Self-help Settlements Research Articles

Stakeholder Analysis of Sustainable Wastewater Management: A Case Study of Bogor, Indonesia

Wastewater management in Bogor, Indonesia faces significant challenges in achieving sustainability. The success of the development of wastewater management requires an analysis of the characteristics of the actors related to the relationship between actors, the attitude of actors toward development goals, and the possibility of alliances and conflicts that arise. The research aims to identify the actors’ typologies based on the strengths and relationships between the actors’ and the actors’ attitudes toward managing fast-growing areas in self-help settlements based on domestic wastewater management for the area of Bogor Town, Indonesia. This research uses a case study approach, and data were collected through observation, interviews, and focus group discussions. Data analysis used the MACTOR method (Matrix of Alliances and Conflicts Tactics, Objectives, and Recommendations) to identify the stakeholder actors’ strengths, relationships, and patterns of alliances. The results showed that the most influential actors in wastewater management are the Housing and Settlements Agency (DISRUMKIM), Regional Drinking Water Companies (PDAM), entrepreneurs (PUSAHA), MEDIA, the Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRD), Regional Development Planning Agency (BAPPEDA), Public Works and Spatial Planning Service (DPUPR), and the Health Service (DINKES). In addition, the highest divergence value was 35, which occurred in Sub-District Tanah Sareal (KEC. TANSAR) to PUSAHA. There are four actors with a high level of ambivalence, namely Sub-District Bogor Selatan (KEC BOSEL), Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), MEDIA, and Environment Service (DLH). These findings form the basis for developing a pattern of collaboration between all stakeholders necessary for the development of sustainable wastewater management in Bogor, Indonesia. In addition, this finding allows it to be used as relevant information, and it can be implemented in other cities with the same characteristics as Bogor Town is facing similar challenges in wastewater management.

Longitudinal resilience building in self-help settlements: Achieving transformations to unlock adaptations

Building resilience in marginal urban areas of the Global South is an urgent task figuring at the top of global development agendas. Resilience has been critiqued as an instrument to maintain structural conditions that reproduce the vulnerability of marginal urban dwellers. An alternative resilience agenda, focusing on the transformation of flawed institutional practices, promises to revert the root causes of vulnerability. However, empirical evidence of transformations to inform theory and practice is still required, particularly in vulnerable urban settings of the Global South. This paper addresses this gap by presenting the historical case of Neza, a self-help settlement in the metropolitan area of Mexico City where the longitudinal engagement of its residents (1953–1984) was key in addressing institutional and environmental threats. The paper looks into the actions of Neza residents in forwarding transformations to unlock adaptations. Semi-structured interviews to participants of historical actions (collected in 2015–2016) are thematically analysed through the theoretical lenses of social capital and socioecological resilience. Results suggest that the long-term engagement of residents of self-help settlements is key for resilience building and can be explained through scaling up social ties and strategies, from street-level solidarity in emergency response, to settlement-wide deliberation, political engagement, and building social pressure; each being instrumental in opening up spaces of negotiation with the state to achieve transformations and adaptations. Addressing environmental threats in marginal settlements of the Global South requires fixing institutional flaws. This is a responsibility that cannot be taken by residents alone, state action is necessary for resilience building.

Self-help settlements as insights to urban conflicts: the case of Toma de Peñalolén in Santiago, Chile

This article explores the meaning of ‘urban conflict’ from the perspective of a self-help settlement. It is understood that conflicts, like settlements, are multi-dimensional and multi-scale. Rather than perpetuating a notion of settlements as ‘conflict’ that certain places in the world suffer from (the global South), we chose to understand them as an expression of diversity, contributing to imagining and building an alternative part of the city (Robinson, 2006). Three dimensions will be emphasised: governance (Swyngedouw, 2011), sense of place (Harvey 2001), and planning (Roy, 2005; Friedmann, 2005). Some of the conclusions suggest reconsidering the planning that denies the existence of conflicts and tries to ‘solve’ the problem of settlements by any means. Settlements also impact on the way in which agreement to govern the city is shared, prioritized and obtained. Finally, places affect the nature of the conflict and its solution. As a case study, we will consider the Toma de Peñalolén (Occupation of Peñalolén), located in the western sector of Santiago, Chile. The results shown come from a recent research based on 35 interviews, a survey and secondary sources.

