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1 – 10 of 835Saleh Ahmed and Khan Rubayet Rahaman
Slums, in urban areas of the Global South, are often manifested as the spatial manifestation of urban poverty. In many local contexts, eviction of slums is treated as the recipe…
Abstract
Purpose
Slums, in urban areas of the Global South, are often manifested as the spatial manifestation of urban poverty. In many local contexts, eviction of slums is treated as the recipe of urban development initiative, which is actually wrong and short-sighted unsustainable solution. This chapter addresses some of the interlinked issues and highlights how the megacities of the Global South can pursue a more holistic, pro-poor, and sustainable solutions by dealing this developmental challenge.
Methodology
This chapter is basically an outcome of a policy research, combining information and arguments from different secondary resources.
Findings
This chapter offers a better understanding on the causes and consequences of the slums, along with ideas for the government to tackle this issue and promote better livelihoods for the poor citizens. Even though this chapter focuses on the sustainability challenges in Dhaka, it can have policy implications in other regions with similar social, economic, and political conditions.
Research limitation
The discussion in this chapter does not include an empirical modeling or analysis technique so that the problems can be proven quantitatively. In some future research, a more quantitative approach can help to quantify the losses people are facing in terms of social value, monetary losses, and environmental cohesion.
Social implications
Without making any provisions for jobs and livelihoods for the poor slum dwellers, the process of eviction might cause the total “city management” system to collapse. Then it is no more an urban development initiative, but rather a government-initiated poverty generation process. Therefore, government can think for solutions at different levels – from local to regional scale, including long-term and short-term sustainability strategies.
Originality
Often the governments as well as the policy makers in the Global South treat the poverty problems (including slum formations) from a much narrower perspective. They should rather focus on the issue as part of a big developmental picture. The strategies can start both from macro- and micro-levels. On the macro-level, the government can initiate climate-resilient and pro-poor development strategies. On the micro-level, the government, along with nongovernmental organizations and national and international development partners, can focus on skill development opportunities and policies, so that the poor can live legally, wherever they want, with decent employment and livelihood opportunities.
The initiative has been met with fierce protests, leading to forced evictions and widespread violence against local Masai communities.
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DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-DB271575
ISSN: 2633-304X
Keywords
Geographic
Topical
This study explores the simultaneous transitions in Palestine/Israel and South Africa at the end of the 20th century through an analysis of the shifting geography of Johannesburg…
Abstract
This study explores the simultaneous transitions in Palestine/Israel and South Africa at the end of the 20th century through an analysis of the shifting geography of Johannesburg and Jerusalem. After analyzing the relationship between political, economic and spatial restructuring, I examine the walled enclosures that mark the landscapes of post-apartheid Johannesburg and post-Oslo Jerusalem. I conclude by arguing that these walled enclosures reveal several interconnected aspects of the relationship between neo-liberal restructuring and the militarization of urban space. They also exemplify different configurations of sovereignty under conditions of neo-liberalism and empire.
This paper aims to offer Sitio San Roque, an informal settlement in the Philippines as a case study to explore long-term "forgetful" urban development planning in the Philippines…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to offer Sitio San Roque, an informal settlement in the Philippines as a case study to explore long-term "forgetful" urban development planning in the Philippines, and the renewed visibility of the urban poor under COVID-19 lockdown. It connects scholarship on informality to issues of housing and political rights in Metro Manila to further investigate how vulnerable communities in the Global South are faring in the pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an exploration of Sitio San Roque, an informal settler community in Metropolitan "Metro" Manila, Philippines. This paper refers to recent journalistic reports pertaining to the community's ongoing evictions and arrests while under Metro Manila's "enhanced community quarantine." Furthermore, it converses with literature from disciplines including health-care policy, urban studies and recent studies on COVID-19 and vulnerable communities to critically discuss the plight of the urban poor in the pandemic-stricken Metro Manila.
