The rise of megacities and the urbanization of informality, exclusion and violence

Although urban women generally enjoy some advantages over their rural counterparts, a range of gender inequalities and injustices persist in urban areas that constrain their engagement in the labour market and in informal enterprises and inhibit the development of capabilities among younger women. These include unequal access to decent work, human capital acquisition, financial and physical assets, intra-urban mobility, personal safety and security, and representation in formal structures of urban governance. But the nature of these varies for different groups of women, not only on account of poverty status and where they live in the city, but also according to age, household characteristics, degree of engagement in income-generating activities and so on. This paper reviews what we have learnt from the literature on gender and urban development. It discusses disparities in access to education and vocational training and to land and housing ownership through a "gender lens". It considers service deficiencies and associated time burdens, which limit income generation among women. Violence and gender, and gender divisions in access to different spaces within the city and in engagement in urban politics, are also covered. These factors cast doubt on whether women's contributions to the prosperity often associated with urbanization are matched by commensurate returns and benefits.

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“… 85. Kruijt and Koonings (2009); also Jones and Rodgers (editors) (2009); and McIlwaine and Moser (2000). …”

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confidence: 99%

“… 3. Krujit and Koonings (2009); also Rakodi (2008); Rodgers, Beall and Kanbur (2011); and UN–Habitat (2010c), page 3. …”

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confidence: 99%

Cities through a “gender lens”: a golden “urban age” for women in the global South?

Chant¹

2013

Environment and Urbanization

196

100

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“…smuggling and trafficking). 33 In the latter two cases, local state capacity might be stronger than in other areas. Yet, the type of challenger we analyze here has the resources (especially during economic booms) to avoid or contest the state even in localities where capacity is relatively strong.…”

Section: Relational State Capacity and State Challengersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Greater State Capacity, Lesser Stateness:

Dargent

Feldmann²,

Luna

2017

Politics & Society

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This article analyzes the evolution of state capacity in Peru during the recent commodity boom. Peru’s economic growth happened in a context in which inclusive democratic institutions were at play for the longest period ever registered in the country and at a time when political elites decided to invest considerable resources in developing state capacity (not the prototypical predatory elites usually identified in the literature). This case illustrates how boom-led economic growth can lead to the (unilateral) institutional strengthening of a weak state. However, (net) state capacity continues to be low in Peru. The causal mechanism that yields such continuity differs from those entertained in classic path-dependent explanations of state capacity in Latin America. The article identifies a novel mechanism that helped reproduce the Peruvian path intertemporally. This relational mechanism suggests that state capacity remains low because of the relatively enhanced capacities of state challengers to locally fend off and contest an otherwise much stronger state apparatus. The article argues, on that basis, the need to employ a relational analysis that gauges net state strength with respect to the power acquired by relevant non-state actors who might challenge state authority across different local arenas. Classic conceptualizations of state capacity are indeed relational, but conventional applications are predominantly unilateral and, thus, misleading. Unilateral notions of state capacity are those that focus on either state efforts and investments to assert state capacity or, alternatively, on the presence of challenges that curtail the levels of actually observed state capacity.

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“…A further dimension of violence is the urban context is that of citizen contestation and claim-making (Goodfellow and Jackman 2020, Harvey 2012, Mitlin 2018, Muggah 2014. Localised violence may be enabled by the state when local elites exploit neglected populations with the creation of 'no-go' low-income neighbourhoods (Muggah 2014 and/or where the state has abandoned residents and does not provide security (Kruijt and Koonings 2009). Goodfellow and Jackman (2020) explore the use of violence in capital cities within dominant regimes (as elaborated within a political settlements framework).…”

Section: Conflict Violence and Social Ordermentioning

confidence: 99%

The Politics of Shelter: Understanding Outcomes in Three African Cities

Mitlin

2020

SSRN Journal

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This paper analyses the politics of shelter provision in three African cities, focusing on the needs of and provision for the low-and middle-income residents. Housing is a priority for low-and middle-income households. Governments influence multiple facets of land and shelter and affect the shelter options realisable for urban residents. The significance of housing to citizen wellbeing means that housing policy and programming is attractive to politicians seeking popular support.The framework of political settlements is used to structure the analysis. In all three cities, national political elites seek to influence housing outcomes. In the two capital cities, elites use clientelism (backed up by violence) to advantage themselves and secure rents for influential local groups (or factions). Territorial controls are used by elites to influence electoral outcomes, while approaches to housing help to gain legitimacy through strengthening paradigmatic ideas that encapsulate a vision for development.To date, the framework has primarily been applied to the national level. Hence, this application is both novel and a test of the framework's relevance at this spatial scale and with this sectoral focus.

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The rise of megacities and the urbanization of informality, exclusion and violence

Cited by 7 publications

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Cities through a “gender lens”: a golden “urban age” for women in the global South?

Cities through a “gender lens”: a golden “urban age” for women in the global South?

Greater State Capacity, Lesser Stateness:

The Politics of Shelter: Understanding Outcomes in Three African Cities

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