Informal Neighbourhoods Research Articles

“The unwavering bond”: examining the sense of place in Harare’s informal urban neighbourhoods

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the sense of place in Hopley and Hatcliffe Extension, the largest informal neighbourhoods in Harare, Zimbabwe. The study draws from insights gained through focus group discussions with selected participants from these two communities. Contrary to conventional beliefs, we contend that residents of these neighbourhoods, despite enduring significant deprivation, exhibit a profound emotional connection to their neighbourhoods. These emotional ties stem from a collective sense of solidarity forged through shared experiences of socio-spatial exclusion. Our empirical findings challenge the prevailing assumptions about the sense of place in marginalised neighbourhoods, where such areas are typically perceived as having a diminished sense of place. This study contributes to the scholarly discourse on sense of place in disadvantaged neighbourhoods – a relatively understudied subject, particularly in Global South cities. These findings hold significant implications for urban planning policies on a global scale, especially those directed at informal settlements.

Self-help and spontaneous heroism in urban service delivery in Ghana’s informal neighbourhoods: a case study of Moshie Zongo

ABSTRACT The delivery of urban services and facilities is the primary responsibility of both local and central governments to facilitate the day-to-day activities of urban dwellers. However, the financial incapacity, coupled with general institutional constraints, hinders the efficient and adequate provision of all relevant infrastructure facilities needed by urban dwellers, particularly, in informal neighbourhoods. In response, self-help initiatives and spontaneous activities of some actors have emerged to bridge the gap and at best, complement the government’s development efforts. Utilising a mixed-method approach, the study relied on both quantitative and qualitative data from 374 randomly selected households as well as key informants from relevant institutions to explore the dynamism of self-help initiatives. The study specifically relies on the delivery of waste management and water supply services to evaluate and understand self-help initiatives in Moshie Zongo, an informal community in Kumasi City. From the analysis, the tricycle waste collectors (Aboboya) through the self-help initiative collect about 80%−90% of the solid waste generated in the area which is also preferred by about 80% of the community dwellers. Moreover, about 60% of the sources of water are owned by private individuals. Again, the Wastes Department of KMA, through Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) and Renovate, Operate, and Transfer (ROT) has helped to provide and renovate new and existing toilet facilities to ensure the provision and management of liquid waste in informal settlements. The study proposes effective and efficient monitoring, coordination, and regulation to enhance this initiative in the delivery of urban infrastructure and services.

Climate change resilience and social capital: Insights from informal urban neighbourhoods in Kumasi, Ghana

This research addresses the pressing need to strengthen climate change resilience of the urban poor living in informal settlements by leveraging social capital - skills and networks. This research builds upon existing works to understand how social skills and networks contribute to building climate resilience in two informal settlements of Kumasi, noted to have diverse and strong community skills and networks. Through a qualitative research approach encompassing household surveys and focus group discussions, we gathered data from residents of Aboabo and Asawase, two of Ghana's largest informal neighbourhoods in Kumasi. We observed a strong presence of social bonding among the residents, characterized by tight-knit networks and reciprocal relationships. This form of social capital played a critical role in facilitating information sharing, resource pooling, and collective action in response to climate hazards. Despite limited government support, residents demonstrated a remarkable capacity for self-organization and community resilience-building, leveraging their social ties and local knowledge to address climate-related risks. However, we identified that the insular nature of these networks may hinder the inclusion of marginalized or vulnerable groups within the community, potentially exacerbating existing inequalities in climate resilience outcomes. These findings highlight the implications of our research for policy and practice, emphasizing the need for inclusive and participatory approaches and multi-scalar responses that involve local, national, regional, and global actors to climate resilience in informal settlements.

Beyond formal and informal: mid-twentieth-century residential architecture in Barcelona’s El Carmel neighbourhood

Abstract This article discusses houses on the periphery of Barcelona and in particular in the El Carmel neighbourhood, which were built by poor country-to-city migrants from southern Spain in the post-World War II period. They were constructed following two typologies: barracas (sheds), one-storey huts on an irregular street plan, and coreas (‘Korea houses’), more formally looking one- to three-storey structures lined up on orderly laid-out streets. Based on archival documents, contemporaneous publications and interviews with former autoconstructores (self-builders), the article analyses both social conditions and physical structures. While these buildings were often unauthorized and constructed by informal means, they were just as often built with the landowner’s consent, involving architects and building professionals, and retroactively legalized. The article concludes that in this respect Barcelona’s ‘informal neighbourhoods’ in fact straddled the realms of the formal and the informal, to the extent that the habitual distinction between formal and informal architecture has to be considered inadequate.