Colonia Housing Conditions in Model Subdivisions: A Déjà Vu for Policy Makers

The informal self-help settlements in Texas known as colonias have received considerable attention as a public policy problem at both the state and federal levels. These settlements proliferated throughout the border region since the late 1970s and research has highlighted the extreme poverty, austere levels of infrastructure, exploitative land sale practices, and poor housing conditions that characterized these settlements. However, both scholars and policymakers have overlooked the continued spread of self-help settlements known as “model subdivisions,” which barring the presence of basic water, wastewater, and electricity services, are nearly identical to colonias. We present the results of household surveys conducted with residents in 24 model subdivisions in Hidalgo County, Texas, in June 2014. The results suggest that, unbeknown to legislators, many of the problems that characterized colonias are now being reproduced in hundreds of model subdivisions that have formed since the 1990s, and which now require concerted attention and intervention by policy makers.

The Nature and Extent of Self-Help Housing in Texas

Despite regulatory efforts in Texas aimed at preventing the spread of “colonias”—self-help settlements with inadequate water and wastewater infrastructure—since the early 1990s hundreds of new self-help “model subdivisions” have formed throughout the state. Using aerial photography and parcel-level property records, I provide the first systematic analysis of these subdivisions. Their proliferation poses considerable challenges for local planners, and although most model subdivisions appear to have basic infrastructure, housing conditions are exceedingly poor because of the protracted nature of the self-help process. The study highlights the need for renewed attention by scholars, policymakers, and planners toward self-help settlements in Texas.

Informality on the urban periphery: Housing conditions and self-help strategies in Texas informal subdivisions

Most scholarship on informal housing focuses on developing countries and little research investigates how low-income populations in the US participate in homeownership through self-built and self-provided housing. Meanwhile, informally developed areas are increasingly being uncovered in the US, especially in the urban periphery of growing metropolitan regions. This paper documents and analyses largely unknown housing conditions and needs for the growing number of people that live in such communities. Data for this paper were collected through a survey of 133 households in two unincorporated low-income, self-help settlements in Central Texas. In this survey we address (1) household composition, (2) specific housing conditions, and (3) reported structural and infrastructural problems. Through regression analyses we identify factors that mitigate or aggravate the severity of overall housing problems and identify the most significant concerns for residents. Our results offer future lines of action regarding property titles, financing and dwelling upgrading.

Second-Generation Policy Priorities for Colonias and Informal Settlements in Texas

Along the Texas border with Mexico, more than 400,000 people live in over 2,000 informal self-help settlements known as colonias. These exceedingly low-income, largely Latino settlements have historically suffered from severe health risks, poor infrastructure and housing conditions, and physical and social isolation. Researchers and policymakers have focused extensively on what I call “first-generation policy priorities.” This has primarily entailed efforts to regularize title and infrastructure, support self-help home improvement for colonia homeowners, and prevent the growth of new informal settlements along the border region. I provide a comprehensive review of existing research on colonias to document the myriad ways in which housing and infrastructure conditions and titling practices have changed since these settlements first proliferated throughout the border region in the second half of the 20th century. These changes necessitate a rethinking of the policy priorities for colonias and informal settlements throughout the state. In particular, I argue that colonias must be recast to recognize the significant improvements that have taken place but also the long-term and sometimes severe problems that persist. These “second-generation policy priorities” include the development of sustainable forms of governance, regulation, and finance to address ongoing infrastructure investment needs in colonias; supporting access to and upkeep of safe and affordable renter- and owner-occupied housing through both self-help and contractor-led projects; ensuring long-term title clarity; and promoting community organizing in new and aging settlements.

Public service delivery in Bogotá: a success story?

