Researching the contemporary city

� e city is perhaps the most complex of all human constructs. In the 21st century when cities are bigger than ever, and the majority of the world’s population now live in urban areas, the need for research into this complexity to address the large scale challenges of urban life has never been greater.

� is collection of research studies from di� erent parts of the world, brings together case studies, underpinned by theory, to contribute to the urgent search to make our cities more just, more liveable, more accessible, more participatory and more democratic: in short, more humane places to live and work. � ese cross-cutting themes of social inclusion, spatial integration and poverty alleviation are the ever pre-sent motifs and motivations throughout this volume.

� e eleven chapters are grouped into four interrelated sections: the creation and representation of the urban; the production and trans-formation of the informal; the construction and appropriation of pu-blic spaces; and � nally, the transformation, use and meaning of home. Collectively the essays engage with the city at a range of scales, but underpinning all of them is a concern for the everyday realities of ordinary people’s lives.

� ese detailed and � ne-grain analyses of complex processes are a modest contribution towards the creation of cities which are not simply more economically viable and environmentally sustainable, but also embody the ideals of social justice.

AUTHORS

Peter Kellett

Jaime Hernández-García

Mona Abdelwahab

Tamer Abdelfattah Ahmed

Antika Sawadsri

Musyimi Mbathi

Rittirong Chutapruttikorn

Mauricio Hernández-Bonilla

Brenda Galván-López

Muhammad Faqih

Agam Marsoyo

Cover imageColombo, Sri Lanka.© Peter Kellett, 2010.

RECENT TITLES IN THIS COLLECTION

Poéticas de la biología de lo posibleIliana Hernández García —editora—

Cognición y subjetividades políticasRaúl Niño Bernal

Estética, ciencia y tecnología. Creaciones electrónicas y numéricasIliana Hernández García —compiladora—

Estética de la habitabilidad y las nuevas tecnologíasIliana Hernández García —compiladora—

Estética, vida arti� cial y biopolíticaIliana Hernández García y Raúl Niño Bernal —compiladores—

Indicadores estéticos de cultura urbanaRaúl Niño Bernal

Mundos virtuales habitados. Espacios electrónicos interactivosIliana Hernández García

Peter Kel le t t and Ja ime Hernández-Garc ía

—Editors—

Researching the Contemporary CityI D E N T I T Y, E N V I R O N M E N T A N D S O C I A L I N C L U S I O N

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ReseaRching thecontempoRaRy city

identity, environment and social inclusion in developing urban areas



Peter Kellett and Jaime Hernández-García

—Editors—

Researching the Contemporary City : Identity, environment and social inclusion in urban areas / editors Peter Kellett and Jaime Hernández-García. -- 1a ed. -- Bogotá : Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, 2013. – (Colección estética contemporánea).

253 p. ; 24 cm.Incluye referencias bibliográficas.ISBN: 978-958-716-634-7

1. ARQUITECTURA. 2. URBANISMO. 3. CIUDADES Y PUEBLOS. 4. ESPACIO EN ARQUITECTURA. 5. ESTÉTICA ARQUITECTÓNICA. I. Kellett, Peter, ed. II. Hernández García, Jaime, ed. III. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Facultad de Arquitectura y Diseño. Departamento de Estética.

CDD 720.103 ed. 22Catalogación en la publicación - Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Biblioteca Alfonso Borrero Cabal, S.J._________________________________________________________________________________dff. Junio 11 / 2013

Reservados todos los derechos© Pontificia Universidad Javeriana© Peter Kellett Jaime Hernández-García Mona Abdelwahab Tamer Abdelfattah Ahmed Antika Sawadsri Musyimi Mbathi Rittirong Chutapruttikorn Mauricio Hernández-Bonilla Brenda Galván-López Muhammad Faqih Agam Marsoyo

Primera edición: septiembre del 2013 Bogotá, D.C.ISBN: 978-958-716-634-7Número de ejemplares: 300Impreso y hecho en ColombiaPrinted and made in Colombia

Editorial Pontificia Universidad JaverianaCarrera 7a n.° 37-25, oficina 1301 Edificio LutaimaTeléfono: 3208320 ext. 4752www.javeriana.edu.co/editorialBogotá, D. C.

Corrección de estiloMatías Godoy

Diseño y diagramaciónMarcela Godoy

ImpresiónJavegraf

Prohibida la reproducción total o parcial de este material, sin autorización por escrito de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.

contents

preface: in happiness inn 9

introduction: Researching the contemporary city 11Peter Kellett and Jaime Hernández-García

The creation and Representation of the Urban 25

Cairo: A Deconstruction Reading of Space 27Mona Abdelwahab

Transforming the Desert into a Liveable Place: The Egyptian Experience 51Tamer Abdelfattah Ahmed

Negotiating Disabling Environments: A Collective Movement in Bangkok 75Antika Sawadsri

The production and transformation of the informal 93

Technology and Participation: Geo-information Tools in Settlement Upgrading 95Musyimi Mbathi

Status, Capital and Identity: From Informal to Formal Housing in Bangkok 117Rittirong Chutapruttikorn

