Housing for the Urban Poor: From Local Action to Global Networks
Final Report Abstract
Over the two past decades it has become widely recognized that housing issues have to be placed in a broader framework recognizing that civil society in the form of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and their allies are increasingly networking and emerging as a strong player that cannot easily be overlooked. Some of these networks have crossed local and national boundaries and have jumped political scales. This implies that housing issues have to be looked at from new angles: They can no longer simply be addressed through localized projects, but rather through multiple scales. The current debate is largely limited to statements about the relevance of individual organizations for local housing processes and tends to overlook the innovativeness in terms of re-scaling those processes and of influencing institutional change at various levels by transcending national boundaries. There is a significant lack of a systemic understanding of such globally operating grassroots networks and their functioning in the housing process. This research project engaged with different perspectives on multi-scalar approaches within the housing field as the basis for grassroots’ engagement with formal agencies including local government, higher levels of government and international agencies. By moving away from romanticizing local selfinitiative, it focused on understanding the emerging potential once local initiatives are interlinked and scaled-up to transnational networks. The research has demonstrated the relevance of recognizing the dynamics of transnational networks engaged in the housing process in Africa and Asia. On the one hand the transnational networks investigated play a strong role in awareness building on issues of poverty and housing and, on the other hand, they target a paradigm change in urban governance through the creating of new governance spaces and interfaces between the state and civil society. Thus, even though actual impact on the housing process in the three cases is difficult to identify or measure, there is a tendency for an increased eyelevel partnership of multi-actors housing processes.
Publications
- (2013): From Grassroots Shacks to the Towers of Power. Relationship Building of Global Grassroots Housing Networks. experiences from Africa and Asia. RC21Conference 'Resourceful Cities'. Berlin (Germany)
Fokdal, J., Ley, A. & Herrle, P.
- (2013): New Urban Players in Africa and Asia: The Role of Grassroots Organizations. in: Töpfer, K. & Mieg, H. (eds.): Institutional and social innovation for sustainable urban development. Routledge, 146-161
Herrle, P., Ley, A. & Fokdal, J.
- (2014): Entagled or empowered? Networks of grasstoots organisations and NGOs in housing and human settlement processes. In: Haferburg, C. & Huchzermeyer, M. (eds.): Urban Governance in Postapartheid Cities: Modes of Engagement in South Africa’s Metropolis.Stuttgart: Borntraeger Science Publishers, 155 - 175
Ley, A.
- (2014): From Beneficiaries to Negotiators – How Urban Poor Transnational Networks Bargain for Better Housing. in: Sustainable Living Urban Model. Slum Lab, 9, 152-155
Ley, A., Fokdal, J. & Herrle, P.
- (2014): Playing the game: Hybrid modes of collaboration – new interfaces between the state and transnational networks of urban poor in the Philippines. Focus Asia: Social Resistance in Non-Democracies. Lund, Sweden. Panel 5
Fokdal, J., Ley, A. & Herrle, P.
- (2014): Transnational Grassroots Networks. New Tendencies in the Housing Process in Thailand, the Philippines and South Africa. Southern Africa City Studies. Johannesburg (South Africa)
Ley, A., Fokdal, J. & Herrle, P.
- From Grassroots Shacks to the Towers of Power: Relationship Building of Transnational Urban Poor Networks. Experiences from Africa and Asia. In: Herrle, P., Ley, A. & Fokdal, J. (eds.) From Local Action to Global Networks: Housing the Urban Poor. London: Routledge, 2015. - EBook 9781317132134. Kap. 5, (16 S.)
Herrle, P., Fokdal, J. & Ley, A.
- From Local Action to Global Networks: Housing the Urban Poor. London: Routledge, 2015. - EBook 9781317132134. 220 pages
Herrle, P., Ley, A. & Fokdal, J. (eds.)
- How Urban Poor Networks are Re-scaling the Housing Process in Thailand, the Philippines and South Africa. In: Herrle, P., Ley, A. & Fokdal, J. (eds.)From Local Action to Global Networks: Housing the Urban Poor. London: Routledge, 2015. - EBook 9781317132134. Kap. 2, (14 S.)
Ley, A., Fokdal, J. & Herrle, P.
- Introduction: Housing Processes Taking Roots in Local Action and Extending to Global Networks. In: Herrle, P., Ley, A. & Fokdal, J. (eds.) From Local Action to Global Networks: Housing the Urban Poor. London: Routledge, 2015. - EBook 9781317132134. (14 S.)
Herrle, P., Ley, A. & Fokdal, J.
- Transnational Networks of Urban Poor: Key for a More Collaborative Urban Governance? In: Herrle, P., Ley, A. & Fokdal, J. (eds.) From Local Action to Global Networks: Housing the Urban Poor. London: Routledge, 2015. - EBook 9781317132134. Kap. 12, (8 S.)
Herrle, P., Fokdal, J. & Ley, A.