Governing the bairro clandestino of Cova da Moura (1974–2015): Decentred and collaborative governance in an informal neighbourhood in Lisbon’s metropolitan area

Cova da Moura was established in the municipality of Amadora in the mid-1970s as a bairro clandestino (‘informal’ or ‘illegal neighbourhood’). Since then, it has grown into a community of thousands of residents; having escaped the large rehousing operations of the 1990s, Cova da Moura is today one of the few surviving bairros clandestinos in the metropolitan area of Lisbon, as well as a ‘distressed urban area’. In the four decades of its life, Cova da Moura has passed through different eras of policymaking, and has been the object of a variety of public interventions. The article provides a critical assessment of the Iniciativa Bairros Críticos (Critical Neighbourhoods Initiative, 2005–2013), as an example of a policy initiative embodying a normative vision of collaborative governance. The case of the Iniciativa Bairros Críticos in Cova da Moura provides some lessons on how collaborative governance design can address key challenges that ‘distressed urban areas’ pose to public intervention – but at the same time shows us the unavoidable pitfalls of the process, as well as the limits of their reach vis-à-vis broad, structural issues.

Long-term impacts of an urban sanitation intervention on enteric pathogens in children in Maputo city, Mozambique: study protocol for a cross-sectional follow-up to the Maputo Sanitation (MapSan) trial 5 years postintervention

IntroductionWe previously assessed the effect of an onsite sanitation intervention in informal neighbourhoods of urban Maputo, Mozambique on enteric pathogen detection in children after 2 years of follow-up (Maputo Sanitation...

Neighbours' Mini Water Networks in Saguia, Arrangements, Solidarity and Innovation in Urban Water Services in Niamey, Niger

Niamey, the capital of Niger, like other cities in sub-Saharan Africa, is experiencing water insecurity due to the mismatch between rapid urban growth and substantial investment in water services. On the outskirts of the city, where the water distribution network is almost non-existent or inconsistent, private water points are increasingly being built, particularly private boreholes, as an alternative solution. This article based on a methodology combining qualitative and quantitative data collected from 20 beneficiaries, 3 suppliers and 5 carters, focuses on the mini water networks of neighbours. A new form of solidarity around water in Saguia, an outlying district of the city of Niamey, through the 'co-production' of water services and the mutualisation of water installations between neighbours-providers and neighbours-beneficiaries. This new 'social' service offer, built around arrangements between neighbours, deserves to be studied by analysing it as both an innovation and a social response adapted to the absence of a formal water network and to the uncontrolled and planned urban sprawl in Niamey. The neighbours' mini water networks thus contribute to the universalization of access to water and to urban sprawl by allowing the construction and occupation of new formal and informal neighbourhoods not covered by the official water network.

Multidimensional Poverty Measurement in Segregated Cities

This paper illustrates the insights that can be gained from using a multidimensional poverty measurement method based on the capability approach to analyse the scale, characteristics, and spatial distribution of poverty in segregated cities. We assess the poverty gaps between formal and informal neighbourhoods and across districts, compare the results with income-based poverty estimates, and analyse the dimensional composition of poverty and disparities across population subgroups. The results show a weaker correlation between multidimensional and income-based measures and less overlap in terms of who is identified as poor in informal settlements than in the rest of the city. After adjusting for underrepresentation of the slum population in the household survey, informal settlements account for 10% of the city's population but nearly half of the multidimensionally poor. The results highlight the need to design poverty reduction policies that target informal neighbourhoods.

