Urban Makings and the Formalisation of Informal Settlements

This chapter looks into patterns of urbanisation that are marginal to formal ¹ development undertaken by the public sector or by private developers. In doing so it identifies two types of urban making:

An urban making which is implemented through unplanned, collective intervention in the environment. This is effected by individuals performing intentional actions, like going to work, to the bus stop, or to the stream, gathering in public spaces, playing, etc. In the process of performing such actions, people are collectively contributing to the creation of networks of footpaths (beaten tracks) and urban spaces (Ribeiro, 1997). This form of urban making is a continuous event which stretches through months/years and transcends individual intentions. It is characteristic of shantytowns, which dodge the control of official agencies and which have basically to rely on the limited human and economic resources available within each settlement. But such process rarely occurs in isolation, without the influence of external actors. Even a shantytown entirely built with the effort of its inhabitants will be pressured to interrelate with its urban surroundings. This may occur through the action of authorities or private landowners and may lead to changes in the settlement and not rarely to evictions.

Processes of improving the conditions of shantytowns and of incorporating them into a broader pattern of urbanisation involve regulating and formalising such settlements to various degrees. The intervention of public institutions, foreign donors and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) introduces organisational structures and formal mechanisms for implementing projects, which affect people’s interaction with their environment and the quality of urban spaces and of individual dwellings. Urban making through direct action by individuals and the implementation of long term patterns of urbanisation as unplanned events are replaced by mediated urban making through the intervention of external actors and the introduction of formal planning procedures.