Findings
The urban poor and members of informal communities such as Sitio San Roque are especially vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 because of precarious livelihoods and housing instability. The creation of informality in Metro Manila can be traced to political tensions, economic agendas and development planning since the time of Marcos' administration and also to global restructuring during the 1990s. However, also important to note is that under Metro Manila's lockdown, informal settlers are further disenfranchised and stigmatized via ongoing demolitions and evictions, as well as by processes of policing and criminalization by the state. The use of military and police personnel as a way to enforce lockdown in the metropolis further impedes on the rights of informal settlers and the urban poor.
Originality/value
Recent scholarship and reports discuss the challenges for informal communities and the urban poor in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly due to their housing conditions and loss of economic stability. This paper contributes to a critical understanding of these issues by adding the dimensions of political and housing rights. It refers to the case study of members of Sitio San Roque, who have experienced continuous threats of demolitions and arrests by state police for protesting the lack of government aid under lockdown. Both military approaches of governance and housing informality work in tandem to expose the vulnerabilities of the urban poor in Metro Manila's pandemic. Finally, this paper extends on urban studies scholar Gavin Shatkin's concept of “forgetful planning” (2004) by applying his discussions to the current context. Informal settlers have long been “forgotten” by the state's development plans, but are now remembered and deemed more visible in Metro Manila's ECQ.
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Forced eviction is a topic of growing importance globally, and the purpose of this article is to investigate a much‐publicised recent case involving Gypsies and Travellers in the…
Abstract
Purpose
Forced eviction is a topic of growing importance globally, and the purpose of this article is to investigate a much‐publicised recent case involving Gypsies and Travellers in the United Kingdom (not usually a country associated with such actions).
Design/methodology/approach
After setting the context of planning enforcement law in the UK, Green Belt and other planning policies, and the status of Gypsies/Travellers as a disadvantaged minority group, the paper traces the history of the Dale Farm eviction over a 25‐year period and analyses the legal arguments put to the High Court in unsuccessful attempts to defer and over‐turn the eviction, against the context of internationally agreed guidelines.
Findings
The research found that the judiciary gave full consideration to all aspects, in accordance with ECHR case law, and upheld the Green Belt and planning objections. The UK government was determined to proceed, resisting various offers of mediation, and the site was cleared even though no appropriate alternative accommodation was available, and notwithstanding that the occupiers owned their own plots.
Originality/value
The case is a new development in a long‐running history of forced eviction of Gypsies by local authorities, and is of interest in comparative study of treatment of Gypsies in other European countries, particularly in the context of the recent European Union Roma Inclusion Strategy.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the lessee eviction process in Zimbabwe in order to suggest possible ways of improving this process that has become a rutted road…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the lessee eviction process in Zimbabwe in order to suggest possible ways of improving this process that has become a rutted road characterised by a litany of hiccups.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is guided by the qualitative methodology. Data were mainly collected from property managers operating in the real property market in Harare using in-depth interviews. Analysis of data was done through content analysis.
Findings
It emerged from the study that the eviction process in Zimbabwe is fraught with impediments and expenses that are sometimes exasperating to property owners and investors. The current eviction regulations favour the lessees at the expense of lessors thus niggling lessees have aggravated the already protracted process by unnecessary appeals.
Research limitations/implications
The paper only focuses on residential property management and eviction of legal lessees due to non-payment of rentals.
Practical implications
The rent regulations should be reviewed in order to create a fair legal system that protects the rights of both the lessors and lessees in Zimbabwe.
Originality/value
The perpetual decline of the economy in Zimbabwe has crippled lessees’ ability to pay rentals. Yet, it has also become intricate to evict defaulting lessees thereby causing loss of income to rental housing investors. Thus, the paper challenges the protracted eviction processes in the real property industry that have prejudiced property owners and scared away potential rental housing investors that are greatly needed to boost the rental market.