The poor in most cities in developing countries suffer from a lack of infrastructure and services. Those living in self-help settlements often bear the brunt of the problem: paying high prices to receive water from informal suppliers and facing major problems getting to work on public transport. By the general standards of cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, however, most poor people in Bogotá fare rather well. However, this was not always the case and the article describes how the city authorities, through a mixture of public and private enterprise, turned the servicing situation round. Today, the poor benefit from Bogotá’s virtually complete electricity, water and sewerage coverage. Of course, there are still problems: particularly in terms of affordability and, in the future, from the continued growth of the city beyond the current administrative border.

Liability for Animals: An Historico-Structural Comparison

This account of civil liability for animals in a range of ancient, mediaeval and modern legal systems (based on a series of studies conducted early in my career: (s.1)) uses semiotic analysis to supplement the insights of conventional legal history, thus balancing diachronic and synchronic approaches. It reinforces the conventional historical sensitivity to anachronism in two respects: (1) (logical) inference of underlying values from concrete rules (rather than attending to literary features of the text) manifests cognitive anachronism, an issue manifest in biblical scholarship’s discussion of the stoning of the homicidal ox in Exod. 21:28 (s.2); (2) similarly, we see from analysis of Exod. 21:35 that the application of modern notions of literal (rather than narrative) meaning not only manifests a semiotic anachronism but here also obscures the institutional origins of many of the rules in a system heavily reliant on self-help and informal settlement (s.3). At the same time, we find in the patterning of remedies exemplification of a basic Saussurean principle: the meaning of a term (here, a rule) is a function of its relationship to other terms in the same semantic system. In this context, there is a structural principle which correlates degrees of remedy with degrees of fault. However, in the history of their literary reception from the ancient sources, we find that particular rules (particularly where liability is based on scienter) take on new meanings in the context of the system into which they are received (s.4). In addition to the goring ox/pauperies/scienter/traditions, the legal systems here studied also offer remedies for depasturation. The relationship between the two sets of remedies is discussed in terms of a Greimassian-inspired analysis of the “narrative typifications of action” which underlie them, and which help to explain (at a factual or narrative, rather than doctrinal level) why some cases appear “easy” while others present themselves as “hard” (s.5). This is distinguishable from the doctrinal formulations of the distinctions between these sets of remedies, which in both the Jewish and Roman sources import an Aristotelian, teleological conception of nature (reflecting contingent social values, themselves analysable, in semiotic terms, as modalities), which only in later times was modified in favour of a more purely descriptive conception. These doctrinal accounts reflect professionalisation not only in their forms of discourse, but also in the institutional structures they presuppose (s.6). I conclude (s.7) with an attempt more precisely to formulate this correlation between the semiotic and institutional development, insisting that professional dogmatic discourse should not be understood simply as reflecting a higher level of cognitive development, but must also take account of the pragmatics of the particular professional discourse.

On the mystery of capital and the myths of Hernando de Soto: What difference does legal title make?

Hernando de Soto's new bestseller, The Mystery of Capital, attributes the failure of capitalism in the Third World to the lack of property titles. Many governments around the world are following this advice and are busy distributing legal titles to self-help families. Using data gathered in the now legalised self-help settlements of Bogota , the paper questions a number of the alleged benefits of legalisation. It shows how sales are more common when people lack legal title, how informal finance is available at the commencement of an illegal settlement and how little formal finance is forthcoming after legalisation. Most importantly, it shows that there is little sign of a secondary housing market. And, if there is little possibility of selling a house, home ownership in the self-help suburbs can offer little in the way of capital accumulation. It is hard to make money from a house that cannot be sold. Perhaps, de Soto's argument is less a panacea than a populist dream.

Housing Consolidation and Home-based Income Generation

Abstract Consolidation of dwellings in self-help settlements is directly dependent on the generation of surplus resources beyond that required for subsistence. A significant proportion of households in such settlements are reliant on income generated within the home for household subsistence as well as to finance the construction of the dwelling itself. There is therefore a close interrelationship between income levels, dwelling consolidation rates and household profiles, all of which are in a state of continuous change. To examine these interrelationships this paper draws on longitudinal studies of settlements in two intermediate sized, regional capitals in Colombia: Pereira in the centre of the country and Santa Marta on the northern coast. The paper identifies the key factors which impact on the complex interlinkage between income generation and housing conditions, and concludes by offering some observations which are relevant to policy agendas in the field of low-income housing and poverty alleviation.

