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1. Urban Communities as Alternative to Slums: A Case Study of Egypt's Asmarat

Author:
Ibrahim Ezzeddine
Publication Date:
07-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Egypt is one of the most prominent countries that are facing serious housing and informal settlements issues. The state has, at different times, developed many policies and development programs to deal with these issues. During the last decade, Egypt has witnessed a new development in addressing the issue of informal settlements: the establishment of new urban communities as alternative areas for rehousing those living in slums. This paper analyzes the Asmarat area as the most prominent governmental project in this regard, asking the following questions: To what extent do resettlement areas meet the basic needs of the population? Does the Asmarat project achieve economic, social, and cultural sustainability as a suitable housing project? The paper reviewed the Asmarat general plan in terms of the density of residential units, the road network, the distribution of commercial activities, green areas, and open spaces. The paper presents the geographical location of the study area, which is the Mokattam neighborhood in Cairo Governorate, and it reviews the general plan and the footprint for the area to be built; the three phases of the project; and the financial cost, which exceeded 3.35 billion Egyptian pounds (about US$69.8 million), according to what was announced on official websites. The paper uses the framework of economic, social and cultural rights as an indicator to assess the area. The first indicator assesses the methods of legal security of tenure. All legal safeguards that protect residents from forced eviction should be in place. The second indicator measures access to natural resources, safe drinking water, energy for cooking, heating and lighting, sanitation, waste disposal, drainage, and access to emergency services. The third indicator assesses the adequacy and affordability of housing costs in relation to personal income and the cost of daily living for individuals and families. The fourth indicator assesses the suitability of housing for family size in terms of space and protection from cold, humidity, heat, and the spread of infections. The fifth indicator assesses access to adequate housing for all those affected by the removal of their homes, and the need for alternative housing. The sixth indicator assesses the suitability of the housing location in terms of the availability of employment opportunities, access to basic and health services, access to health care and education services, and access to social services. The seventh indicator assesses the expression of the housing’s cultural and social identity, and the adaptation of the exterior and interior design and landscaping to this end.
Topic:
Urban, Informal Settlement, and Housing
Political Geography:
Middle East, North Africa, and Egypt

2. Contractual Origins of Anti-Americanism: Pew 2013 Results

Author:
Cem Birol
Publication Date:
07-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
Economic Norms Theory (ENT) implies that anti-modernist and anti-market values flourish in countries where the central authority poorly monitors contracts that bind economic transactions. Decades of research show that ENT astutely predicts civil war and interstate war incidents, as well as people’s support for war, and suicide bombing in defense of Islam. This paper investigates the association between contract enforcement and anti-Americanism, which is the ENT’s core, yet is a statistically under-evaluated implication. Accordingly, in countries with poor economic contract monitoring, power-contending elites can attribute the resultant loss of prosperity to the USA and relatedly spread anti-American values among citizens. It is the urban poor who are cognitively most available to adopt such elite-driven anti-Americanism since they tend to be hurt most socially and economically by unfulfilled market contracts. To investigate this argument, I statistically estimate random intercept models on a sample of Pew Global Attitudes Project’s 2013 survey results. I observe that a three-way interaction among individuals’ urbanity, poverty, and their nations’ poor contract enforcement indicators increase anti-Americanism.
Topic:
Economics, Poverty, Urban, Survey, Economic Norms Theory (ENT), Hierarchical Modelling, and Anti-Americanism
Political Geography:
Global Focus and United States of America

