Squatter Settlements Research Articles

Gendered dispossession and women’s changing poverty by slum/squatter redevelopment projects: A case study from Turkey

Informal settlements have been crucial sites of spatial dispossession and neoliberal urbanization with the displacement of the urban poor from profitable urban areas. This study examines the gendered implications of dispossession and changing dimensions of women’s poverty as a result of slum/squatter redevelopment projects. Based on the research of the Kadifekale Urban Transformation Project in Turkey that resettled residents of a highly concentrated Kurdish migrant squatter settlement into a new mass housing estate, the study highlights the impacts of profit-driven urban development projects on women's access to affordable housing, support networks, care work, and employment opportunities. Kurdish women's experiences of displacement and resettlement illustrate in particular the intersectional aspects of gendered dispossession and asset erosion with their exclusion from affordable housing options, dispersal of their communities, and separation from their ethnic employment niches. Drawing upon dispossession and feminist development literature, the study sheds light upon the gendered experiences of displacement, changing livelihood opportunities, gendered access and control over resources, and strategies of resistance that result from slum redevelopment projects.

Sustainable Affordable Housing Strategies For Solving Low-Income Earners Housing Challenges In Nigeria

Globally, several studies have affirmed that the population of those who are displaced with respect to housing is on the rise. Developing nations in the continent of Africa to include Nigeria are reportedly not spared of this development. Similarly, the low-income earners have been reported as the worst hit of this global menace. Shanty dwellings, squatter settlements and informal settlements have similarly been reported to be homes to low-income earners who constitute over 90% of the population of Nigeria. This study therefore presented sustainable affordable housing strategies as an emerging concept through which low-income earners housing challenges in Nigeria can be eliminated. The study relied on a systematic review of literature to arrive at its findings. Findings from the study revealed that sustainable affordable housing strategies through which Nigerian low-income earners housing challenges can be addressed can best be explored from the social, economic, environmental, institutional and technological components of sustainable affordable housing. The study calls on the government, stakeholders, policy makers as well as private developers to adopt sustainable affordable housing strategies for low-income housing provision in Nigeria. The study’s outcome will contribute to existing body of knowledge in that it will provide useful information with respect to low-income housing provision and equally re-direct research interest on low-income housing in Nigeria and other developing nations.

Future past I am a coolie-al…and I reside as an invisible island inside the ocean: Tidalectics, transoceanic crossings, coolitude and a Tamil identity

The politics of Tamil working-class identity in Malaysia continue to be articulated in subaltern terms, employing term such as ‘coolie’, which is elsewhere an archaic usage from colonial days. Yet the power of the coolie narrative appears salient, and the coolie odyssey is far from over. Drawing upon the author’s longitudinal work with a Tamil squatter settlement in the heart of the city of Kuala Lumpur in the Malay Archipelago, this paper moves from third to first and then second narrative to capture the broad range of ruptures and transformations of Tamil sensibilities, a ‘coolitude’ that grew a pattern of life which emerged from a journey that began on the sea. In this article, the author envisions the ‘black ocean’ as an invisible island; shaped by colonial and imperial histories, racial capitalism and ocean crossings. These transoceanic crossings carried the weight of Tamil histories, rooted in the seas as an invisible island—as both the rupture of an identity and a translation from western namings and discourses. What remains is the ‘island’, rooted in the seas as a colonial wound of history, a tidalectic between transoceanic migration, personhood and language. This community is more than just its resilience, its assertions of power, its affair with identity and belonging, and its response to deep social inequalities in its homeland. It is also a space of a poetics of resoluteness to recover an identity that is not fractured, not alienated from place and transoceanic crossings. This paper attempts a retelling of a hidden hyphen that held the labourer and the personhood apart, but also together. It navigates through the concept of tidalectics first postulated by Barbadian poet and historian Kamau Braithwaite (2003) in conjunction with Valentine Daniel’s (2008) The Coolie and Khal Torabully’s (1992) Coolitude. The paper seeks to understand more deeply the performativity of the hyphen as an invisible island inside the ocean.