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David Crockett, Lenita Davis and Casey Carder-Rockwell
Scholars, activists, and policymakers have paid increasing attention to housing instability, especially where eviction is a cause. Housing instability is a dynamic process rather…
Abstract
Scholars, activists, and policymakers have paid increasing attention to housing instability, especially where eviction is a cause. Housing instability is a dynamic process rather than a discrete catastrophic event, and eviction imposes vulnerability on consumers. Even the threat of it can trigger the onset of a crisis. In this project, we deepen the understanding of eviction by exploring its use in property management practice. We begin by summarizing its definition and causes from a cross-disciplinary and still-evolving literature. We then provide an extended example of how eviction can be used to pursue strategic and financial goals using rental markets in Arkansas as an example. Arkansas is characterized by a quintessentially laissez-faire regulatory environment that imposes few restrictions on property owners. We conclude by posing questions that should be at the forefront of a vulnerability-focused, policy-oriented research agenda on eviction.
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Daramola Thompson Olapade, Biodun Olapade and Bioye Tajudeen Aluko
This paper aims to explore the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques as a legitimate means of ejection of recalcitrant tenant in property. This is with a view of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques as a legitimate means of ejection of recalcitrant tenant in property. This is with a view of providing information that will improve property investment and management.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a case study approach using five selected case studies where ADR approach was used to recover premises.
Findings
The experience from the case studies shows that the use of ADR in premises recovery is effective but has its challenges. In the five case studies, consent judgment, mediation and negotiation were used to recover premises in less than three months compared to an average of 18 months using litigation. Also, the cost in all the cases were lower where they exist at all than when litigation are used. The paper provides useful information to practitioners on the use of the effective alternative approach to recover premises from recalcitrant tenants.
Originality/value
The paper provides practical ways through which recovery of premises could be achieved through non-adversarial technique in developing property markets, which hitherto was not available in literature.
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This study aims to examine how temporary relocation areas (TRAs), urban forms that facilitate evictions and forced relocations, have been written into South African legal and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how temporary relocation areas (TRAs), urban forms that facilitate evictions and forced relocations, have been written into South African legal and governmental structures through contested urban planning and legal regimes.
Design/methodology/approach
Proceeding from the macro-scale of TRAs spread across the nation, to the mezzo-scale of the Delft Symphony Way TRA in Cape Town, to the micro-scale of an individual “blikkie” (housing unit) within this camp, the article looks at the form and function of the TRA in urban resettlement practices. Special attention is given to relocation areas’ designation as “temporary” spaces and the consequences of this temporal designation in law and on the ground.
Findings
These sites have developed as technologies for negotiating competing demands on the state, and their presence foregrounds some of the deeply rooted contradictions in post-apartheid South Africa. They are places both within and apart from the city, often managed by city officials according to municipal specifications, but located proximally to key urban amenities, utilities services and employment centers. They also place contradictory demands on their residents, for whom making the TRA liveable also legitimates it as a form of housing.
Originality/value
This article uncovers several concerns about TRAs, including their inadequacy for long-term settlement, their problematic usage as tools of dispossession and the spatial-material-legal imbrications by which TRAs exist, persist and act back upon both individual lives and policy spheres.
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The notion of public participation in planning resettlements in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, Nigeria was not taken into consideration during the forced evictions that…
Abstract
Purpose
The notion of public participation in planning resettlements in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, Nigeria was not taken into consideration during the forced evictions that took place between 2003 and 2007. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of advocacy in a rights‐based approach for consultation, participation and capacity‐building for the victims of forced evictions in Abuja.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a case study approach that explores individual and group capacities in Abuja's informal settlements.
Findings
The demolition of informal settlements was carried out without due process, participatory approaches and group consultation in the plans for resettlement. Additionally, the office of the Federal Capital Development Authority put forth the argument that the proper implementation of the master plan justified and necessitated the systematic violation of the rights of hundreds of thousands of peoples; so that Abuja would not become a victim of urban sprawl which is evident in many other developing country city centres like Lagos, Cairo, or the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
Research limitations/implications
The researcher has explored a widening gap between the agenda of a master plan for a developing country's capital city and the development of an informal economy within makeshift settlements.
Originality/value
This case study sheds more light on the human rights violations which have characterized the method of dealing with informal settlements in the new capital city of Abuja.
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