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This paper aims to ascertain that Latin America's current urban growth through large and organized ‘land squattings’ and limited invasions is a massive, plural and common phenomenon which, to a certain extent, has been, up to now, ignored by 'the academic world and by formal urban planning.

On July 5, 1999, 10,000 organized individuals occupied a 23.45 ha. plot at Peñalolén, in Santiago de Chile. The event had great impact and received much attention, and the author closely followed the events that led to the consolidation of the ‘settlement‘ (1999-2006) through phases of negotiation, evacuation and relocation of its settlers, and finally to the current (2008) transformation stage which the plot is undergoing in order to become ‘Peñalolén's Communal Park’.

This paper emphasizes the main paradigms that can be drawn from the different occupation stages, with special focus on peculiarities found at ‘Peñalolén Settlement’ compared to other Latin American ‘squattings’, in an attempt to systematize and draw conclusions on ‘self-development urbanism’.

Many neo-Weberians adopt the state’s authority-monopolizing aim as their theoretical expectation. Through a case study of the Peruvian state and Lima’s squatter settlements, I provide evidence in support of the opposite contention: that states may unintentionally produce non-state extractive-coercive organizations. During the mid- to late-twentieth century, Lima’s population grew rapidly. Since they had few economic resources, the new urban poor requisitioned public lands and set up dozens of squatter settlements in the city’s periphery. Other researchers have identified several novel political phenomena stemming from such urban conditions. I focus here on the impact of the state. Using secondary and primary data, I examine three periods during which the state applied distinct settlement policies and one in which it did not apply a settlement policy, from 1948 to 1980. I find that when it applied each of the settlement policies, the state produced non-state political authorities – neighborhood elites – who extracted resources from squatters and tried to control neighborhood turf even against state encroachment, and that the state’s non-involvement did not produce them.

This paper aims to problematise the relation between “legality” and the state, through a case study analysis of law at work within the built environment. In doing so, the paper argues that studies on law and geography should consider the broader processes of state “law making” to understand the production of illegal space.

The liminal boundary of illegal/legal and its relation with the state is developed through a case study on the legalisation process of a “squatter” settlement located on the outskirts of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. The paper draws on primary qualitative research (semi-structured interviews) and legal analysis undertaken in Kyrgyzstan at various times over seven months between 2011 and 2013.

Examining law as static and pre-existing is problematic in developing an understanding of the production of illegal and legal spaces within the built environment. An emphasis on law-making and the process of legalisation draws attention to the different groups, practices and policies involved and reframes the relation between the state and legality.

Using a case study anchoring the analysis within law’s constitutive and contested presence within the built environment, the paper addresses a theoretical and empirical panacea in legal geography by unpacking the “legal” with reference to its plurality internally within the state. Moreover, studies on law and geography have tended to focus on European or North American contexts, whereas this paper draws on data from Central Asia.

Urban crop farming as a variant of urban agriculture is a rising phenomenon in food and income generation especially in the developing countries. It is useful in fresh food supplies, recycling of urban wastes and poverty alleviation. However, as an informal activity, the greatest challenge it faces is accessibility to land. This tends to undermine the numerous contributions it can make to a city's development in terms of social, economic and environmental developments particularly its influence on climate change, fresh air supply and healthy living of the teaming urban population. There is therefore an urgent need to examine the potentials and risks associated with urban crop farming in order to identify factors that can enhance its productivity and economic viability by improving practitioners’ access to land. The purpose of the paper is to do this.

The study therefore conceptualized that land accessibility among urban crop farmers can be predicted from identified constraint variables. Respondents in some locations where urban crop farming was found to be thriving well within the Lagos Metropolis were randomly selected and administered with structured questionnaires.

The data collected were analyzed using factor (principal component) analysis which enabled the construction of a constraints analysis equation or regression equation.

The study identified five constraints affecting land accessibility among urban crop farmers with the most critical factors being affordability and security of tenure.

While the illegal occupation of land by families lacking the means to acquire housing on the market is hardly front page news in Latin America, it may not merit the silence to which it has been relegated of late. The authors, who formed part of a research team on the subject, conclude that urban squatting is still very common today. The team found that most Latin American countries are amending their municipal, provincial and national legislation in this regard and backing programmes for consolidation and improvement. In a nutshell, they are adopting a more tolerant attitude toward squatting. The authors believe that the Guided Occupancy Programme successfully implemented by the city of Trujillo, Peru, for over a decade, constitutes an exemplary approach to the problem. While not necessarily constituting a universal solution, it can be viewed as a viable and reproducible alternative in situations of widespread poverty.

This paper presents concepts important for understanding urban poor housing in Vietnam, with a focus on key environmental, socio-economic, and cultural dimensions that bear on the housing sector. The paper draws on extensive field studies and presents a diagnosis of the context of and prospects for housing of the urban poor in Vietnam's two main cities: Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. While the literature on this theme is scanty, it points to the market-orientated economic reforms initiated in the 1980s as a key factor in creating imbalance in the housing supply. Recognising the current challenges in balancing affordability and sustainability, the study explores Vietnam's lack of adequate and affordable housing and the problems faced by the urban poor in accessing adequate housing.

An affordability challenge for the governments is the trade-off between cost and quality. The housing gap is a reality for developing countries, and most frequently the gap is met by producing large numbers of low-cost housing units for the maximum number of people. Declining affordability is known to adversely affect both owner occupiers and tenants. The needy, due to an uninterested private sector, usually has either to depend on low quality housing mislocated in the city, without supporting infra- and social structures, or on squatter dwelling. The second option, despite being informal is responsive to the spatial and cultural needs of the users who ideally partake in the construction. The article queries and explores the ways in which the process and cultural preferences of the users of squatter houses, as builder-owner-occupants, are harmoniously intermingled in squatter housing; and draw housing policy implications through institutionalising some of their potentials. Considering squatters are at the lowest stratum areas and that their housing constitutes significant portion of the urban stock, government's pareto optimal which claims maximum good for the maximum number of people at minimum cost is seemingly justified with the quite restricted budget of governments of developing countries.