The construction and appropriation of public spaces 135

People Shaping Public Spaces: Popular Urban Design Processes in Mexico 137Mauricio Hernández-Bonilla

The Production of Informal Urban Space: The Barrios of Bogota 151Jaime Hernández-García

Converging Heritage Approaches in Historic Centres: The Danzón and the Zócalo of Veracruz, Mexico 169Brenda Galván-López

The transformation, Use and meaning of home 187

About Domestic Architecture: From Rural to Urban in Indonesia 189Muhammad Faqih

Space as Capital: Household Adaptation Strategies in Home-Based Enterprises in Indonesia 211Agam Marsoyo

Home-Based Livelihoods and Housing Policy: Urban Informality in India and Indonesia 227Peter Kellett

contributors 251

9

pReface

in happiness inn

A dozen people sit around a circular table against a large multi-coloured illuminated panel of the dramatic Hong Kong skyline. The group interact in a lively and animated way as they share many dishes of Chinese food and cups of green tea. Why are they here? What brings them together? Although an apparently diverse group with multiple nationalities, languages, religions and even disciplines, they have one thing in common—they are all PhD students in my research group at the School of Architecture Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University. After our intensive group seminars at the University, where we would debate, discuss and critique each other’s research proposals, presentations, recent chapters and conference drafts, we would come to the Happiness Inn to continue the discussions and share stories, jokes, and food.

Sharing food and eating together is one of the oldest and most fun-damental aspects of being human, as shared meals not only help to create and reinforce a sense of group identity, but are also a key way in which we celebrate our humanity and make tangible our shared values and common endeavours. Interlinked with this social role, they transmit values and in-formation, and are a perfect platform for the development of ideas, debate, argue and celebrate the mundane as well as the special—a recent viva suc-cess, a paper acceptance or good news from home.

It was during one of these lively meals that the idea of producing a collective book which would include contributions from all of us be-gan to materialise and take shape. We were attracted to the possibility of a joint project which would make visible the linkages between us, and which would be a tangible outcome of our shared work and friendships.

I had been inspired a few years earlier by the book Home Possession: Mate-rial Culture Behind Closed Doors, by one of my favourite anthropology writers and perhaps the foremost theorist on material culture: Daniel Miller. In the in-troduction he describes how each chapter was contributed by one of his many PhD students at University College London. He also offers a glimpse into the

ReseaRching the contempoRaRy city

10

process of academic exchange and production, and reinforced my long held belief in the vital importance of shared food as a catalyst and agent in creative working. This was an ideal which fired my imagination.

In many ways the university is a place of privilege—where we have the resources and time to observe, analyse and critique aspects of the wider world. But this must never be a self-indulgent exercise. All the students who formed part of the group are working on research projects which aim in different ways to engage with the critical issues facing the urban populations of expanding cities. We have a responsibility to focus our energies and intellect so that our research, however modestly, is able to offer insights, interpretations and data which can support processes of change and improvement. This is a serious task, but one which—we believe—can be enjoyable too.

There were other students who were part of the group, but who for different reasons were unable to contribute a chapter to the book. Chin Nang Cheung, who analysed contrasting urban environments in Taipei, Taiwan, and who was an enthusiastic supporter of the book project in the early stages; Warebi Brisibe, who wrote an engaging study on the vernacular architectures of the Ijaw people based on his hair-raising fieldwork in the Niger river delta; Raquel Perez, from Spain, who spent two exchange periods in Newcastle and shared her enthusiasm and knowledge of environmental psychology applied to the study of domestic spaces; and Arina Hayati, from Surabaya, in Indonesia, who inspired us all with her remarkable work and experience of disability in demanding environments (including an exceptionally icy Newcastle winter). In addition, during the time that the book was being assembled and edited new students arrived to join the group and I hope it will be possible to include their work in future collective volumes. They include the three d’s from Indo-nesia—Dewi, Dona and Deva—and, more recently, Yohannes and Antonius.

However, the whole project would have remained only a good idea with-out the energy and commitment of my co-editor Jaime Hernández-García. On his return to the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, in Bogota, he managed to convince the prestigious publishing house of his university of the potential of this book project. He worked tirelessly in co-ordinating the editorial process and played an essential role at every stage. I cannot thank him enough.

We hope the readers of this volume will enjoy and appreciate the work as much as we have done in producing it.

Peter KellettNewcastle upon Tyne, July 2012

11

intRodUction


Peter Kellett and Jaime Hernández-García

Cities are neither organisms nor machines. They are flesh and stone intertwined. They are ‘built thought.’ They are

the containers of dreams and desires, hopes and fears. They are an assemblage of active historical agents making daily choices of how to live well. They are an assemblage

of communities: communities of interest as well as communities of place.

Leonie SandercockPracticing Utopia

As numerous commentators and academics repeatedly remind us, this is the first time in the long history of human life on the planet that the majority of us are living in places which are classified as ‘urban’. In the past, cities were frequently places of privilege and opportunity for only a minority of people: places of commerce and exchange and the centres of sacred and secular power. The large majority of people lived in small settlements or in isolated communities engaging mostly in subsistence agricultural economies with relatively minimal engagement or knowledge of life in the slowly expanding cities. Urban expansion accelerated throughout the twentieth century and now, in the twenty-first century, this expansion through migration and natural increase has led not simply to the numerical dominance of the city, but to the largest cities that have ever existed. And these cities are more important than ever before, as they act as the nerve centres for increasingly complex and interlinked processes of globalisation.


