Abstract
The emergence of informal settlements in Romania is the result of a mix of factors, including some social and urban planning policies from the communist and post-communist period. Squatting was initially a secondary effect of the relocation process and demolition of housing in communist urban renewal projects, and also a voluntary social and housing policy for the poorest of the same period. Extension and multiple forms of informal settlements and squatting were performed in the post-communist era due to the inappropriate or absence of the legislative tools on urban planning, properties' restitution and management, weak control of the construction sector. The study analyzes the characteristics and spatial typologies of the informal settlements and squatters in relationship with the political and social framework of these types of housing development.
Highlights
The emergence of informal settlements in Romania is the result of a mix of factors, including some social and urban planning policies from the communist and post-communist period
The topicality of informal settlements' issue is widely recognized in the main European and international strategic documents on housing such as: Habitat Agenda (1996), Declaration on Cities and Other Human Settlements in the New Millennium (2001), European Social Charter, revised (1996), the Vienna Declaration on National and Regional Policy Programmes regarding Informal Settlements in SouthEastern Europe (2004), Millennium Development Goals, Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities (2007), Report on Housing and Regional Policy initiated by the Italian Member of the European Parliament Alfonso Andria (2007), Europe 2020 Strategy
The present study provides a series of results from the above-mentioned studies where the authors were involved in, concerning the definition, characterization and the establishment of typologies of informal settlements and squatting in Romania (Photo 1)
Summary
UNECE (2009) offers a concise definition that stands as the basis for the majority of specialized studies. From a territorial profile point of view, the manifestation form of this housing type is translated into the illegal occupancy of a house having an uncertain status of tenure and being usually legally built (squatting phenomenon), while the informal settlements can be defined in the Romanian territorial context as groups of houses usually developed at the outskirts of urban or rural localities, where the lands are legally or illegally occupied and HUMAN GEOGRAPHIES—Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography 7.2 (2013) 65–75. Abrams (1971) defines the slum as a building or area which is deteriorated, dangerous from the perspective of the structural strength, unhealthy or lacking comfort standards; it is characterized by insalubrity, overcrowding or unhealthy conditions, regardless of the physical situation of the building or area These two terms - squatter settlement and slum - were synonymous, but the researchers in the field use them separately. E. lack of affordable houses and available lands for disadvantaged categories of population
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