Urban Design Solutions for the Environmental Requalification of Informal Neighbourhoods: The George Dimitrov Neighbourhood, Maputo

The current dimension of informal settlements in Maputo requires the definition of action models framed by empirical evidence, taking advantage of pre-existing socio-spatial and environmental conditions to define physical interventions through sustainable urban design strategies, with a view to their physical (and socio-economic) upgrading. Thus, this paper highlights the potential of urban design in the environmentally sustainable upgrading of Maputo’s informal neighbourhoods. This article aimed to develop sustainable and resilient urban design proposals and identify strategies capable of guiding the future process of physical territorial transformation towards a more sustainable model. Methodologically, a literature review was undertaken for the purpose of understanding the issues related to the theme and the general characteristics of informal neighbourhoods, as well as for exploring a case study: the George Dimitrov Neighbourhood. It was concluded that the current fabric of informal settlements possesses physical characteristics which facilitate the application of sustainable and responsive urban design strategies for the requalification of these deprived areas. Despite the marked difference between the spatial configurations of informal neighbourhoods and those of formal cities, it is possible to increase the level of resilience and sustainability of informal settlements through surgical and deep solutions, anchored on the particularities of the existing fabric.

Nairobi Street-Aesthetics: Distance and Proximity in the Aesthetics of Everyday Life in the Green City

This article looks at the relatively recent tendency to aestheticize life in Nairobi’s working-class and informal neighbourhoods in different forms of art and media. It focuses on two case studies – Steve Bloom’s photobook, Trading Places: The Merchants of Nairobi (2009) and the first issue of the Kenyan literary magazine Kwani? (2003). These are compared to the collectively performed poem ‘Mistaken Identity’ (2019) by a group of poets from the neighbourhood of Kayole, to show that the street aesthetics in the two cases rest on distance, while the meaning-making in the poem rests on proximity. Distance in this context takes several forms, such as the gap between socio-economic classes and actual physical distance, but I register it on the level of epistemology. The poem also articulates a form of epistemological proximity between, first, the forms of meaning-making that can be seen in both the text and the visual and performative components of the video, and, second, the place that is portrayed. Rather than arguing that proximity is preferable to distance as a basis of meaning-making, this article attempts to theorize the emergence of a specific aesthetic. This aesthetic presents itself as an aesthetic because the particular forms of social stratification and concomitant social distance between communities and neighbourhood (which have emerged in Nairobi since 2000) allow an economic, political and cultural elite to re-discover the city, which they experience as simultaneously strange and familiar.

Characterisation of urban environment and activity across space and time using street images and deep learning in Accra

The urban environment influences human health, safety and wellbeing. Cities in Africa are growing faster than other regions but have limited data to guide urban planning and policies. Our aim was to use smart sensing and analytics to characterise the spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of features of the urban environment relevant for health, liveability, safety and sustainability. We collected a novel dataset of 2.1 million time-lapsed day and night images at 145 representative locations throughout the Metropolis of Accra, Ghana. We manually labelled a subset of 1,250 images for 20 contextually relevant objects and used transfer learning with data augmentation to retrain a convolutional neural network to detect them in the remaining images. We identified 23.5 million instances of these objects including 9.66 million instances of persons (41% of all objects), followed by cars (4.19 million, 18%), umbrellas (3.00 million, 13%), and informally operated minibuses known as tro tros (2.94 million, 13%). People, large vehicles and market-related objects were most common in the commercial core and densely populated informal neighbourhoods, while refuse and animals were most observed in the peripheries. The daily variability of objects was smallest in densely populated settlements and largest in the commercial centre. Our novel data and methodology shows that smart sensing and analytics can inform planning and policy decisions for making cities more liveable, equitable, sustainable and healthy.

A Mixed Methods Process Evaluation of a Food Hygiene Intervention in Low-Income Informal Neighbourhoods of Kisumu, Kenya

ObjectivesDiarrhoea is a leading cause of infant mortality with the main transmission pathways being unsafe water and contaminated food, surfaces and hands. The ‘Safe Start’ trial evaluated a food hygiene intervention implemented in a peri-urban settlement of Kisumu, Kenya, with the aim of reducing diarrhoeagenic enteric infections among infants. Four food hygiene behaviours were targeted: handwashing with soap before preparation and feeding, boiling infant food before feeding, storing infant food in sealed containers, and exclusive use of designated utensils during feeding.MethodsA process evaluation of the intervention was guided by a theory of change describing the hypothesised implementation and receipt of the intervention, mechanisms of change, and the context. These were assessed by qualitative and quantitative data that included debriefing sessions with the delivery teams and Community Health Volunteers (CHVs), and structured observations during food preparation.ResultsThe intervention achieved high coverage and fidelity with over 90% of 814 eligible caregivers participating in the intervention. Caregivers in the intervention arm demonstrated an understanding of the intervention messages, and had 1.38 (95% CI: 1.02–1.87) times the odds of washing hands before food preparation and 3.5 (95% CI: 1.91–6.56) times the odds of using a feeding utensil compared to caregivers in the control group. Contextual factors, especially the movement of caregivers within and outside the study area and time constraints faced by caregivers influenced uptake of some intervention behaviours.ConclusionFuture interventions should seek to explicitly target contextual factors such as secondary caregivers and promote food hygiene interventions as independent of each other.

