aguilera 2016; Gay y Blasco 2016). ...
... It was during those initial years of democracy that different institutional organisms were created with the purpose of "eradicating" shantytowns and relocating people either in apartments (the better-off ), 'special typology neighbourhoods', or temporary camps (Aguilera 2016). The 'special typology neighbourhoods' were built purposefully to accommodate Gitanos' difference and they were the sole dwellers of these ghetto-like estates (Aguilera 2016; Gay y Blasco 2016). Beluschi Fabeni, López López and Piemontese, in their analysis of the linguistic construction of Gitanos in Spanish housing policies (2014), note that: ...
In this dissertation I explore the multiple meanings that cultural difference acquires in everyday practices in public primary healthcare centres in Madrid. I specifically look at how Gitano’ and Roma’ cultural difference is understood by healthcare workers in various settings at primary healthcare. Gitanos have been living for centuries in Spain and they have been historically persecuted and segregated from wider Spanish society. Current European policies aiming for “Roma inclusion” include health as one of the strategic areas of intervention. Roma and Gitanos’ health inequalities are frequently mentioned but little is known about the actual health-status of Gitanos and Roma or the difficulties they encounter when accessing healthcare facilities. Furthermore, the public healthcare system in Madrid has gone through several changes in recent years, some of them publicly contested (like various privatisation attempts, for example) others inadvertently assumed (like the budgetary cuts). Primary healthcare is the access door to the public healthcare system, but it is also a social space where broader social representations about Gitanos intertwine with different expert knowledge systems (such as biomedical or managerial knowledge) in the provision of healthcare. Drawing on twelve months fieldwork in primary healthcare centres, in this dissertation I explore how notions of cultural difference are enacted within the specific social space of primary healthcare centres, which are complex technical, moral and political sites. This dissertation engages with the debates about the complex relation of culture and biomedicine and with the anthropological literature on care to investigate the multiple uses and meanings that healthcare workers give to “cultural difference” and how and when they operationalise Gitano difference in their practices. Through the analysis of these encounters in clinical settings this dissertation sheds light on the ways that social representations of Gitanos are articulated within the institutional configurations that frame the provision of care.
... 60 In this vein, Thomas Aguilera has emphasised the relative success of onsite interventions by NGOs in the Global South to advocate the normalising and regularising of slums as an alternative to removal and rehousing in Northern 'slums' (that is, migrant dwellings in Paris and Madrid). 61 So far, the North seems to be unwilling to learn from the South in this regard. Nevertheless, confronting a phenomenon with an equivalent in a different part of the world holds remarkable critical potential. ...
Various sources indicate that up to a quarter of the world's urban population lives in precarious neighbourhoods such as shantytowns, favelas, barriadas, bidonvilles, bustees, kampungs or gecekondular. Such a wide variety of forms, found in different political and social contexts, is indicative of the complexity of urban informality, and invites comparative approaches. But only a few scholars have engaged in rigorous comparisons beyond the 'comparative gesture' of light-touch references to different contexts made thus far. As one scholar aptly lamented, 'promising edited collections, which take care to juxtapose case studies from different parts of the world, still do so without allowing them to engage. .. with each other'. Likewise, many conceptual studies include a comparative argument but use examples mainly for illustrative purposes, and do not examine them comprehensively. Often, studies rather hint at comparisons than fully realising them. But it is not our intention to sneer at colleagues for not having hit the target. Instead, this introductory chapter presents various examples of good practice. It surveys existing comparative studies on informal housing, to provide a sense of how far comparative research has come, and asks how the method of comparison has been used in different disciplines as a way to understand differences, to discover unexpected similarities and to differentiate (and sometimes even subvert) previously-held assumptions. The survey begins with paired comparisons and progresses toward more complex approaches such as multi-case analysis and typologies.
This paper reviews whether land titling programmes have achieved the benefits claimed by their proponents. It finds that they have generally failed to do so. Investment in land and housing, access to formal credit, and municipal revenues have not increased noticeably more than under other tenure regimes, including those that allow many unauthorized settlements, and there is no significant evidence of poverty levels being reduced. Titling does provide increased tenure security — but many alternative forms of tenure, including those in many informal settlements, also provide high levels of security. In addition, in many nations, land titles do not necessarily protect people from eviction and expropriation of their land. Land titling often fails to increase access to credit, and low-income households who obtain titles are often as reluctant to take loans as banks are to lend to them. Titling also does not necessarily improve infrastructure and services provision, while many settlements have obtained improved provision without titles.