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everyday cities

There are now over 3.3 billion people living in urban areas—and such num-bers can perhaps distract us from the enormous diversity and heterogeneity which exists between and within cities. Although some of the forces of globalisation can lead to increasing superficial similarity, the experi-ence of urban life is still extraordinarily varied. Some of this variety is represented in this book with the inclusion of research case studies from diverse geographic contexts: Africa, Latin America and Asia; and also by engagement at a range of scales and contrasting perspectives. These include the transformation and appropriation of space at urban, community and dwelling levels; the construction, perception and meaning of space at both macro and micro levels; and the role of multiple actors in the creation and transformation of urban space. In this regard, Low (1996) reminds us that the social production of space includes more than social actions, but also economic, ideological, and technological expressions that influence the physical creation of material settings.

Although all of the studies in this volume speak about different aspects of the urban condition they mostly do so at the local level to engage with the fundamental human purpose of the city—as a place where individuals, fami-lies and communities live out their daily lives. As Leonie Sandercock (2001) reminds us, the city is much more than a place of work and residence—the buildings and spaces are “containers of dreams and desires, hopes and fears”, and everyday concerns and activities which collectively create what Robinson (2006) has encouraged us to see as the “ordinary city”. Engaging with these everyday realities of ordinary people’s lives in research terms is not easy and demands commitment, time and energy, but it can also be extraordinarily rewarding, as we believe the following chapters will demonstrate.

The Urbanisation of poverty and inequalities

The United Nations Global Report into Human Settlements (UNCHS, 2009) confirms that processes of urbanisation throughout the world are unevenly spread. Although developing countries contain 14 of the world’s 19 megacities, only 8,4% of their urban population resides in such cities and 62% live in cities of less than 1 million. This means that contrary to common perceptions most urban dwellers live in relatively small cities. Al-though this book includes studies from a number of large capital cities, it

INTRODUCTION

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also introduces studies from a range of smaller urban areas. More signifi-cantly, urbanisation is taking place amid increasing levels of urban poverty, one spatial manifestation of which is the proliferation of informal settle-ments, pejoratively re-labelled “slums” by the United Nations (UNCHS, 2003). Estimates and figures vary, but at least 30% and in many cities over 50% of urban population reside in these areas. According to the UN “urban growth will become virtually synonymous with slum formation in some regions” (UNCHS, 2006).

Informal settlements are of course part of the larger informal sector which also embraces informal economic activities. In Latin America, for example, about 60% of all those employed are working in the informal sector and it is estimated that four out of every five new jobs are in the informal sector. This reinforces the vital importance of research which en-deavours to understand some of the complexities within such informal areas, together with the interrelationship between self-produced housing and income generation which is addressed in the final chapters of the book.

Related to this is another major urban trend—increasing inequality—which has given rise to urban areas with stark contrasts between wealth and poverty. Most observers agree that this social and economic inequal-ity is fundamentally unsustainable and will undermine efforts to achieve greater environmental sustainability. More importantly, however, such widespread social and economic injustice raises ethical questions for researchers and offers a continuing challenge to make our work as relevant and applicable as possible. This is echoed in the chapters of the book which aim to contribute to the search to make our cities more just, livable, acces-sible, participatory and democratic—in short, more humane places to live and work. These cross-cutting themes of social inclusion, spatial integra-tion and poverty alleviation are the ever-present motifs and motivations underlying much of the writing.

All efforts to address the multiple challenges facing the contemporary city must be based on informed analyses that come from rigorous, commit-ted methodology and intensive fieldwork as well as critical readings of urban theory. There is a growing literature which offers sharp theoretical tools to help us conceptualise complex relationships and apparently contradictory phenom-ena, and to understand previously invisible connections and processes. For ex-ample, Harvey’s (2009) concept of the right to the city; Madanipour’s (1996, 2003) work on socio-spatial processes in urban design; Lefebrve’s (1991) ideas


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about the social production of space; Holston’s (2009) concept of insur-gent citizenship; Roy’s (2005) re-conceptualisation of the informal sector; Robinson’s (2006) idea of the ordinary city; Rapoport’s (1990) insightful analysis of meaning in the built environment—and many more have offered sharp and helpful conceptual tools to guide the following analyses.

In order to offer clarity and structure to the book, the following eleven chapters are grouped into four interrelated themes: the creation and rep-resentation of the urban (Abdelwahab, Ahmed, Sawadsri); the production and transformation of the informal (Mbathi, Chutapruttikorn); the con-struction and appropriation of public spaces (Hernández-Bonilla, Hernán-dez-García, Galván-López); and the transformation, use and meaning of home (Faqih, Marsoyo, Kellett). We will now explain these themes and briefly introduce the chapters.