Grabbing groundwater: Capture, extraction and the material politics of a fugitive resource

This paper analyses local water governance in Delhi, India, to develop a political ecological reading of urban tubewell use. I draw on long-term qualitative fieldwork in informal neighbourhoods and focus on groundwater, a major source of urban water globally, to reveal relationships between technology, ecology, politics and informal land development. While discussions of water grabs have concentrated on corporate actors, I highlight local personalised control. At street level, tubewell technology enables qabza (‘capture’) of wells by powerful people. But ecological changes at larger scales limit the use of tubewells as political-economic allies. Analysis across the scales of the street, aquifer and city shows how different factors produce the contradictory role of informal water governance in urban political-economy. In this way, the paper suggests a scalar resolution to debates on materiality and agency.

Water security: the “new normality” of informal settlements. Nature-Based Solutions as sustainable mitigation and adaptation strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic showed us how fragile cities are when dealing with this phenomenon. The lack of green areas, high pollution levels, and human overpopulation contributed to the increase of the urban heat island effect and proved to be the perfect ingredients for the spread of the virus that changed, perhaps forever, our ways of living inhabiting. The consequences were even more dramatic for the inhabitants of informal neighbourhoods, as these exacerbated existing problems related to economic instability and low food and water security. This paper proposes using Nature-Based Solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change and increase access to water in informal settlements. The research study focused on analysing two technologies, the Blue-Green roof and Rain Garden, developing a prototype for each one. Considering that the practice of self-building characterises spontaneous settlements, the modules were conceived to be built by theinhabitants using recycled materials. These low-tech strategies improve indoor thermal comfort, facilitate thestorage of filtered rainwater for domestic use and provide access to affordable food through domestic scalecultivation. Implementing these solutions in marginalised neighbourhoods could also empower residents to face challenges related to Global Warming, such as runoffs generated by heavy precipitations, and improve hygienic conditions to prevent the spread of diseases.

Water security: the “new normality” of informal settlements. Nature-Based Solutions as sustainable mitigation and adaptation strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic showed us how fragile cities are when dealing with this phenomenon. The lack of green areas, high pollution levels, and human overpopulation contributed to the increase of the urban heat island effect and proved to be the perfect ingredients for the spread of the virus that changed, perhaps forever, our ways of living inhabiting. The consequences were even more dramatic for the inhabitants of informal neighbourhoods, as these exacerbated existing problems related to economic instability and low food and water security. This paper proposes using Nature-Based Solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change and increase access to water in informal settlements. The research study focused on analysing two technologies, the Blue-Green roof and Rain Garden, developing a prototype for each one. Considering that the practice of self-building characterises spontaneous settlements, the modules were conceived to be built by theinhabitants using recycled materials. These low-tech strategies improve indoor thermal comfort, facilitate thestorage of filtered rainwater for domestic use and provide access to affordable food through domestic scalecultivation. Implementing these solutions in marginalised neighbourhoods could also empower residents to face challenges related to Global Warming, such as runoffs generated by heavy precipitations, and improve hygienic conditions to prevent the spread of diseases.

COVID-19 in real time: comparing the struggle of three low-income neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires

This article seeks to explain why some popular neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires have responded more effectively than others to COVID-19. It compares actions that took place between March and October 2020 in the neighbourhoods of Villa 20, Villa 15 and Villa 1-11-14. We analyse public policies carried out by government agencies, especially the Instituto de Vivienda de la Ciudad (IVC) and the Ministerio de Desarrollo Humano y Hábitat (MDHyH), and the active collaboration of local organisations. While significant scholarship has focused on COVID-19 effects and coping strategies in Latin American neighbourhoods, there is limited analysis of how pre-existing relationships between local actors and government agencies have shaped neighbourhood responses. This comparative analysis shows that in fact the consolidation and depth of historical working relations between local government and local organisations determined the response capacity of each informal neighbourhood.