3. Climate (Im)mobility in Urban Contexts: From Recognition to Action

Author:
Susan S. Ekoh
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
Abstract:
There is an increased recognition of human mobility responses to climate change among policy-makers and stakeholders. At the global level, the Global Compact for Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration (GCM) highlights this intersection of climate change and migration. In addition, follow-up processes to the Paris Agreement highlight human mobility outcomes from climate impacts. This policy brief argues that while there is a recognition of climate migration at the international and national levels, implementation at the sub-national level where pertinent migration is happening, is far from adequate. At the national level, Ghana and Senegal have signed on and engaged in follow-up processes of the GCM and the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, they have in different ways highlighted climate migration as a key policy area. For Senegal, there is a mandate to include climate change and migration along with three other priority areas for all development plans in the country. On the other hand, Ghana’s national migration policy identifies climate change as a key area for policy attention. These reflect recognition of climate change and human mobility as a policy issue at the national level. However, there appear to be gaps in the implementation of these mandates and policy frameworks locally. Hence, there is a need to further investigate the patterns, weaknesses and strengths of climate (im)mobility strategy implementation at the sub-national level. This policy brief presents insights based on case studies of two West African cities, Accra and Dakar, which are relevant to urban climate (im)mobility governance because human mobility patterns are well established internally and from countries in the West African region, as are the influences of climate change on these mobility patterns. Because cities attract migrants, they offer insights into sub-national climate (im)mobility governance. It is, however, important to note the difficulty of isolating climate change as a driver of human mobility since it interacts with several other drivers (Black, Bennett, Thomas, & Beddington, 2011; Ekoh, Teron, & Ajibade, 2023). Regardless of the drivers of human mobility, city authorities have a responsibility to support their resident populations, and with increasing climate threats, they have a duty to support climate adapta-tion and resilience building within the city.
Topic:
Climate Change, Mobility, Urban, and Cities
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Inclusive Growth and Decent Jobs by Gender: The Case of Urban Areas in Bolivia

Author:
Beatriz Muriel Hernández and Sergio Mansilla
Publication Date:
10-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper presents an empirical study of how inclusive was the extraordinary growth experienced by Bolivia between 2006 and 2019, in terms of decent job generation in urban areas and by gender. For this, we use the Ali and Son (2007) concentration curve of opportunities and approach the jobs with five rates proposed by Muriel (2014, 2019, 2020a, 2020b): i.e. job stability, Christmas wage bonus tenure, social protection access, sufficient labour income and membership of a labour association. The results show that growth was inclusive between 2006 and 2011; but it was not in further periods. Even, the percentage of workers with Christmas wage bonus, sufficient labor income and with affiliation to some labor association were lower in 2019 compared to 2006. In terms of gender gaps, the one associated with sufficient labor income stands out, but the main problems lie in the inequities of access to opportunities within the same female population.
Topic:
Economic Growth, Urban, Gender, Economic Inclusion, and Jobs
Political Geography:
South America and Bolivia

5. Urban Politics in the Middle East

Author:
Mona Harb, Marc Lynch, Jillian Schwedler, Gehad Abaza, and Munqeth Othman
Publication Date:
10-2023
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
Urban politics has received growing attention in the anthropology, sociology, and political science of the MENA region. In line with global trends, questions of scale, territory, flows and connectivities and materialities have come to the fore, with a wide range of creative and novel lines of inquiry connecting the global to the hyper-local and every scale in between. In February 2023, POMEPS partnered with the Beirut Urban Lab at the American University of Beirut and The Policy Initiative think tank for a workshop in Beirut to bring together an interdisciplinary group of young scholars from across the region to explore questions of urban life, politics, and culture. The papers moved beyond more traditional political science topics such as municipal government, decentralization, clientelistic voting, protests, and clientelism. While those themes certainly operated in the background, the authors assembled in Beirut pushed to shift the lens towards multi-scalar ethnographic modes of inquiry, highlighting the materialities and relationalities of the hyper-local, examining sites and places which concentrate power dynamics.
Topic:
Economics, Migration, Politics, Race, Religion, Sectarianism, Culture, Syrian War, Mobility, Urban, Trade, Music, Transportation, Cities, Heritage, Resistance, Labor Market, Domestic Work, and Urbicide
Political Geography:
Iraq, Iran, Middle East, Tehran, Baghdad, Algeria, North Africa, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Beirut, Cairo, Tunis, and Aqaba

6. Crossing the Divide: Rural to Urban Migration in Developing Countries

Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
Robert E.B. Lucas is Professor of Economics at Boston University. His research has focused largely, though not exclusively, on developing countries. Most of the contributions are empirical with a few theory papers, encompassing international and internal migration, employment and human resources, income distribution and inter-generational inequality, international trade and industry, sharecropping, and the environment. His publications include seven books, the most recent of which are Migration and Development: The Role for Development Aid (2019) and Crossing the Divide: Rural to Urban Migration in Developing Countries (2021).
Topic:
Development, Migration, Governance, Urban, and Rural
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. Conceptualization and Operationalization of Ambiguous Loss Among Left Behind Children in Rural China

Author:
Xiaojin Chen and Yao Lu
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
This lecture explores the effects of rural-to-urban migration on children’s development, including child abuse, victimization, and mental health problems.
Topic:
Development, Migration, Children, Mental Health, Urban, Rural, Abuse, and Victimization
Political Geography:
China and Asia