The creation and Representation of the Urban

Two complementary studies of Egypt and one from Thailand examine how cities are created through time and how ideas of the urban are continu-ally evolving and represented. The first one, by Mona Abdelwahab, “Cairo: a Deconstruction Reading of Space”, draws on the radical theories of the French academic Jacques Derrida to deconstruct the image and reality of contemporary Cairo through an exploration of perceptions of this millenary city beyond inherited binaries and monolithic representations. She focuses on reading the spaces of the city and their potential to construct a “real” im-age of the people and the place beyond the associations with literature and fantasies. However, history has intervened in this process. On the conclu-sions, Abdelwahab stated that “The writing event of this chapter preceded the January 25th, 2011 revolution. Today over a year later, it could be said that during this time Cairo’s reading space has been literally decon-structed. The city is finally on her way back to her people.” But as events in Tahrir square continue to unfold it becomes ever clearer that such social processes are intimately grounded within space—and that specific places within the city take on highly symbolic and ideological meanings. This confirms that urban space is central to the construction and re-construction of civic and national identities.

Most of the land area of Egypt is arid, inhospitable desert but the Nile valley is rich and fertile. The valley has always been the place of life and is

INTRODUCTION

15

where the great Egyptian civilisations evolved. In contrast, the surround-ing hostile desert was regarded as the place of death—where cemeteries and the tombs of the Pharaohs were located. This binary representation of valley/desert, life/death is being challenged by large scale, new develop-ments which are aiming to resettle large populations out of the crowded, high-density city into spacious green ‘oases’ beyond the valley in the previ-ously “empty” desert. This is not only a great technological and construction challenge but it is also necessary for future inhabitants to rethink their ideas of what and where the city is. In addition, such new cities raise serious ques-tions about the longer-term sustainability of artificial environments.

In his chapter, “Transformig the Desert into a Liveable Place: The Egyp-tian Experience”, Tamer Abdelfattah Ahmed analyses the experience of turn-ing barren desert areas into desirable, residential environments. He identifies two approaches to the development of these Master Planned Estates (MPE) to enhance levels of liveability. The first is by means of urban policy with an emphasis on infrastructures, and the second, through ideas of landscape improvement. He draws on detailed data from a range of settlement types reflecting different income groups to argue that the outdoor characteristics, in particular intensive green landscape initiatives, have a significant effect on levels of satisfaction in these new urban environments. He concludes that the perceived liveability of these new developments can make them more desirable as residential environments compared to the inner city of Cairo.

The population of cities is very diverse. One group which has received considerable research focus in Europe and North America in recent years is that of disabled people. However, research into disabled people in the cities of the global south is very limited and therefore the study by Antika Sawadsri takes on added significance. The chapter “Negotiating Disabling Environments: a Collective Movement in Bangkok” explores the mobili-sation of disabled people through the analysis of a particular urban proj-ect. It questions the extent to which access mobilisation can contribute to overcoming the problems of disabling environments to strengthen an accessible built environment agenda. She argues that although the trans-formation of physical barriers can be achieved in a short time, the issues related to negative societal attitudes towards the disabled are much more difficult to challenge and change. She explains that “the spatial needs of disabled users were perceived as an ephemeral phenomenon, of lesser im-port than their realistic needs in their day-to-day lives”. She claims that


16

there is a “disability culture” and lack of knowledge about disabled people’s spatial requirements and demonstrates how access movements which focus only on disabled people’s needs and expectations deliver only limited gains. However, this study of disabled people has wider implications, particularly for other minorities and marginalised communities in their struggles for human rights and dignity in the city.

The production and transformation of the informal

Much of the urban expansion in the global south has taken place through the growth of informal practices. Of particular interest are the ways in which such informal settlements have evolved and changed through time, some-times apparently independently of dominant structures and processes, at other times in close partnership. This approach to the issue would imply acceptance of the dominant paradigm that formality and informality are es-sentially binary opposites—that they are discrete and bounded entities and processes. However, this understanding has been challenged in recent years by several theorists including Roy and AlSayyad (2004). They argue that there is insufficient recognition of the reciprocal relationships existing between these two sectors which are not sharply delineated but are in fact closely interconnected and interlinked with multiple overlaps and entanglements. They propose that levels of legitimacy and legality can be mapped across a complex continuum with settlements and processes expressing different degrees of legitimacy, indicating that some people may be operating within both sectors simultaneously. Roy continues: “informality is not a separate sector but rather a series of transactions that connect different economies and spaces together” (Roy, 2005, p.148). This relationship makes gener-alisations about informal settlements even more problematic, and points to the need to recognise that the geographies of informality fluctuate in fluid and complex ways, acquiring precise shape at certain times in specific loca-tions (Roy and AlSayyad, 2004; Lombard, 2004).

At the same time, responses to informal development processes are incon-sistent and ambivalent, with the result that many activities and settlements are not integrated into regular planning processes and governance institutions. The 2009 UN Global Shelter Report concludes that modernist planning fails to accommodate the way of life of the majority who continue to create their own informal areas. Similarly, it fails to involve communities meaning-

INTRODUCTION

17

fully in the planning and management of urban areas and imposes regulato-ry costs that are too high and time-consuming for the urban poor to comply with and, finally, the spatial models which are supported by modernist plan-ning tend to reinforce spatial and social exclusion, thereby reproducing cities which are not environmentally sustainable. This situation inevitably means that informal processes continue to grow and, in many places, to outstrip more formalised processes of city building.