English

This study conducted on the area of squatter settlement in Jimma town is aimed to explore the socio-economic factors contributing to squatter settlement and its effect on social, economic and institutional conditions of settler and development of the town. The study was guided by qualitative approach and employed a cross-sectional and phenomenological design. The primary data required for the analysis was collected through key informant interview, focus group discussion, non-participant observation as well as secondary data from document and analyzed by thematic analysis. The finding of this study revealed that, the root cause identified for squatter settlement are shortage of residential house and its consequential high price of house rent, the need of holding large plot of land and inefficient land administration system. The other finding indicated that, squatter settlement has negative impact on both the government and the squatter. It created fear and lack of confidence on the land they hold illegally, poor infrastructure due to lack of government intervention and low social service delivery, social distress within the community. The study also found out that squatting displaces the host ex-farmers from their farmland and leads to consequent poverty and livelihood disasters. It is recommended that, political will in accessing residential land and financial commitment of the government is required. Active participation of the public and abiding legal procedures of getting residential land is vital.   Key words: Informal, misery, squatter, settlement, slum.

Heat Emergencies: Perceptions and Practices of Community Members and Emergency Department Healthcare Providers in Karachi, Pakistan: A Qualitative Study

Heat waves are the second leading cause of weather-related morbidity and mortality affecting millions of individuals globally, every year. The aim of this study was to understand the perceptions and practices of community residents and healthcare professionals with respect to identification and treatment of heat emergencies. A qualitative study was conducted using focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, with the residents of an urban squatter settlement, community health workers, and physicians and nurses working in the emergency departments of three local hospitals in Karachi. Data was analyzed using content analysis. The themes that emerged were (1) perceptions of the community on heat emergencies; (2) recognition and early treatment at home; (3) access and quality of care in the hospital; (4) recognition and treatment at the health facility; (5) facility level plan; (6) training. Community members were able to recognize dehydration as a heat emergency. Males, elderly, and school-going children were considered at high risk for heat emergencies. The timely treatment of heat emergencies was widely linked with availability of financial resources. Limited availability of water, electricity, and open public spaces were identified as risk factors for heat emergencies. Home based remedies were reported as the preferred practice for treatment by community members. Both community members and healthcare professionals were cognizant of recognizing heat related emergencies.

Collapsed

SummaryAs part of a larger ethnographic project that approaches urban migration to São Paulo, Brazil as modes of racialized presence, I offer a fictionalized account of the tragic collapse of the Wilton Paes de Almeida Building (Fig. 1), an occupied, squatter settlement, on May 1, 2018. The narrative point of view represents the tension between the omniscient narrator and local actors, using an imaginative opening to examine migrant aspirations and fears. However, it is inescapably partial, its own kind of collapse. After the event, I was unable to locate the “real” people on which the characters were based. I did, however, revisit the area of destruction repeatedly and sat with the ruins (Fig. 2), the built environment playing its own role in memory and migrant experiences. The story follows Sembene, a Senegalese trader, his wife, Grace, and Flávio, a low‐level mafia operator, for twenty‐four hours leading up to and immediately following the collapse of building. We also glimpse their memories and longings as we move between their precarious residence in the building and a Senegalese commercial presence nearby. Ultimately, multiple collapses show the entangled forces of (il)legality, the urban, fortune, and belief in an understudied destination of contemporary African migration.

Transcending Illegality in Kyrgyzstan: The Case of a Squatter Settlement in Bishkek

Governments are reluctant to acknowledge illegal settlements. Ak Jar is an illegal settlement on the outskirts of Bishkek. If the settlement were formally legalised, its residents would receive property documents as well as recognition and inclusion. They have thus developed strategies to achieve the legalisation of Ak Jar. Although the settlement is technically illegal, by behaving ‘legally’ (that is, following legal norms and practices), the residents and community leaders generate the appearance and even some of the effects of legality (such as, legitimate power supply, recognition by politicians). This creates a halfway space between ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ that moves the settlement away from ‘full’ illegality and closer to legalisation.

