How does legal status shape access to housing? This research explores the housing journeys of Ghanaian migrants in the borough of the Bronx in New York City to answer that question. The aim of this research is to understand the processes by which poor documented and undocumented migrants access housing, and to uncover the hidden, informal sub-markets that they occupy. Data were collected over a 14-month period of fieldwork, through 2014 and 2015, using a mixed methods approach. Quantitative data were drawn from secondary datasets and qualitative data were obtained from in-depth interviews with migrants, housing providers, and intermediaries. This study adapts urban informality theory by adjoining it with the concepts of migrant enclaves, social capital, and survival strategies. Urban informality describes informal settlements in the Global South that arise due to suspended sovereignty, where the state allows settlements to form to facilitate rapid urbanisation at minimal institutional cost. Urban informality occurs in the Bronx differently than in the Global South: migrants do not construct housing but rather obtain units on the formal market that they then sublet on their own informal market. Complicit actors, including profit-seeking providers and indifferent public authorities, allow this informal market to form. The findings show that, surprisingly, legal status is not an organizing framework in the housing market. Rather, the strength of one's social ties to the Ghanaian migrant community strongly determines how housing is accessed. For instance, undocumented migrants report better housing outcomes (lower rents and higher satisfaction) compared to their documented counterparts because they have more robust connections to other migrants. The only migrant group that can overcome weak social network ties and still readily access affordable housing are unmarried female Ghanaian migrants, as they are desired as household labourers and potential spouses. This research further finds that documented and undocumented migrants are similar in one important respect, they resist support from public institutions: housing courts, social service agencies, and elected representatives. This stems from pervasive myths and misinformation regarding government: migrants tend to believe that public authorities seek to deport them or otherwise prohibit their families from immigrating to the U.S., and that they only truly serve Hispanics, who are in the majority in the Bronx. This results in avoidable impoverishment, particularly among documented migrants who decline to seek public benefits to which they are legally qualified and entitled. This study contributes to knowledge with its empirical findings, methodology, and theoretical developments. The findings deepen our understanding of poor migrant communities residing in the Global North, and the implications of legal status for housing access. The methodology provides a novel approach for uncovering and examining allocation processes in hidden markets. The adapted urban informality model gives new theoretical insights into the relationship between formality and informality, which has further applications in housing studies and urban economics.

The following study situates itself within the Post-Modern, post-positivist epistemological paradigm that seeks to approach urban informality (and more appropriately, a-formality) within the South African township landscape, not as a problem to be solved, but rather as a generative manifestation of being – and the de facto restitution of prevailing urban inefficiencies engendered through applied Euclidean zoning practices. Specifically, the architectural complexities of urban informality as the embodiment of socio-cultural values, and the efficacy of these architectural complexities to manifest real change within the urban environment. Theories and methods of Smart Urbanism, Complexity Science, Urban Informality and Urban Morphology are investigated and applied as a means to understand this emerging architectural complexity as a physical manifestation of urban identity and its physical impact on the original urban fabric, given as empirical evidence. A qualitative empirical data collection, followed by qualitative, interpretive analyses of urban informality at various scales forms the basis of the research method. The neighbourhood consisting of the Khalambazo and White City Sections, in the African township of Mamelodi East, Gauteng, is utilised as a case study to critically analyse and document urban a-formality and emerging architectural complexity. As is discussed within the current study, complex agents of a-formality within the chosen study area are entities informed by contextualised, location-specific human relationships that are temporally and spatially interrelated with each other. Emergent complexity inherent in urban a-formality leads to context-specific multi-functional urban morphological alterations that contribute to urban transformation over time. Positive urban transformation is made possible through the generative adaptability of multi-functional localised complex agents over time. Therefore, Mamelodi East is a significant case study to understand our Post- Apartheid urban condition, from where we can learn to enact meaningful change that responds to the existing dialogues that have already been established. The analysis and documentation of urban informality within townships, as forms of complex emergence manifest in built form, can enable a deeper understanding not only of the new South African condition but also of the global human condition. / Dissertation (MArch)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Architecture / MArch (Research) / Unrestricted

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Over the last decade, and particularly the last five years, state officials in Ghana’s capital city, Accra, have intensified their resolve to ‘modernize’ the city and make it a competitive destination for global investments. In the same period, exercises by city authorities to remove or at least suppress practices of ordinary residents in the informal sector have become more frequent and intensified. Groups such as street hawkers, market women, and slum dwellers have become the main target of periodic ‘decongestion exercises’. In this dissertation I investigate how the policies and practices associated with the ‘globalizing’ and ‘modernizing’ ambition of the state intersect with the interests of the majority of urban residents whose everyday social and economic practices are concentrated in the informal sector, a sector deemed to be deleterious to the desired image for the city. I argue that contemporary city-making in Ghana is driven mainly by a combination of economic, nationalist and individual interests. In examining how cultural and social locations such as gender and ethnicity mediate the relationship between the state and residents, I demonstrate how contemporary forms of neoliberal urban governance shape, and are being shaped by, the unique historical, cultural and developmental dynamics of African cities. / Thesis (Ph.D, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2013-11-06 15:09:39.653