The following chapters, from different continents exhibit contrast-ing characteristics of informality and examine ways in which marginalised communities have managed to work successfully with official organisa-tions to bring about significant improvements in living conditions. Both chapters analyse efforts to work more horizontally through participatory process—efforts which, despite encountering complexities and difficulties, have nevertheless proved fruitful.

In the first, “Technology and Participation: Geo-information Tools in Settlement Upgrading”, Musyimi Mbathi examines how spatial informa-tion provided using geo-information tools (GIS) can potentially facilitate community participation for planning and upgrading informal settlements. He refers to Isaak and Hurbert (1997), who argue that the capabilities of-fered by these tools such as spatial analysis and visualisation have enabled communities to participate in settlement planning and upgrading through management of new infrastructure. Drawing on detailed settlement case studies in Nairobi, Mbathi demonstrates how these information tools and technology have enhanced participation in upgrading programmes, despite the risks that these tools have of alienating and excluding those with limited understanding and knowledge of information technology. He emphasises the long-term dimension to these development processes and suggests that “communities should be encouraged to adopt settlement monitoring and use the outcomes to plan for interventions and address new challenges that may arise”. This also implies that stronger support from government and other partners is needed. Of particular interest in this case is the resulting change in the balance of power between landlords and tenants—with the ma-jority of tenants managing to gain ownership titles to their dwellings. Such processes do not merely improve living conditions, but through these tenure changes residents are also repositioned along the informal-formal continuum.

The implications of moving from the informal towards the formal sec-tor are explored in the following chapter by Rittirong Chutapruttikorn,


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“Status, Capital and Identity: from Informal to Formal Housing in Bangkok”. Drawing on participatory action research in which he worked closely with resident groups in informal railway-track settlements, he uses the concep-tual ideas of Bourdieu to examine how they employed both social and cultural capital to change the status of their informal dwellings into formal housing. He explains how low-income families were given the chance to participate in self-managed housing projects within a government housing programme and argues that their social capital in the form of commu-nity association and collective action played a key role in these re-housing processes. He concludes that housing projects for low income residents should aim to go beyond basic shelter resolution to engage with funda-mental issues of productive means and symbolic character, which he calls status capital and identity re-construction capabilities. A common thread through both these chapters is the agency demonstrated by low-income residents to engage in the construction and improvement of their own living environments; in the words of Harvey (2009, p.23) “the freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is [...] one of the most precious and yet neglected human rights.”

The construction and appropriation of public spaces

Drawing on three contributions from Latin America the next section turns from housing processes to confirm the importance of the collec-tive dimensions of urban life through an examination of public spaces. In the first of these, “People Shaping Public Spaces: Popular Urban De-sign Processes in Mexico”, Mauricio Hernández-Bonilla examines how low-income inhabitants of colonias populares in the intermediate city of Xalapa go beyond traditional limitations and engage with the space in a variety of ways. Drawing on detailed qualitative research methods, he analyses how residents configure their urban environment based on local knowledge, life experiences and acts of everyday habitation in relation to public space. He argues that the collective improvements of outdoor spaces enrich the urban landscape of the settlements and are given a high priority by local people. Although each intervention is unique we can see how shared ideas about urban form and spatial models are deeply embedded and can be interpreted as attempts to recreate some of the conventional characteristics of more formally conceived urban areas.

INTRODUCTION

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The next chapter continues the discussion of public space in informal areas through a detailed examination of the way in which open collective spaces are formed and developed as fundamental components of settle-ment life. In his chapter “The Production of Informal Urban Space: The Barrios of Bogota”, Jaime Hernández-García underlines their importance by explaining how they are on the agenda of settlers even in the very earli-est stage of informal settlement creation, developing in an integrated way alongside the consolidation of housing and infrastructure. In common with the housing, these open spaces are largely produced and transformed by the users—the people themselves—but in contrast with the housing, there is limited information and understanding about how these processes are accomplished. Drawing on detailed cases studies, the chapter analyses how open spaces in these settlements are designed, built, managed, trans-formed and sustained, and discusses the role of local people and other actors in such processes. Hernández-García argues that open spaces are “largely developed by the inhabitants, and are based on their needs and expectations but are also dependent upon the opportunities in terms of resources and support originating from external agents”. These spaces are in a process of constant development boosted by local initiatives and perma-nent negotiation with the municipality and other actors. He suggests that “through initiative and struggle, we see how space is socially constructed to create meaningful places in relation to their needs and aspirations”.

