ABSTRACT
This chapter examines local-global activism as a new phenomenon in the realm of housing. It is based on a research project that included empirical studies in South Africa, the Philippines and Thailand with the focus on two networks: Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR)/Urban Poor Coalition Asia (UPCA). Both networks create alliances between local federations/communities and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and both models operate through transnational practices such as settlement and household enumerations, savings, peer-to-peer exchanges and aim to build relationships with the state and international agencies (see Chapter 5 in this volume). In the following a brief overview of these practices will be given as a basis to reflect on the network-building manifested in the different contexts. The focus will then shift to the re-scaling of local-global activism of these networks of the urban poor, which was observed in various degrees in South Africa, Thailand and in the Philippines on the following three levels: 1) the organizational shift from membership to settlement-wide representation; 2) the change in their objectives from single projects to city-wide programmes and, 3) finally the shift from transnational exchanges to fostering regional clusters and socio-economic or issue-based exchanges. The key question addressed in this chapter is: in which ways do urban poor transnational networks re-scale their local-global activities in housing? What is meant with re-scaling is that actors flexibly adjust the scale of organization and operation. The central concern will be to draw attention to the implications of the re-scaling as a rather open-ended process. This will make it easier to conceptualize evolutions of transnational networks of the urban poor and their meaning for housing processes and urban research.