The Medina of Tripoli, Libya, is a very ancient walled city that has a history of change, development, deterioration, conservation, and preservation to its fabric. Influenced by various foreign groups (Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Muslims, Spanish, Ottomans, Karamanlis), its architectural styles include ancient and traditional structures, as well as modern Western style or acculturation architecture. The purpose of the Medina as a place of habitation has changed over the years because of many factors including residents moving out of the Medina, fluctuating preservation, the changes in government policy when each new ruling entity had its particular laws and regulations, and some distortion of the economy due to the oil revenues. The place has no long-term plan or vision applied to it--either from within or from without. This study, the first of its kind in North Africa to collect information by using surveys and mental maps, convert the information into geographic information system (GIS) data, and come to definite conclusions about the Medina's situation. The entire research focused on four areas (the Islamic buildings, common routes of transportation, areas of deterioration, and population densities within Tripoli's Medina), but this document focused on the deterioration in the city while analyzing its urban informality, the residents' rights to live in the city, and property categories. This study helped to clarify the current situation and provide input to planners in post-uprising Libya.

abstract: Slum development and growth is quite popular in developing countries. Many studies have been done on what social and economic factors are the drivers in establishment of informal settlements at a single cross-section of time, however limited work has been done in studying their spatial growth patterns over time. This study attempts to study a sample of 30 informal settlements that exist in the National Capital Territory of India over a period of 40 years and identify relationships between the spatial growth rates and relevant factors identified in previous socio-economic studies of slums using advanced statistical methods. One of the key contributions of this paper is indicating the usefulness of satellite imagery or remote sensing data in spatial-longitudinal studies. This research utilizes readily available LANDSAT images to recognize the decadal spatial growth from 1970 to 2000, and also in extension, calculate the BI (transformed NDVI) as a proxy for the intensity of development for the settlements. A series of regression models were run after processing the data, and the levels of significance were then studied and compared to see which relationships indicated the highest levels of significance. It was observed that the change in BI had a higher strength of relationships with the change in independent variables than the settlement area growth. Also, logarithmic and cubic models showed the highest R-Square values than any other tested models. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.U.E.P. Environmental Design and Planning 2011

Orientador: Agnaldo de Sousa Barbosa / Resumo: A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo compreender como o processo de informalidade urbana e segregação socioespacial impacta nas condições de vida dos moradores do assentamento informal do Bairro Jardim Niceia, no município de Bauru. Para cumprir esse propósito, as técnicas de pesquisa utilizadas foram observação participante como voluntária do projeto Voz do Niceia e membro das oficinas socioterritoriais do CRAS Jardim Europa; pesquisa documental referente aos 205 cadastros com dados socioeconômicos dos moradores do Jardim Niceia, realizados pela SEPLAN; informações oficiais com o poder público mediante solicitações de informações sobre o atendimento das famílias nas diferentes políticas públicas; e entrevistas semiestruturadas com famílias beneficiárias do BPC. A pesquisa está amparada no método de análise da ciência reflexiva, operacionalizada pelo estudo de caso ampliado. A partir da observação participante é possível considerar que para que os serviços públicos alcancem os cidadãos, é preciso buscar alternativas, pois as ofertadas hoje não atendem às necessidades das famílias. O perfil das famílias aponta para baixa escolaridade; maioria com mulheres como chefe de família; trabalhos menos remunerados e desemprego; e casal com filhos. Quanto ao acesso aos serviços públicos, o de saúde foi o único tangível a todas as entrevistadas, ainda que de difícil acesso. Quanto à situação de informalidade urbana, o impacto para a maioria das entrevistadas é a insegurança da posse, de... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research has the goal of understanding how the process of urban informality and socio-spatial segregation affects the life condition of the residents of the informal settlement Bairro Jardim Niceia in the city of Bauru, Brazil. To fulfill that purpose, the research techniques used were: participant observation as a volunteer of the project Voz do Niceia and member of the socio-territorial workshops of the CRAS Jardim Europa; documentary research regarding the 205 registers containing socioeconomic data from the Jardim Niceia residents, performed by SEPLAN; official information from public power upon request for information on services given to the families in different public policies; and semi-structured interviews with the families that benefit from the BPC. The research is based on the reflective science analysis method, operationalized by the expanded case study. From the participant observation, it is possible to consider that in order for the public services to reach the citizens, it is necessary to find alternatives, since the ones offered today do not meet the families' needs. The family profile indicates low education levels; most have women as householders; low-paying jobs and unemployment; and couples with children. As for access to public services, healthcare was the only one accessible to all the interviewed, even if hard to access. As for the urban informality situation, the impact for the majority of the interviewed is the insecurity of ownership, since th... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Official planning documents and strategies often look at cities from above neglecting people’s experiences and practices. Meanwhile cities as meaningful places are constructed though citizens’ practices, memories and ties with their surroundings. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to discover people’s bonds with their urban allotment gardens – dachas – in the Russian city of Kaliningrad and to explore the significance of these bonds for city development. The phenomenon of the dacha has a long history in Russia. Similar to urban allotment gardens in other countries, dachas are an essential part of the city landscape in many post-socialist countries but differ by their large scale. Recent decades have brought diversity into the urban dacha areas of Russia and express a shift away from their primary function of recreational horticulture towards a greater variety in usage, including housing. Due to multiple legal frameworks these areas have become special enclaves with haphazard development, inadequate levels of infrastructure and low quality of self-build houses. Urban dachas can be examined as an example of both post-socialist suburbanization and informal settlement. In this thesis the concept of place attachment, derived from the works of human geographers and environmental psychologists, is used as both the theoretical and methodological lens to look at people-place relations in urban dacha areas. The empirical evidence for this study was gathered through interviews and observations in Kaliningrad where urban dachas comprise 11% of the city’s territory. To capture the different aspects of place attachment in these areas the data was categorised according to common themes.The findings of this study show the complexity of the bonds between people and their urban allotment gardens. Despite all the hardships, these places provide their residents an opportunity for independence and self-realization. The respondents demonstrated an energy and aspiration to achieve increased well-being for themselves and their families, however the lack of resources and institutions hinders the development of place attachment in urban dacha areas. The identified features of people’s bonds with their dachas should not only be preconditions for urban planning but also an integral part of the planning and development process. This study also tests the application of the concept of place attachment for urban studies.

