Panel 85: Governing Informal Settlements, on Whose Terms?

Urban areas in Africa are rapidly growing, and the expanding informal settlements have for long been in focus for different planning measures. Planning approaches, often inherited from colonial time and later sustained by independent governments have been criticized for their top down approaches and neglect of prevailing conditions in urban areas. With the neoliberal turn new models of planning and of service provision have been adopted, for example through privatization and public- private partnerships. This paradigm shift is visible in the discourse of governing informal settlements. Examples are the increasing focus on formalization of the areas, under influence by de Soto, and settlement upgrading through participation of various actors such as donors, NGOs and dwellers themselves, organized in community based organizations.

This panel wants to invite papers to discuss the types of power structures and relations these approaches have given rise to in different areas. What are the outcomes in terms of service and infrastructure provision and dwellers´ access to them? What rooms for maneuver to govern their settlements do different groups of citizens in informal areas have? Considering the theme of ECAS 4 “Africa engagements: on whose terms?”it is relevant to discuss the different experiences in African urban areas, in order to go beyond the stereotype models of state withdrawal in service provision and neo-liberalization in tackling informal settlements. By doing this we can reach a more nuanced understanding of the governance and planning processes in informal areas.