From squatter settlements to cultural heritage: the preservation and revitalization as “group of buildings” based on the case experience of Treasure Hill Art Village in Taipei City, Taiwan

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the value of squatter settlements (SS) as cultural heritage, which has not been fully addressed. This paper aims at arguing the possibility of utilizing the value of cultural heritage embedded in SS as an art incubator under community participation through a case analysis based on the experience of the Treasure Hill Art Village (THAV) of Treasure Hill Settlement (THS) in Taipei City, Taiwan. This paper clarifies the significance of SS as “a group of buildings” realized by the process of preservation, legalization, and revitalization by way of community participation. THS can be evaluated as a unique case from the perspective of the preservation and legalization processes because it might be considered a mixed type of “legalization of the ownership of buildings and land” and “legalization of residence rights of residents” of SS. Focus on the revitalization of THAV has many spatial characteristics because of the restoration transcending the mere maintenance of its intrinsic value. Further, community participation has evolved to be stronger during the process of preservation and revitalization of THS as THAV. The possibility of how SS may become an irreplaceable space to the city by dynamically revitalizing its value has been clarified by THAV.

Using participatory-planning-based cooperative housing approaches as housing improvement solutions for Xizhou indigenous squatter settlements in New Taipei City, Taiwan

This paper examined the ongoing struggle for habitation rights and the use of Taiwanese and Japanese external expert proposed participatory-planning-based cooperative housing (PPBCH) approaches as a housing improvement solution for the Xizhou indigenous tribe (XIT) squatter settlements in New Taipei City, Taiwan. The XIT squatter settlements in the Xindian Riverside district in the Taipei Metropolitan area, which is home to about 200 indigenous migrant laborers from Eastern Taiwan, has existed for about 50 years. After a systematic literature review on informal urban spaces, this paper clarified the spatial characteristics of the XIT squatter settlement, after which the history of the XIT housing movement was summarized. Then, participative micro-level analyses that involved observation, in-depth interviews and life history surveys were conducted to identify the particular issues, and notes taken at a participatory design workshop to integrate personal viewpoints into the evaluations on the interactions between the PPBCH actors and assess the effectiveness. Finally, implications and conclusions on the PPBCH approach to resolve the issues in the XIT squatter settlement are provided. Although further refinement is necessary, the PPBCH approach was found to be an effective future housing improvement solution for East Asia.

The Political Economy of Displacement: Rent Seeking, Dispossessions and Precarious Mobility in Somali Cities

AbstractDisplacement is urbanizing. Urban violence increasingly contributes to displacement while a growing number of displaced people across the globe seeks refuge in cities. This article builds on original research in four Somali cities to explore the link between violence, displacement and urbanization. It identifies and comparatively explores three types of urban settlements of displaced people: urban camps at cities’ outskirts, inner‐city squatter settlements, and relocation areas. The focus of the analysis is on the political economy that underpins the establishment, maintenance and, at times, destruction of these settlements. The article shows that settlements of displaced people are embedded in varied practices of rent seeking which contribute to the commercialization of land and housing and lead to further land speculations. Urban reconstruction accelerates rent seeking and goes hand in hand with (mass‐scale) evictions of displaced people. The article also shows how land ownership is mobilized to retain political rights and citizenship. The findings outline the multiple ways urban land relations are intertwined with practices of sovereignty and citizenship, and attest to observations of a globally expanding rent economy. They also underscore the arbitrariness and violence imbricated in property relations.

Physical and Psychological Symptoms Associated With Premenstrual Syndrome and Their Impact on the Daily Routine of Women in a Low Socioeconomic Status Locality.

IntroductionThe constellation of the physical and psychological symptoms that appear several days before menstrual period is regarded as the premenstrual syndrome (PMS). The current study evaluated the symptoms associated with PMS and their impact on the day-to-day activities of women.MethodologyAn observational cross-sectional study was conducted at a squatter settlement in Karachi, Pakistan, from January 2019 to February 2020. Amenorrheic, pregnant women, and women who were on birth control at the time of data collection were excluded from the study. The demographics, symptoms of PMS experienced by the participants, and the impact of PMS symptoms on the daily lives of women were recorded. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences v.25 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) was used for data analysis. ResultsThe mean age ± standard deviation of 23.93 years ± 9.41 years was recorded. As many as 213 (63%) women reported dysmenorrhea, followed by fatigue in 108 (32%), bloating in 64 (18.9%), and back pain in 45 (13.3%) women. Irritability and anxiety were experienced by 134 (39.6%) and 117 (34.6%) women, respectively. When asked about their attitude and perception towards menstruation, more than four-fifth respondents confessed that they feel impure when they are experiencing their monthly period. About 38 women (11.2%) believed that menstruation is God’s way of punishing the womankind. For the question, “Do you feel that your normal routine is significantly disturbed during your period?”, 40% responded in affirmation.ConclusionThe findings of the current study reflected a generally negative attitude towards menstruation, which significantly affected the routine lives of women in our setting. The study further concluded that dysmenorrhea, fatigue, irritability, and anxiety were the most common symptoms of PMS experienced by women.