For settlements and cities to flourish, spaces of encounter and inter-action beyond the everyday are required as they are fundamental to the creation of vibrant urban cultures and the development of traditions. The characteristics and qualities of such spaces are in a process of change as the demands, expectations, activities and meanings associated with them change through time. Such meanings and values are not static but are created and re-created through dynamic interactions between people and places which in turn are interpreted in different ways by different groups. Meanings are frequently contested and such contestations come into sharp-er relief in places identified as being of special cultural significance com-bined with contemporary relevance. To help interpret such circumstances a number of theorists have proposed frameworks for analysis including Ashworth (2012) who challenges the whole notion of cultural heritage, and Smith (2006) who offers insights through ideas of Authorised Heri-tage Discourse, AHD. An important aspect of such re-conceptualisations


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is the interrelationship between what is now called tangible heritage—build-ings, spaces—and intangible heritage—activities, traditions etc.)

These interrelationships are examined by Brenda Galván-López in her chapter “Converging Heritage Approaches in Historic Centres: Dan-zón and the Zócalo of Veracruz, México”. The paper “unpacks the official and non official approaches that inform some of the processes related to cultural heritage, and the ways that officials and ordinary people engage with them, in the context of music and dance performances in pub-lic places in Mexico”. The author focuses her discussion on the main square—Zócalo—of Veracruz and the celebratory traditional dancing and cultural activity of danzón. She claims that danzón has contributed to the consolidation of the Zócalo as a cultural node and to close engage-ment of the people with this public space. She concludes that “it can be argued that physical changes and cultural activities can be mutually influential, either through material transformations or through cultural promotions” and reconfirms the importance of public spaces for the for-mation and reaffirmation of cultural affinity and group identities.

The transformation, Use and meaning of home

Few parts of the world have been isolated from the large technological, economic and cultural changes of the modern era. However, their impact has not led to a globalised similarity of settlements and cities as many predicted, but instead to differential adoption of new norms and practices in different places. Sometimes this leads to apparently contradictory situ-ations where new dwelling patterns are simultaneously more “modern” but also re-validate older traditional forms and meanings. The chapter “About Domestic Architecture: From Rural to Urban in Indonesia”, by Muhammad Faqih, explores young adults’ housing preferences within the context of culture change accelerated by government development programmes. By plotting changing dwelling preferences and practices in a range of rural to urban situations he demonstrates how people maintain key cultural aspects even when constructing dwellings in the crowded urban metropolis, and suggest that it can be interpreted as a process of adapta-tion and as the search for cultural stability and social harmony. He also expands on the relationship between the social and the cultural with ref-erence to the technological aspects of the house. Finally he concurs with

INTRODUCTION

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Dovey (1985) to claim that they “unconsciously maintain some aspects of their past experiences, reinforcing the idea of home as connectedness with both the past and the future”.

Remaining in Indonesia, the final two chapters return to the econom-ic dimensions of housing. This echoes the call by the United Nations, (UNCHS, 2009) on the necessity to engage with the twin problems of urban poverty and the proliferation of informal settlements in order to move towards a more sustainable urban future. This brings two key issues together: informal housing and income generation—the shelter agenda and the economic agenda. There is increasing international recognition by both academics and policy makers of the importance of the dwelling as a vital source of income for low income dwellers who use their homes not only as a place of residence but as the base in which to develop a range of home-based enterprises (HBE).

In most cases the use of domestic space to generate income requires household adaptation strategies, in particular for those with small dwellings that house many family members. The chapter by Agam Marsoyo “Space as Capital: Household Adaptation Strategies in Home Based Enterprises in Indonesia” aims to understand the spatial and behavioural relationships in HBEs, which need to respond to two different activities: domestic and working. Through an analysis of micro level spatial activities he argues that those relationships need to be properly understood as they can provide clues for the functional use of the house and especially the meaning of the home for the dwellers: “Space is not only a three-dimensional volume bounded by physical boundaries, but is a place that embodies values and power, such as a place for self-identity for particular cultures, a place for interaction, and a place for income generation as well”.

In the concluding chapter, “Home-based Livelihoods and Housing Policy: Urban Informality in India and Indonesia”, Peter Kellett exam-ines some of the policy implications of home-based enterprises in informal settlements and lays out the case for greater acceptance by planners and policy makers. He argues that it is necessary to recognise not merely their importance to the households and communities concerned, but to soci-ety as a whole through the provision of vital goods and services as well as the positive economic contribution which is made to local and national economies. Drawing on empirical case material from a large interna-tional comparative study he makes a series of recommendations which aim


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to minimise the risks and dangers of inappropriate activities and practices whilst identifying measures to maximize the social and economic potential of raising incomes to address the challenge of poverty alleviation.

final Remarks: towards the socially Just city

The book explores the contemporary city through the representation, pro-duction, transformation and meaning of space in relation to the people who create, use and value it. This exploration is undertaken from a wide range of places throughout the globe; however, it is clear that despite sig-nificant contextual differences in economic and cultural practices, there are many common themes and shared concerns. The most evident per-haps, is the agency of urban communities who seek solutions to overcome significant difficulties to achieve their needs and fulfil their aspirations. In this regard, individuals, households and communities engage with a range of public and private actors through political and administrative nego-tiations in order to overcome problems and improve conditions. We can therefore interpret urban space as much more than the outcome of physi-cal activities but rather as the result of dynamic political forces and power relations which make evident the symbolic relationships between unevenly positioned actors and agents.

