On Urban Informality: A Pyramid on Slum Upgrading and Placemaking

Abstract

The cities of today are confronted with ever-increasing numbers of informal settlements. Notwithstanding four decades of national and international efforts to reverse the distressing state of affairs, slums have become the main housing type worldwide -slum formation nothing but increasing. The undermined and untapped potential that urban informality represents critically hinders human progress. Narrow approaches to slum upgrading and to informal dwellers produce insufficient and unsustainable results. The few comprehensive, multidimensional, and integral slum upgrading programs attest that a change of perspective is very much needed. To this effect, we have conceived a pyramid on the indispensable elements of slum upgrading: to illustrate our proposed methodology for attaining more sustainable, comprehensive, and humanized solutions vis-à-vis urban informality. Urban development; human development; slum upgrading; social urbanism; placemaking. Desarrollo urbano; desarrollo humano; mejora de asentamientos informales; creación de lugares. Autor Abstract Comillas Journal of International Relations | nº 15 | 099-119 [2019] [ISSN 2386-5776] 99Las ciudades de hoy día se enfrentan a crecientes tasas de asentamientos informales. A pesar de las cuatro décadas de esfuerzos a escala nacional e internacional para revertir esta preocupante situación, los asentamientos informales se han convertido en el tipo de vivienda más extendido, y la formación de esta clase de barrios no ha hecho más que crecer. La informalidad representa un potencial socavado e inaprovechado, lo que supone un obstáculo tremendo para el progreso humano. El enfoque restrictivo que se tiene de las técnicas de mejora de asentamientos y de sus habitantes solo puede dar lugar a resultados insuficientes e insostenibles. Los pocos programas de mejora de asentamientos informales que son exhaustivos, multidimensionales e integrales dan testimonio de lo mucho que se necesita un cambio de perspectiva. Con este fin, hemos compuesto una pirámide sobre los elementos indispensables en la mejora de asentamientos informales, con el fin de ilustrar nuestra propuesta metodológica para alcanzar soluciones más sostenibles, completas y humanas frente a la informalidad urbana.

Policy Network on the Kotaku Program in the Global South: Findings from Palembang, Indonesia

“…Decent and affordable housing is the key to improving their living conditions according to United Nations. Studies related to the handling of slum areas have been carried out in various parts of the world, such as India [4,5] and Dhaka [6,7] in Asia; Brazil, Mexico, and the Caribbean [8][9][10] in Latin America; Nairobi and Kenya in Africa [11,12]; Rome in Europe [13] and also in Australia [14]. Some of these studies reveal that the problem of urban slum areas is formed as a result of poor sanitation, lack of clean 2 of 19 water, and lack of provision of infrastructure, while in Nezahualcoyotl near Mexico City, social problems surrounding its urban slum areas include criminal activities.…”