Influences of Culture in the Built Environment; Assessing Living Convenience in Kabul City

During Afghanistan’s rapid urban growth, development diversified from state-run initiatives to ones led by local municipalities or nongovernmental entities such as private enterprises. Owing to these various efforts, cities face environmental challenges, squatter settlements, and unbalanced development. Responding to these interconnected challenges, cities need to increase their resilience to deal with the combined effects of urbanization, changing geopolitical contexts, and culture. In this study, we focused on dimensions of culturally responsive solutions for the built environment in Kabul, Afghanistan. Culture, as a key element in the concept of sustainable development, refers herein to the relationship between Afghan customs and belief systems as it influences and shapes the architecture of the urban environment. Initially, the study provides a conceptual understanding of sustainable urban development and the importance of culture. We have attempted to approach urban segregation in Kabul based on socioeconomic factors and address the essential role of culture in this unique context. Such segregation can be hazardous to both the current and future sustainability of urban development. To conclude, we provide in-depth insights into the contribution of culture and propose culture as a possible dimension of sustainability and an integral part of environmental, economic, and social dimensions of development.

Structures and networks of accessing and securing land among peri-urban squatters: the case of Malawian migrants at Lydiate informal settlement in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT The scholarly discourse on migrants and land access in peri-urban spaces is advancing theoretically and empirically. This paper contributes to this important discourse by examining the structures and networks used by migrants of international descent in accessing and securing the much coveted land in peri-urban spaces of destination countries. The study is qualitative, based on an ethnographic inquiry among Malawian migrants in Lydiate, an informal peri-urban squatter settlement in Zimbabwe’s Norton town. The finding of the paper is that migrants resort to alternative institutions including kinship, political networks and investors in accessing and securing land in peri-urban spaces. Migrants also establish themselves through the occult, a religious and ritual-based form of authority that is associated with deathly symbols. Because it is feared by adherence and indigenes alike, the occult is able to yield and guarantee land to migrants seeking it in its name. Migrant squatter settlements, therefore, emerge as dynamic spaces with novel forms of authority that regulate access to resources. Beneath the semblance of chaos that characterizes squatter settlements, there is another different ‘world’; ordered and shared by those who constitute it. The paper further argues that, the reason why migrants turn to alternative forms of authority in accessing and securing land is not because they prefer it; very often, there are no formal institutions that they can turn to. What this means for academia and policy makers is that, there is a broad scope of players that need to be engaged in the planning and governance of peri-urban spaces in the age of transnational mobility. These players include political patrons, investors, and other primordial forms of authority which include kinship and the feared occult. These players not only need to be understood but also require to be engaged in the ongoing construction and governance of peri-urban spaces.

Nutritional support for lactating women with or without azithromycin for infants compared to breastfeeding counseling alone in improving the 6-month growth outcomes among infants of peri-urban slums in Karachi, Pakistan\u2014the protocol for a multiarm assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial (Mumta LW trial)