The macro and the micro levels merge together in terms of how these forces operate and the results achieved. Needs and expectations in the city are negotiated in complex ways which echo the way in which functional and symbolic needs are discussed within the home and between family members and neighbours. Space, both in the city and within buildings, is the place for social, economic, cultural and ideological relationships, and as such it is collectively produced and transformed. Through more detailed and fine-grain analyses of these complex processes we believe research can contribute to the creation of cities which are not simply more economically viable but also embody the ideals of social justice. This collection of essays is a modest contribution to this important but demanding endeavour.

INTRODUCTION

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ments in Mexico. (PhD thesis). University of Sheffield. Low, S. M. (1996). Spatializing Culture: The Social Production and Construction of

Public Space in Costa Rica. American Ethnologist 23 (4), 861-879.Madanipour, A. (2003). Public and Private Spaces of the City. London: Routledge.Madanipour A. (1996). Design of Urban Space: An Inquiry into a Social-spatial Process.

Chichester: John Wiley.Rapoport, A. (1990). The Meaning of the Built Environment: a Nonverbal Communication

Approach. University of Arizona Press.Robinson, J. (2006). Ordinary Cities: Between Modernity and Development. London:

Routledge. Roy, A. (2005). Urban Informality: Towards an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of the

American Planning Association, 71 (2), 147-158.Roy, A. and AlSayyad, N. (eds.) (2004). Urban Informality: Transnational Perspectives from

the Middle East, Latin America and South Asia. Oxford: Lexington.Sandercock, L. (2001, september). Practicing Utopia: Sustaining Cities. [Paper presented at

annual meeting of International Network of Urban Research and Action, INURA], Florence.

Smith, L. (2006). Uses of Heritage. London; New York: Routledge.UNCHS (2003). The Challenge of the Slums: Global Report on Human Settlements, Nai-

robi: United Nations Centre for Human Settlements.UNCHS (2006). The State of the World’s Cities Report: The Millennium Development Goals

and Urban Sustainability. Nairobi: United Nations Centre for Human Settlements.UNCHS (2009). Planning Human Settlements: Global Report 2009. Nairobi: United Na-

tions Centre for Human Settlements.

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contRibUtoRs

tamer m. abdelfattah ahmed

Lecturer at the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Ala-zhar University, Cairo, Egypt. Tamer has been working in both academia and practice since 1998, and obtained his PhD in Landscape and Urban-ism from the School of Architecture Planning and Landscape at New-castle University in 2011. His lecturing interests focus on urban planning, landscape and architectural design. His research interests are connected to liveable community issues and he is particularly interested in devel-oping the links between urbanisation, liveability and landscape planning. [email protected]

mona abdelwahab

Post-doc researcher at the Department of Spatial Planning and Environ-ment, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She received her PhD degree in Architecture in January, 2011 from the School of Architecture Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University. Her research interests include urban space, architecture and planning theory, post-structuralism and deconstruction. [email protected]

Rittirong chutapruttikorn

Lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Architecture, Bangkok University, Thailand. Rittirong was awarded his PhD in 2011 at the School of Ar-chitecture Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University. His research focuses on the exchange of knowledge and collaboration among low-income residents, designers and other agencies involved in participatory process-es of housing design. This includes an effort to understand how such inhabitants make their informal dwellings a home despite insecurity of tenure. He is currently conducting a collaborative research project into the assessment of risks and vulnerabilities within informal settlements in Bangkok. [email protected]


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muhammad faqih

Senior Lecturer at the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Civil Engi-neering and Planning, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) Sura-baya, Indonesia. He trained as an Architect Engineer and graduated from ITS. He then obtained his MD in Housing and Human Settlements from the Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), and completed his PhD with a thesis on Culture and Built Environment, from the School of Architecture Planning and Landscape at the Newcastle University. His research interests focus on housing and human settlements, traditional housing, culture and built environment, and qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. He has been the Head of the Department of Architecture, the Head of the Postgraduate Programme in Architecture and is currently the Vice Rector for Finance Planning and Development of ITS. [email protected]

brenda galván-López

Brenda studied architecture at the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico, after which she completed a MD in Urban Design at Newcastle University in England. She then practised and taught urban design and planning in Mexico. Later she returned to Newcastle, where she completed her PhD at the School of Architecture Planning and Landscape in 2011. Her study focused on heritage in historic areas while considering the cultural role of public spaces and the contemporary production of music and dance heri-tage. Currently she is teaching at the School of Architecture at the Univer-sidad Veracruzana in the city of Cordoba (Mexico) where she is researching the way public policies are being interpreted and the implementation of projects which are transforming public spaces. [email protected]

mauricio hernández-bonilla

Lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Architecture, Universidad Vera-cruzana in Xalapa, México. He completed a MD in Urban Design and a PhD at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape of the University of Newcastle, United Kingdom. At present, he is the director of the Architecture Masters programme at the Universidad Veracruzana. His research focuses on the social production and contemporary transforma-tion of public spaces in urban Mexico. He is also interested in qualitative