Financing Self-help Housing: Evidence from Bogotá, Colombia

A priority for housing policy in most Third World countries is to channel credit to the poor. Unfortunately, this has proved difficult to achieve as formal lending institutions are reluctant to lend to the poor. This paper examines how formal lenders deal with self-help housing in Bogotá, Colombia. It also compares how housing construction and/or purchase is financed in four self-help settlements and in two formally constructed, low-income estates in the city. Finally, some ideas are presented about how housing finance for the poor might be improved.

A Home is for Ever? Residential Mobility and Homeownership in Self-Help Settlements

Self-help housing is clearly an ‘architecture that works’. Owner-occupation is also a highly desired tenure among the Third World urban poor. Governments in most poor countries are encouraging self-help ownership. But what do poor households actually gain through ownership? Unlike the housing of the better off, consolidated self-help housing is seldom sold. If there is a limited market for this kind of property, capital appreciation must be limited and, therefore, the poor are likely to lose out relative to the rich. If the poor do not sell their consolidated self-help homes what do they do with them? Are homes merely to live in or do they have economic functions too? The author attempts to answer some of these questions with the aid of research on consolidated self-help suburbs in Bogotá, Colombia. He broadly concludes that self-help ownership does not offer the same advantages in terms of capital appreciations as does ownership in higher income areas.

House for Sale? The Self-help Housing Market in Pereira, Colombia

ABSTRACT This paper aims to contribute to the discussion of the nature of the self-help housing market by analysing its extent and mode of operation in four self-help settlements in the intermediate sized city of Pereira, Colombia. The evidence from the survey settlements suggests that the market for self-help houses is small. Self-help settlements are dominated by a land market rather than by a housing market, although the distinction between the two is far from clear cut. Few self-help houses enter the property market because: many self-help households have no intention of selling their house after all the hard work that went into building it; it is difficult for households who wish to purchase dwellings in self-help settlements to raise the necessary finance; and the lack of title deeds is probably also a limiting factor.

The role of culture and gender in mediating the impact of official interventions in informal settlements: A study from Colombia

The United Nations Global Strategy for Shelter emphasises participation and the role of women in shelter programmes. These two interrelated components will be discussed in the context of Colombia where progressive housing and social development policies echo the United Nations approach in attempting to target those most in need. Using empirical data from the coastal city of Santa Marta this paper 1 explains how cultural values impact on the ability and motivation of households to consolidate their housing situation in self-help settlements. This analysis of household structures and gender roles is then used to examine the impact of government policy in such settlements by looking at two programmes: social housing subsidy and nursery provision. For the housing subsidy programme it is believed that the differences between the groups are likely to be accentuated, with the group with values closer to the dominant society potentially able to make better use of the opportunities provided. However, the nursery programme (which is linked to housing improvement loans) is building on shared values amongst women and is leading to significant improvements in both housing and health.

Conflict management in the modern world-system

What is the relationship between the status of nation-states in the modern world-system and their strategies for conflict management? Using Wallerstein's world-systems theory, Kick's empirical specifications of core, semiperiphery, and periphery, and Black's theory of conflict management, I examine the use of self-help, avoidance, negotiation, and third-party settlement by nation-states. These possible tactics are variously used as forms of social control from below, social control from above, and social control between equals. I argue that the status of nations within the world-system is correlated with the primary mode of conflict management they use at a given time. I speculate that the use of a particular strategy may also subsequently contribute to changes in nations' status.

Households, resources, and child health in a self-help settlement in Cairo, Egypt

The health of children is produced within the social structures of daily life. This paper looks at children in a large, self-help settlement within the city of Cairo, Egypt. It shows how the social and physical conditions of the community, and the specific resources of households, condition the processes by which better or worse health is produced for children under the age of 3. Health status is measured by anthropometric observation and by household survey. Variables are defined and positioned in the analysis according to a framework that links biological outcomes to social determinants through intermediate factors. The analysis makes use of multivariate modeling, as well as qualitative data collected by direct observation in the community.