BackgroundGlobally, 45% of under-five deaths are either directly or indirectly attributable to malnutrition, and most of these deaths are in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Children are particularly vulnerable in the first 6 months of life. An estimated 4.7 million infants under the age of 6 months are moderately wasted, whereas 3.8 million are severely wasted. Although the children of malnourished women have an increased risk of stunting and wasting, there is little information on this issue.MethodsThis is a community-based, open-label, multiarm randomized controlled trial that will include parallel group assignments with a 1:1:1 allocation ratio in low-income squatter settlements in urban Karachi, Pakistan. The women in the control group (control arm) will receive standard counseling only, whereas the lactating women in the first intervention group (intervention arm 1) will receive two sachets of balanced energy protein (BEP) supplementation per day from enrollment until the infant reaches 6 months of age. The lactating women in the second intervention group (intervention arm 2) will receive the same BEP supplementation as those in intervention arm 1 while their babies will also receive a single stat dose (20 mg/kg orally) of azithromycin at 42 days. The primary outcome will be the relative length velocity from 0 to 6 months by intervention arm. The primary analysis will be intention-to-treat analysis.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03564652. Registered on 21 June 2018

Debt collection as labour discipline: the work of finance in a Myanmar squatter settlement

Critical studies of development in the global South have called attention to the failure of existing modernisation projects to deliver on promises of full employment in well‐remunerated wage labour. Despite this shortfall in formal employment, non‐normative labour forms have proliferated globally, alongside mass expansion of financial markets since the late 20th century. In the present article, I take up these multiple trends as interrelated phenomena, inquiring into the work of finance in the extraction of value where individuals labour outside of formal employment. The argument, in brief, is that manifold debt relations have facilitated an effective extraction of value from non‐normative forms of capitalist labour in the informal economy. This argument contrasts with positions that see informal labour as non‐capitalist, or posit such labour as lying outside class relations of exploitation. Ethnographically, I engage these issues through a study of heterogeneous livelihoods among residents of a squatter settlement located in an industrial zone on the outskirts of Myanmar’s former capital, Yangon.

Low-Income Housing Provision: Between Governmental Interventions And Informal Settlements - Greater Cairo Region Between 1980s And 2010s

Low-cost housing, so-called affordable housing, is an important subject as it affects many aspects of people's well-being and city planning. The urban poor, who form a respectable percentage of cities' residents in many developing countries, are the most affected segment by the availability and affordability of housing. Governments often try their best to provide affordable housing through housing interventions and programs. However, many low-income people end up in informal settlements including slums and squatter settlements.
 This research analyzes state-led low-cost housing initiatives compared to informal affordable housing in developing countries. The importance of this research is mainly associated with understanding how governmental housing initiatives and laws affect the housing preferences of the urban poor.
 The research starts by providing a brief background about the subject and its importance from the literature. The research uses mixed methods approach and a case study of Greater Cairo Region following the massive migration during the period between the 1980s and the 2000s to provide an in-depth understanding of the situation. The research then analyzes/discusses some housing initiatives, and uses both quantitative/qualitative data in order to explain potential malpractice and issues. Finally, the research will highlight the key findings and provide some recommendations for change/improvement.

Tin City: Nomadic occupation, colonization and resistance in the sand dunes of Stockton Bight, Australia

This article explores nomadic site occupation as a form of planetary colonization involving both human and non-human agents. Conventional understandings of temporary occupation are often humancentric with little attention paid to the disruption of extant site ecologies and processes. The latter are particularly pressing concerns in nomadic settlements located in precarious landscapes. Taking the latter as its focus, this article engages the earth as an agent resisting its own colonization in the Australian-licensed squatter settlement known colloquially as Tin City. Located within the largest mobile sand dune structure in New South Wales, Tin City is an assemblage of several self-built fishing shacks accommodating a nomadic population. Its occupants engage in a daily battle against the shifting sands that threaten to subsume their temporary homes. Located in an area of significant indigenous heritage, the Tin City settlement has become a tourist attraction shrouded in local lore. Current discourses about it and its architectures generally focus on its unusual aesthetics, its contested sociopolitical histories and its ecology, with some discussion on the impacts of European colonization on the sand dune’s dynamic geomorphology. To concentrate on the latter, the article develops and deploys the posthumanist conceptualization of the earth posited by Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani in his ficto-critical text Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials. Negarestani ascribes the earth with sentient and agentic capacity, whilst the nomads who traverse its surfaces become the penultimate planetary colonizers. Tin City’s occupation thus becomes a story of colonization and resistance narrated by the earth itself, and a reminder that the production and consumption of architectural forms does not need to be confined to that which is conventionally human.