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research methods, urban planning methodologies, and processes of urban transformation. [email protected]

peter kellett

Senior Lecturer at the Global Urban Research Unit (GURU), School of Architecture Planning and Landscape, University of Newcastle. He studied architecture and social anthropology and his PhD combined both disci-plines in a longitudinal ethnographic study of self-made environments and social practices in Latin America. His research continues to focus on the interrelationship between social, material and spatial practices in contexts of disadvantage and vulnerability. He has successfully su-pervised over 25 PhDs and examined at many universities in the UK as well as in Canada, Spain, Uganda, Indonesia and Sweden. He has worked on several international research projects with a focus on infor-mal settlements, participatory planning and poverty alleviation, and has published extensively, particularly on housing issues. His latest books in-clude Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America (with Felipe Hernández; Berghahn, 2012) and Requalifying the Built En-vironment: Challenges and Responses (with Lawrence and Turgut; Hogrefe, 2012). For most of 2013 he was Visiting Professor of Housing at the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. [email protected]

Jaime hernández-garcía

Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture and Design, Pontificia Uni-versidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. Architect from Los Andes Univer-sity in Bogotá, MD in Architecture from the University of York, and PhD from Newcastle University. His doctoral thesis: El Parque de mi Barrio: Production and Consumption of Open Spaces in Popular Settlements in Bogo-tá won an Iberoamerican Award for research thesis (infonavit-redalyc) in México in 2011. His research interests include informal settlements, low income housing, public space, people–place studies, community par-ticipation, local knowledge and local expression. His recent publications include the book Espacios Públicos en Barrios Informales, Producción y Uso entre lo Público y lo Privado (infonavit-redalyc, México, 2011); Open Spaces in Informal Settlements in Bogotá, Expressions of Attachment and


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Identity, in: The Role of Place Identity in the Perception, Understanding and Design of the Built Environment, (Bentham Science, 2012); and Arquitec-tura, Participación y Hábitat Popular (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, 2008). [email protected]

agam marsoyo

Senior Lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Planning, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He completed a MD in Urban Plan-ning, Land and Housing Development at Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand, followed by a PhD in Architecture, Planning and Land-scape at Newcastle University in 2012. His thesis explored aspects of space in home-based business activities within the framework of urban livelihoods. His research interests include urban housing, urban space, architecture and urban planning, especially for low-income groups. [email protected]

musyimi mbathi

Lecturer at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Built Environment, University of Nairobi, Kenya. Musyimi obtained his PhD in Planning from the School of Architecture, Planning and Land-scape, Newcastle University in 2012. He previously worked with the United Nations (UN-habitat) and the Government of Kenya as an ur-ban and regional planner before joining the University of Nairobi as a Lecturer. His lecturing and research interests are in the areas of GIS and low-income settlements, and currently he is focusing on the integration of technology in settlement upgrading processes in developing country contexts. [email protected]

antika sawadsri

Lecturer at the School of Interior Architectural Design, Faculty of Archi-tecture at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), Bangkok, Thailand. She previously worked for several years as an interior designer. Her main academic interest is the relationship between people with impairments and their disabling environments. She has researched accessibility issues using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Her

CONTRIBUTORS

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recently completed PhD research at Newcastle University focused on the interplay between the roles of disabled people and accessibility in built en-vironments as well as the processes through which disabled people negotiate and change their disabling barriers. [email protected]



Se terminó de imprimir en septiembre del 2013,en los talleres de Javegraf, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia.

Compuesto con tipos Garamonde impreso en papel marfil.

� e city is perhaps the most complex of all human constructs. In the 21st century when cities are bigger than ever, and the majority of the world’s population now live in urban areas, the need for research into this complexity to address the large scale challenges of urban life has never been greater.

� is collection of research studies from di� erent parts of the world, brings together case studies, underpinned by theory, to contribute to the urgent search to make our cities more just, more liveable, more accessible, more participatory and more democratic: in short, more humane places to live and work. � ese cross-cutting themes of social inclusion, spatial integration and poverty alleviation are the ever pre-sent motifs and motivations throughout this volume.

� e eleven chapters are grouped into four interrelated sections: the creation and representation of the urban; the production and trans-formation of the informal; the construction and appropriation of pu-blic spaces; and � nally, the transformation, use and meaning of home. Collectively the essays engage with the city at a range of scales, but underpinning all of them is a concern for the everyday realities of ordinary people’s lives.

� ese detailed and � ne-grain analyses of complex processes are a modest contribution towards the creation of cities which are not simply more economically viable and environmentally sustainable, but also embody the ideals of social justice.

AUTHORS

Peter Kellett

Jaime Hernández-García

Mona Abdelwahab

Tamer Abdelfattah Ahmed

Antika Sawadsri

Musyimi Mbathi

Rittirong Chutapruttikorn

Mauricio Hernández-Bonilla

Brenda Galván-López

Muhammad Faqih

Agam Marsoyo

Cover imageColombo, Sri Lanka.© Peter Kellett, 2010.

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—Editors—

Researching the Contemporary CityI D E N T I T Y, E N V I R O N M E N T A N D S O C I A L I N C L U S I O N

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Researching the contemporary city

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