Hidden Community Development among the Urban Poor: Informal Settlers in Metro Manila

Abstract

This article investigates how informal urban settlers autonomously and substantially organise and develop their own communities in Metro Manila. Such a community is neither one which has been introduced by an outside third party nor one which has been organised by the residents to realise concrete objectives. We can verify that a community of informal settlers emerges in the guise of village endogamy networks, which arise paradoxically from chronic poverty and are formed without recognition. The deepening of these networks provides families with incentives to reside permanently in their locality and undertake collective action to obtain property rights. Such networks spread across many sites of poverty in Metro Manila at the same time, and build open stages for enhancing and sharing local knowledge, which can be mobilised for development by the urban poor.