Trading Places: Accessing land in African cities

Abstract

Trading Places is about urban land markets in African cities. It explores how local practice, land governance and markets interact to shape the ways that people at society's margins access land to build their livelihoods. The authors argue that the problem is not with markets per se, but in the unequal ways in which market access is structured. They make the case for more equal access to urban land markets, not only for ethical reasons, but because it makes economic sense for growing cities and towns. If we are to have any chance of understanding and intervening in predominantly poor and very unequal African cities, we need to see land and markets differently. New migrants to the city and communities living in slums are as much a part of the real estate market as anyone else; they're just not registered or officially recognised. This book highlights the land practices of those living on the city's margins, and explores the nature and character of their participation in the urban land market. It details how the urban poor access, hold and trade land in the city, and how local practices shape the city, and reconfigures how we understand land markets in rapidly urbanising contexts. Rather than developing new policies which aim to supply land and housing formally but with little effect on the scale of the need, it advocates an alternative approach which recognises the local practices that already exist in land access and management. In this way, the agency of the poor is strengthened, and households and communities are better able to integrate into urban economies.

Creating a gap that can be filled: Constructing and territorializing the affordable housing submarket in Gauteng, South Africa

“…8 The second strand evident in this epistemic community focuses less on housing markets per se than housing’s role in the market. It is inspired by Amartya Sen’s approach to different kinds of assets, of which housing is one (Napier et al., 2013). In Sen’s capabilities theory, assets are part of building people’s capabilities to reduce poverty and create wealth.…”

Reframing the Urban Challenge in Africa

“…However, practice shows that land tenure is a relative and contested concept. With different perceptions and understandings on the ground, and a range of actors and practices involved, policy interventions around land tenure have resulted in varied and unintended outcomes (Payne, 2002;Payne et al, 2009;Napier et al, 2013). Meanwhile, most African countries continue to adhere to conventional land administration systems, such as land titling and individual ownership, which are inappropriate to the African tenure context and unsustainable financially and in terms of capacity to administer (Clarke, 2009).…”

The theory and reality of urban slums: Pathways-out-of-poverty or cul-de-sacs?

“…The existing literature on informal settlements in SA is uneven in its coverage, with more attention devoted to human rights, social movements and political protests than to economic and demographic processes (Huchzermeyer, 2011; Kornienko, 2014; Parnell and Pieterse, 2010; Pithouse, 2009; Strauss and Liebenberg, 2014). There has been more work on informal urban land and housing markets (Cross, 2013; Landman and Napier, 2010; Napier et al, 2014) than on urban labour markets, and little on the links between them (Hunter and Posel (2012) is an exception). Case studies of particular settlements have been quite popular (Charlton, 2006; Lemanski, 2011; Massey, 2014; Richards et al, 2007; Tavener-Smith, 2012).…”