8. Public Attitudes Towards Social Spending: Evidence from Hong Kong and Singapore

Author:
Alfred M. Wu and Qin Gao
Publication Date:
02-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
This lecture examines the psychosocial impact of rural-to-urban migration on youth in China using a multisystemic resilience framework and discusses potential interventions to promote more sustainable and equitable urbanization. This event is part of the 2022-2023 lecture series on “Urbanization, Well-being, and Public Policy: China from Comparative Perspectives” and is sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and cosponsored by Columbia's China Center for Social Policy.
Topic:
Migration, Urbanization, Youth, Urban, and Rural
Political Geography:
Asia, Singapore, and Hong Kong

9. The Politics of New Cities: Diversification of Actors and Recentralization of State Power in the Case of Diamniadio

Author:
Sina Schlimmer
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institut français des relations internationales (IFRI)
Abstract:
The construction of new cities on the African continent is in vogue. From multifunctional urban hubs to eco-districts, the images that accompany the announcement of these projects promote an African urban future based on modernity and technology. This trend for urban planning that claims to make a clean sweep of pre-existing approaches is not unique to African countries, whose governments are inspired in particular by North African and Asian models. However, the promotion of new cities in Africa is part of the lively debate that has been going on for several years on the rapid urbanization of the continent's countries. The creation of modern cities, organized and corresponding to the urban planning standards of international metropolises, is presented as a means of avoiding haphazard, chaotic urban development. This paper offers a critical analysis of the policy of new cities based on an empirical study of the new urban pole of Diamniadio (PUD) in Senegal. Two key arguments are put forward in this paper. First, the analysis deconstructs the ex nihilo character of these urban projects and emphasizes that they are part of public policy trajectories. Due to its geo-economic and strategic position, Diamniadio has been at the heart of the Dakar region's territorial planning policies since at least the end of the 1990s. Secondly, new towns are far from being neutral and technical urban planning instruments; rather, they are political devices that convey interests and stimulate power games. By delimiting the boundaries of the PUD, which is presented as President Macky Sall's political footprint, the central government regains certain administrative powers, particularly in terms of land planning and allocation. In addition, the PUD reflects competition from foreign actors, both public and private, and the growing importance of emerging actors such as Turkey.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Governance, State, Urban, and Cities
Political Geography:
Africa and Senegal

10. Addressing Product Diversification in Public Housing Supply/Importance of Product Diversification in Public Housing Supply

Author:
Shubhagato Dasgupta, Anindita Mukherjee, Abhinav Kumar, and Shaurya Gupta
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
Despite the government’s efforts on augmenting the supply of houses, recent estimates suggest that the housing shortage in urban areas have widened. It is a result of the mismatch between the housing needs of the urban poor and the typology of housing supply. The present study analyses and assesses the housing needs of the urban poor using secondary data from 76th round of NSS (2018-19) on housing and living condition vis-à-vis the typologies of housing supplied by public sector. Through this analysis, we highlight in the report the mismatch between the need and supply of public housing and suggest ways to bridge this gap through policy interventions. The choice of housing, its tenure and location for the urban poor is guided by nature of employment they are engaged in, their stage of life and household size. We find that casual wage workers and urban poor are more likely to compromise on housing conditions, amenities, and privacy to locate themselves near to their livelihood opportunities. Urban housing for urban poor is predominantly supplied by the small households that form part of the informal sector however, the quality of housing remains a concern. Housing provided by formal private sector is a miniscule proportion of total housing constructed by them and is not affordable for most urban poor. The current public housing supply is designed to cater to the urban poor remains mostly at the periphery of the cities making them less desirable to the targeted population – lacks tenure diversity and often disrupts livelihoods linages. The study recommends that public sector should focus on diversifying their housing supply based on the needs of urban poor. It should strive to create a robust housing ecosystem that is responsive to the urban growth, evolving economic structure of the city as well as local preference and aspirations. It should also establish modalities for collaboration with formal private sector to develop newer models of public-private partnerships that also involves and incentivizes, informal private sector, especially the small households that are categorized as subsistence landlords, non-profit sector and communities, to supply better quality housing for the urban poor residents.
Topic:
Poverty, Public Policy, Diversification, Urban, and Housing
Political Geography:
South Asia and India