Our knowledge of the governance of cities has expanded in recent years with the application of Foucauldian approaches. However, the majority of such work has concentrated on areas where governmental control is heightened, such as prisons and asylums. In this article, I discuss unruly places where governments have less control than usual: squatter settlements. Hong Kong has had substantial numbers of squatters throughout its postwar rise from dire poverty to contemporary prosperity. This article draws on documentary analysis and field research from 1982–85 and 1999–2000 to examine changes in the way that the government attempts to regulate these illegally occupied spaces and the ways in which interaction between administrative interventions and the responses of those living there makes the persistence of illegal occupation possible. I argue that three different phases of regulation can be identified: repression, resettlement, and exclusion. While there is considerable continuity in some practices of intervention such as toleration, the nature and outcomes of such practices vary with the changing context and other features of the regulatory regime, [regulation, squatters, governance, illegality, Hong Kong]
: While many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) repre-sent an ambitious attempt to reduce global poverty and improve the quality of life for the world's poor, this cannot be said for the goal that concerns urban develop-ment. Goal 7 of the MDGs aims to improve the living conditions of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. However, current estimates suggest that, at present, there are nearly 1 billion people living in slums, and that this number is projected to increase to 1.5 billion by 2020 and to 2 billion by 2030. Thus, even achieving the MDG would be to manage a retreat rather than achieve significant progress. The important policy objective for governments and the international community, there-fore, is dramatically to exceed, not just meet, this MDG. This can best be achieved by adopting a twin-track approach towards existing and potential future slums. Innovative approaches to improving tenure security in existing unauthorized settle-ments can improve living conditions for current slum dwellers, while revising regu-latory frameworks can reduce the need for future slums by significantly improving access to legal land and shelter. This paper provides evidence from recent research, which suggests that intermediate tenure options, combined with regulatory audits of planning regulations, standards and administrative procedures, can significantly improve living conditions within the human, technical and financial resources available. The approach is illustrated by a case study in Cambodia.
Véronique Dupont – Creation of Urban Nomads and Impoverishment. Impact of Slum Clearance Policy in Delhi
Slum clearance policy in Delhi excludes many families from the resettlement programmes. This contribution identifies diverse mechanisms of exclusion, assesses the extent of the affected population and the consequences of forced eviction on its living conditions. Demolitions entail the impoverishment of the families, as they affect their physical, financial, human and social capital. The repetition of evictions, observed at the level of the squatter settlements and in the individual life stories, contributes to the “ nomadisation ” of the families excluded from the resettlement programmes and their upholding in a poverty trap. Various survival strategies emerge from the trajectories of the excluded families.
Hernando de Soto's new bestseller, The Mystery of Capital, attributes the failure of capitalism in the Third World to the lack of property titles. Many governments around the world are following this advice and are busy distributing legal titles to self-help families. Using data gathered in the now legalised self-help settlements of Bogota, the paper questions a number of the alleged benefits of legalisation. It shows how sales are more common when people lack legal title, how informal finance is available at the commencement of an illegal settlement and how little formal finance is forthcoming after legalisation. Most importantly, it shows that there is little sign of a secondary housing market. And, if there is little possibility of selling a house, home ownership in the self-help suburbs can offer little in the way of capital accumulation. It is hard to make money from a house that cannot be sold. Perhaps, de Soto's argument is less a panacea than a populist dream.
Palerme est une ville marquée par l’illégalité, criminelle ou non, et par d’importants dysfonctionnements institutionnels : clientélisme des autorités municipales, faible efficience des administrations. Cet essai, qui traite de la gestion et de l’aménagement de la ville de Palerme depuis la fin du second conflit mondial, révèle les complexités des mécanismes à l’œuvre dans l’espace urbain, à l’origine de la dégradation du territoire et des conditions de vie des habitants. L’auteur met en relation deux champs de recherche. Le premier a trait à la culture politique des autorités municipales : une culture faite de pratiques, d’usages et de représentations, mais aussi de rapports au territoire, aux administrés et au bien commun. Le second concerne les politiques mises en œuvre par ces mêmes autorités et les techniques de gouvernement auxquelles elles ont recours. Appréhendée dans son quotidien comme dans ses grandes évolutions, la ville fait l’objet dans cette étude d’une approche globale. L’action des pouvoirs publics est abordée à l’aune des politiques d’urbanisme et, plus largement, des services urbains (eau, déchets) et des différentes interventions qui façonnent le territoire. Contribution importante à la connaissance des réalités de l’Italie contemporaine et plus particulièrement du Mezzogiorno, l’ouvrage livre de nombreuses clefs de lecture d’une ville qui étonne et déroute les visiteurs. Au-delà, cet essai formule, à partir du cas de Palerme, des pistes de recherche pour l’étude d’un modèle de gouvernement urbain méridional en Italie.
Enumerations of informal settlements undertaken by their own community organizations have become increasingly common. These help urban poor communities to mobilize knowledge about themselves – knowledge that is valuable for their own discussions, that helps develop better relations with local governments. This commentary discusses why it is important for communities to have the right to undertake their own research, and how this can become an irreversible force for stronger negotiations with those who see them as a burden, a blight or a vote bank.
