Adapting to informality: multistorey housing driven by a co-productive process and the People’s Plans in Metro Manila, Philippines

Abstract

Faced with an ever-increasing demand for land in Metro Manila, as well as with the domination of standardised low-income housing models, the local civil society and the urban poor sector embarked on the development of an alternative shelter approach: in-city multi-storey housing delivered through the People's Plans. The article documents the emergence of the approach, interrogates its main assumptions and takes a closer look at the implementation process through two case studies, in Pasig and San Jose Del Monte. The article analyses the modality as an attempt to create a hybrid approach between formal and informal delivery systems within the built form conventionally associated with the imaginaries of the 'formal' city. The findings underscore the role of co-production in enabling the urban poor sector to leverage their approach, while documenting the need to move beyond a formal-informal dichotomy in both theory and urban development practice.

Managed Retreat as Adaptation Option: Investigating Different Resettlement Approaches and Their Impacts—Lessons from Metro Manila

“…However, informal settlements are not necessarily places of absolute poverty and deprivation. Manifold formal-informal relationships exist [31,32], and people who are employed formally, who have achieved academic degrees, or who are rather associated as lower-middle-class-for example, governmental workers-are living in informal settlements [6]. Sometimes, living in informal areas with the prevailing unclear or illegal status and lower level of service provision is a pragmatic decision.…”

The paradox of informality and sustainable human settlement in Botswana

“…There is a vast literature on the relationship between sustainability and informal settlements. Soliman (2004Soliman ( , 2010 in Egypt, Foster (2008) in Latin America, Connolly and Wigle (2017) in Mexico, Silva (2020) in Portugal, Mwaniki et al (2015) in Kenya, Galuszka (2020) in the Philippines, Aigbavboa and Thwala (2010) in South Africa, Amba (2010) in Nigeria are studies worth noting. However, the issue of sustainability and informality in Botswana remains under-researched.…”

East Africa’s Policy and Stakeholder Integration of Informal Operators in Electric Mobility Transitions—Kigali, Nairobi, Kisumu and Dar es Salaam

“…Those examples illustrate why neglecting socioeconomic issues in climate change-oriented policy planning may result in a spontaneous contestation of a specific solution and, in some cases, it being entangled with political agendas. More recently, these kinds of tensions have been fueled by the public health regulations linked to coronavirus disease-19 (COVID- 19) and were perceived as a further threat to the economic wellbeing of small-scale entrepreneurs. The pandemic context is thus likely to further complicate the transitioning process to electro-mobility due to the disruption of supply chains and redirection of budgetary sources to other priorities.…”

“…Urban and transportation studies have increasingly recognized this through a reflection on the interwoven relationship between formal and informal practice [16] and the institutional bricolage it creates [17]. Facing inherent conflicting rationalities in urban development contexts [18], development of policies which may support integration of various systems, for instance, through practices of co-production [19] or hybrid systems, could be positioned as a central step in increasing the acceptance of e-mobility and technological innovations.…”