Comprehensive urban management (CUM), with specified philosophical and technical limits, can address the negative consequences of the interrelationship between increasing urban poor population, spatial expansion of squalor and informal settlement on marginalised urban lands, overburdened and old urban infrastructure and increase in frequency and intensity of natural hazards. The research places these four concerns within the urbanisation context of the Kingston Metropolitan Region (KMR) in Jamaica, where their expressions are related to the lack of effective urban management and planning. The research uses a mixture of secondary information, from a myriad of public and private institutions and field surveys in the forms of observations and questionnaires. The cause and effects interrelationship between the factors are presented in a problem tree and analysed and discussed against known facts and theoretical posits. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The research draws from a litany of document analysis, qualitative research as well as pre-coded questionnaires, field research and expert interviews and discussions with urban managers. Information and data selected from state and quasi-state agencies also proved valuable. Additionally, other relevant materials were sourced from the published domain including publications, journal articles, newspapers, textbooks and internet (online professional group discussions), etc.

Increase in urban poor over the last ten years increase in squalor settlements on marginal urban lands. Urban infrastructure is old and overburdened. Natural hazards are on the increase and are associated with negative demographic and social dynamics. Development plan and planning is lacking in the KMR. Urban management roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined. There are gaps and overlaps in roles and legislations. CUM needs redefinition for it to be effective in solving this relationship. Limits can be set for defining comprehensive urban planning.

Space to explore more the relationship and evidences of the factor under investigation to their fullest extent.

Investments in urban infrastructure and other built environment and physical structures in important for urban resilience to hazards. Non-traditional countries and agencies are good source of financial and technical support for developing countries to improve their urban and national physical and social infrastructure. Urban land management and administration are crucial or urban spatial planning and land use.

The four factors under investigation, even though they are not novel in their individual treatment, are however original in the context of assessing their interrelationship and moreover their relationship with CUM. A redefinition of CUM is attempted to give stated criticisms of its past failures. The application to Jamaica and its potential application to other small island developing states are unique.

This paper considers whether the term patrimonialism can be applied to one racially bifurcated aspect of Australian history: the relations between ‘squatters’ and those with competing civil and property claims. From the perspective of white settlers, the power of pastoralists who acquired use rights over vast stretches of land in late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries represented a challenge to rural settlement, economic development, the right to vote, workers’ rights and parliamentary democracy.

From the perspective of Aboriginal peoples who held traditional ownership of pastoral lands, squattocracy began with armed conflict and ended with practices aimed at detailed government of their everyday life. More generally, as white settlers consolidated property rights to land, they expropriated Indigenous peoples’ capacity to govern themselves.

The paper concludes that there have been two distinct histories of patrimonialism in Australia. The Australian colonies were among the pioneers of ‘universal’ male and later female franchise in the nineteenth century; Aborigines gained (de jure) full citizenship only in the late 1960s. While the squatter’s patrimonial rule over white settlers was short-lived, that over some groups of Aboriginal people persisted for more than a century.

This paper aims to present a comparative analysis of noncompliance with planning laws in advanced-economy countries. Most research to date has focused on the widespread phenomenon of “informal” construction in developing countries. However, advanced-economy countries also encounter illegal development, though at different scales and attributes. Because planning law is at the foundation of land-use and urban policies, it is time that the “orphan” issue of noncompliance be adopted by more researchers to enable cross-national learning. The two OECD countries selected for in-depth analysis – Portugal and Israel – probably fall mid-way in the extent of noncompliance compared with the range among advanced-economy countries. Like most OECD countries, the selected countries have generally viable planning-law systems. Their experiences can thus offer lessons for many more countries. Recognizing the limitations of enforcement mechanisms as prevention, the paper focuses on how each of these countries responds to illegal development.

The method relies on two main sources: analysis of official documents – laws, policies and court decisions in both countries – and field interviews about practice. In both Portugal and Israel, the authors held face-to-face open interviews with lawyers and other professional staff at various government levels. The interviews focused on four issues: the effectiveness of the existing enforcement instruments, the urban consequences of illegal development, the law and policy regarding legalization and the existence of additional deterrent measures.

In both countries, there is a significant phenomenon of illegal development though it is somewhat less in Israel than in Portugal. In both countries, efforts to reduce the phenomenon have been partially effective even though in both, extensive demolition is not exercised. Neither country has adopted a general amnesty policy for existing noncompliance, so both resort to reliance on ex-post revision of statutory plans of granting of variances as a way of legalization. The shared tension between local authorities and national bodies indicates that not enough thought has gone into designing the compliance and enforcement systems. In Israel, a recent legislative amendment enables planning authorities, for the first time, to set their own priorities for enforcement and to distinguish between minor and major infringements. This approach is preferable to the Portuguese law, where there is still no distinction between minor and major infringements. By contrast, Portuguese law and policy are more effective in adopting financial or real-estate based deterrence measures which restrict sale or mortgaging of illegal properties.

There is very little research on noncompliance with planning controls in advanced-economy countries. There is even less research on the legal and institutional responses to this phenomenon. This paper pioneers in creating a framework for looking at alternative types of government responses to illegal construction. The paper is, to the authors’ best knowledge, the first to present a systematic cross-national comparative analysis and critique of such responses. The authors thus hope to expand the view of the possible legal and policy response strategies available to planning authorities in other advanced-economy countries. The comparative perspective will hopefully encourage, expansion of the research to more countries and contribute to the exchange of experiences between jurisdictions.