The experience of displacement - of single and multiple evictions and resultant resettlement or homelessness - has defined the process of inhabitation for a vast majority of the poor in Delhi. Analyses suggest that at least 218 evictions have occurred between 1990 and 2007 in the capital, covering at least 60,000 households. Using analytical and geospatial data on the evictions that took place in this period, this paper seeks to answer some key questions and argues in support of policies that favour in situ upgrading over resettlement. The political challenges to this are discussed, particularly in the light of findings that evictions occur with similar intensity regardless of which political party is in power.
This paper investigates the extent to which slum notification, a tenure formalization policy that officially recognises settlements as slums and ensures the occupancy rights of the residents, has stimulated housing investment by the households in India. In using a nationally representative data set, propensity score methods are employed to reduce selection bias. This paper finds that given the observed household characteristics adjusted by propensity scores, slum notification will increase the average amount of money spent on housing construction, though the proportion of households who would improve their houses is estimated to be higher in non-formalized settlements. The findings suggest that not only formalizing slums but also supporting self-help efforts by the residents of non-formalized slums would be effective for improving their housing conditions.
La réflexion contemporaine sur l'habitat urbain tend à considérer certaines expériences - en particulier, celle des " cités de transit " - comme des moyens utilisés par les classes dirigeantes pour normaliser des populations marginales qui constituent une menace pour l'ordre dominant. Un examen attentif des circonstances qui ont entouré la genèse des " cités de transit " permet à l'auteur de montrer comment celles-ci sont nées d'une série d'improvisations et d'initiatives discontinues plutôt que d'un projet mûrement délibéré, mené avec volonté et persévérance. Les problèmes posés par la liaison entre l'habitat populaire et l'action rééducative, s'ils ne sont pas niables, relèvent d'une analyse sociologique plus approfondie. /// Contemporary thinking about the urban habitat tends to regard some experiments-especially that of the "cités de transit"-as the ruling classes' ways of stabilizing marginal populations constituting a threat to the prevailing social order. A close examination of the circumstances surrounding the foundation of these "cités de transit" has allowed the author to show how they arose out of a series of improvisations and unrelated initiatives rather than any maturely pondered project carried out with purpose and determination. Although they cannot be ignored, the problems posed by the connection between rehabilitative action and the popular environment require a deeper sociological analysis. /// La reflexión contemporánea a propósito de la habitación urbana propende a considerar ciertas experiencias, peculiarmente la de las ciudades de tránsito, como medios utilizados por las clases dirigentes para normalizar a poblaciones marginales que constituyen una amenaza para el orden dominante. Un examen atentivo de las circumstancias que provocaron el génesis de las ciudades de tránsito permite al autor enseñar como ésas nacieron de una serie de improvisaciones y de iniciativas discontinuas más bien que de un proyecto deliberado conducido con voluntad y perseverancia. Los problemas que plantea la conformidad entre la habitación popular y la acción educativa no pueden negarse y dependen de un análisis sociólogico más profundizado. /// Die heutigen Ueberlegungen zum städtischen Wohnen neigen dazu, gewisse Erfahrungen, insbesondere die Erfahrungen der Durchgangsstätte, als Mittel der herrschenden Klassen zu betrachten, mit dem Zweck die marginalen Bevölkerungsgruppen, die eine Bedrohung der herrschenden Ordnung darstellen, zu normalisieren. Eine eingehende Prüfung der Umstände, unter denen diese Durchgangsstätte entstanden sind, gestattet dem Verfasser aufzuzeigen, wie diese Stätte eher aus einer Anzahl nicht gezielter Improvisationen und Initiativen herausentstanden sind, und nicht aus einer wohlüberlegten und beständig durchgeführten Absicht. Die Probleme, die eine Verbindung zwischen Sozialwohnung und Erziehungsaktion stellt, sind reell und müssten einer weitgehenden soziologischen Analyse unterzogen werden. /// Современное размышление о городском жителе принимает во внимание некоторые опыты, в частности, " транзитные городки " как средство, использованное правящими классами и для упорядочения неосновного населения, создающих угрозу для господствующего порядка. Тщательное исследование обстоятельств, окружающих генезис " транзитных городков " позволяет автору показать, как они возникли из серии прерывных импровизациЙ и инициатив вместо зрелого и решительного проекта, успешно завершившегося с волеЙ и упорством. Проблемы, поставленные посредством связи между народными поселениями и перевоспитательноЙ работоЙ, если они не отрицаены, принадлежат к более глубокому социологическому анализу.
In this paper, we seek to revisit earlier work on the theory of rent, situating it in the current period of economic crisis and in relation to informal housing in the global South. More than ever, land is treated as a pure financial asset. Finance capital now exerts a profound influence over the production of space and exposes the built environment to the kinds of speculative binges that we have witnessed over the last decade. This is now as much a feature of living conditions in the poorest settlements of the global South as it is in the financial heartlands of the global North. We question key assumptions behind development interventions by arguing that infrastructural upgrading may decrease the security of tenure of residents of informal housing and call for a more nuanced approach that recognises the (post)colonial histories of urbanisation structuring access to land and housing.
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