[pt] A população moradora das favelas cria estratégias para sua manutenção nesses locais. Longe de afirmar que a informalidade seria uma solução para todos os problemas da favela, a presente dissertação compreende esta prática como funcional. Contrapondo a isto, a Regularização Fundiária é entendida como a legalização das propriedades das áreas informais. Entretanto, o que se vê, na maioria das favelas cariocas que receberam estes projetos, é a entrega de um título fragilizado, que não garante a permanência da população, isto quando há efetivamente a entrega do título. O tema proposto por esta dissertação é a Regularização Fundiária em contraste com a informalidade urbana encontrada nas favelas cariocas. Analisamos a informalidade urbana como um ordenamento diferenciado no meio urbano, portanto, ela não deve ser encarada como um problema que pode ser solucionado pela Regularização Fundiária. Para compreender a inserção da Regularização Fundiária como Programa governamental nas favelas cariocas, destacamos três favelas como campo de pesquisa: Rocinha, Cantagalo e Acari (Vila Rica e Vila Esperança), todas com inserção governamental e desfechos distintos. Assim, para alcançar o objetivo central desta dissertação, buscamos o aprofundamento nos temas principais por meio da pesquisa bibliográfica, do levantamento documental sobre os programas de regularização fundiária e a realização de entrevistas com lideranças comunitárias, gestores dos programas locais de regularização fundiária e agentes governamentais. Buscamos aprofundar a temática da Regularização Fundiária e as suas variadas vertentes, observando os desafios enfrentados para garantir à população moradora das favelas o direito à cidade. / [en] The slum leaving population create strategies for their maintenance in these environments. Far from stating that informality would be a solution to all slum problems, the present dissertation understands it as a functional practice. Contrary to it, land regularization is understood as of the properties legalization from informal areas. However, what is seen in most slums in Rio de Janeiro that received these projects, is a fragile deed delivered that does not guarantee the population permanence, when, in fact, there is an actual delivery. The theme proposed by this dissertation is Land Regularization in contrast to the urban informality found in the Rio de Janeiro slums. It has been analyzed urban informality as a differentiated urban planning, therefore, it should not be seen as a problem that can be solved by land regularization. In order to understand the inclusion of land regularization as a government program in Rio de Janeiro slums, three slums were studied as field of research: Rocinha, Cantagalo and Acari (Vila Rica and Vila Esperança), all with governmental insertion and different outcomes. Thus, in order to reach the main objective, we seek to deepen the main themes through bibliographical research, documentary survey of land regularization programs and interviews with community leaders, managers of local land regularization programs and government agents. We aim to deepen the theme of land regularization and its various aspects, observing the challenges faced to guarantee the population living in the slums the right to the city.