Assessing flood exposure in informal neighbourhoods: a case study of Bou Saâda, Algeria

Assessing flood exposure in informal neighbourhoods: a case study of Bou Saâda, Algeria

Co-construction of territorial and sociodemographic data in a poor informal neighborhood with high socio-environmental vulnerability in the city of La Plata, Argentina

This paper presents the results of a census carried out in the largest of the 164 informal settlements currently in existence in the city of La Plata, capital of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The objective is to define territorial and sociodemographic data of this poor informal neighbourhood with high socio-environmental vulnerability, paying special interest to the macro variables related to housing, education and work, as well as perceptions about the neighbourhood and future prospects. Therefore, the aim is to generate co-constructed scientific knowledge in tandem with the community, which in turn recovers knowledge and demands from the territory with a concrete potential for transformation. This work is part of a Participatory Scientific Agenda based on the interaction of the community, political, economic and scientific-technical actors.

Social capital mediates the effect of socio‐economic status on prosocial practices: Evidence from the CGSS 2012 survey

AbstractAlthough the relationship between socio‐economic status (SES) and prosocial practices has been extensively studied, little is known about the role that social capital plays in this relationship. This study examines the mediating effect of different forms of social capital, including informal neighbourhood capital, membership in voluntary associations, and professional connection, on the relationship between SES and prosocial practices. A total of 3,300 urban samples and 2,170 rural samples from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) 2012 were selected to conduct two‐group structural equation modelling. Our results suggested that (a) all three forms of social capital mediated the effect of SES on donating, but only informal neighbourhood capital and membership mediated the effect of SES on volunteering, and (b) SES had a different relationship with social capital in urban China than in rural China. SES had a weak positive correlation with informal neighbourhood capital in rural areas but a negative one in urban areas. SES also had a stronger relationship with membership in voluntary associations in rural areas. Our analyses support the notion that higher SES promotes prosocial practices through social capital.

Health and economic imperatives for households in the context of the anti-Covid-19 strategy in Cameroon. The case of Yaounde

Purpose This paper aims to explore the responses of households in the informal economic sector to the Cameroon Government strategy against Covid-19 in Yaounde, Cameroon between March and May 2020. Design/methodology/approach Given the recency of Covid-19, the exploratory design was used to collect and analyse information for the study. Empirical data was obtained through personal observations and questionnaires, whereas grey data were sourced from official sources in government and international agencies in Yaounde. The mode of the ordinal data generated from the questionnaire was used to characterise the attitudes of respondents to quarantine measures and bar charts were used to illustrate the distribution of responses. Findings The government’s strategy against Covid-19 was largely ignored in Yaounde between March and May 2020 because of the influence of the predominantly informal economy on household’s ability to allocate scarce resources between the competing needs of protecting their health on the one hand, and their livelihoods on the other hand. Poor households had to walk a difficult line between shutting down their businesses to protect their health or risking Covid-19 infections to protect their livelihoods. Over 53.1% of respondents thought quarantine measures were unsuccessful as over 63% ignored them. Quarantining and Social distancing were also difficult in informal settlements because of structural congestion. Research limitations/implications Perhaps, the greatest limitation of this study was the use of non-probability sampling. As such, sampling error could not be estimated, blurring the ability to ascertain the degree of similarity between the sample and the study population. This made sample generalisability difficult. Practical implications There are short-term and long-term policy implications of these findings. Basic comprehensive measures including food and water distribution, as well as rent holidays, must be implemented in informal neighbourhoods to ensure more successful quarantines in future pandemics. In the long run, investments in urban social housing must be carried out to reduce slums, an ever-present risk factor in the rapid propagation of infections. Originality/value The originality of this study is first, in its level of analysis which is the household. By measuring household responses to quarantine measures within defined neighbourhoods, the study deviates from most that have adopted a theoretical approach and conducted analysis at country or regional levels. Few studies have attempted to investigate the failure of quarantine measures against Covid-19 from the viewpoint of the occupational characteristics of the populations involved.