School-based interventions to promote personal and environmental hygiene practices among children in Pakistan: protocol for a mixed methods study

BackgroundPoor personal hygiene and inadequate sanitation practices among young children leads to communicable diseases. There remains a gap in the holistic assessment of school children’s hygiene literacy, practices and effectiveness of school-based hygiene interventions in Pakistan. Therefore, a school-based intervention protocol has been designed to promote personal and environmental hygiene practices for primary school children. Towards improving children’s hygiene behaviors, the study will also focus on enhancing mothers' hygiene knowledge and practices.MethodsUsing quasi-experimental design with mixed methods data collection approaches, this study will be conducted in schools located in an urban squatter settlements in Pakistan. To assess primary grade children and their mothers‘ hygiene status, a survey will be held in the pre-intervention phase. This phase also includes qualitative exploration of key stakeholders (mothers, teachers, health & education authorities representatives’) perceptions about the factors facilitating and impeding the adaption of hygiene behaviors among school children. In-depth guides and focus group discussion tools will be used for this purpose. This will be followed by multi-component intervention phase with behavior change strategies to improve children‘s and mothers’ hygiene literacy and behaviors. The post-intervention phase will assess the intervention effectiveness in terms of enhancing hygiene knowledge and practices among school children and mothers, alongside exploration of mothers and teachers’ insights into whether or not the intervention has been effective in improving hygiene practices among children. Paired t-test will be applied pre and post-intervention to measure the differences between the mothers and children's hygiene literacy and knowledge scores. Similar test will be performed to assess the differences in children’s hygiene knowledge and practice scores, pre and post-intervention (< 50 = poor, 50–75 = good and > 75 = excellent). Thematic analysis will be carried out for qualitative data.DiscussionMulti-component intervention aimed at improving personal and environmental hygiene among primary school children offers an opportunity to design and test various behavioral change strategies at school and in home settings. The study findings will be significant in assessing the intervention’s effectiveness in improving children‘s overall hygiene.Trial registrationRetrospectively registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03942523) on 5th May 2019.

Change in Post Partum Family Planning Behaviour Observed in Pakistani Men and Women in a Squatter Settlement in Karachi: A Pre-Post Observational Study

Background: Unfortunately, in Pakistan, there are many myths associated with family planning practices hence general reluctant perception of couples is observed especially just after childbirth. In fact, post partum is the most vulnerable period to discuss contraception. In our study, we aimed to see the change in post partum contraceptive behaviours after thorough counselling to individuals in a squatter settlement in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: This is a pre-post observational study done from September 1st 2018 until November 15th 2018 in a squatter settlement in Sikanderabad Karachi. A total of 1023 subjects, both males and females of reproductive age group were recruited in the study. The base line knowledge was assessed by using pre-prepared extensive questionnaire adapted from Best Paper Practice (BPP) PPFP (Post Partum Family Planning) Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG) about contraceptive behaviours, after taking informed consent and providing privacy. After filling the pre-test forms, an awareness talk describing the advantages and disadvantages of all methods of contraception currently available in Pakistan, was discussed in detail. Data was analyzed using SPSS 20 filled a post-test questionnaire consisting of the same questions. Mc-Nemar’s test was used to see the difference in the pre and post questionnaire. p-value &lt;0.05 was considered significant. Results: Knowledge of use, side effects and efficacy of all the contraceptive methods was enhanced considerably post session showing statistically significant results (p-value &lt;0.00). Conclusion: It is clearly seen that giving contraceptive education helped couples to choose the appropriate contraceptive method to give birth spacing.

Accra’s Old Fadama/Agbogbloshie settlement. To what extent is this slum sustainable?

ABSTRACT Slum conditions associated with squatter settlements pose major challenges in African cities. In the city of Accra, Ghana, municipal officials traditionally addressed squatter settlements through demolition and evictions. Despite these evictions, Old Fadama/Agbogbloshie, an illegal squatter settlement in Accra, continues to flourish. Within the context of sustainable principles, this study explores why this slum became embedded. Results are based on a survey of 100 slum residents, 20 city officials and 20 city opinion leaders. Findings suggest that community participation in concert with municipal authorities can potentially lead to slum improvements sensitive to the social and economic needs of residents.