ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts discussed in the preceding chapters of the book. This chapter focuses on the large number of people living on the 'margins' of fast-growing cities in the global south, who create their place in the city through their own innovative action and their engagement, or dis-engagement, with the state. Social mobilisation has been explored in relation to policy-making, with a focus on how substandard settlements are addressed in policy or trigger policy responses. The needs and rights of the urban poor have gradually become acknowledged in global and national policy discourse, in part thanks to the effective alliances of social movements and progressive non-governmental organisations (NGOs). civil society organisations (CSOs) are using both horizontal and vertical networks to resist evictions and relocations, meaning that they build links with other local actors as well as with higher echelons of power. Housing the urban poor is not simply a question of finding the right policy.
