Trading Places Accessing land in African cities / Mark Napier [and four others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Napier, Mark.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urbanization--Africa.

Urbanization.

Urban poor--Africa.

Urban poor.

Cities and towns--Africa--Growth.

Cities and towns.

Urban policy--Africa.

Urban policy.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (146 p.)

Edition:

Editing by Helen Perold and Philanie Jooste for Helen Perold and Associates.

Place of Publication:

Cape Town : African Minds for Urban LandMark, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Trading Places is about urban land markets in African cities. It explores how local practice, land governance and markets interact to shape the ways that people at society's margins access land to build their livelihoods. The authors argue that the problem is not with markets per se, but in the unequal ways in which market access is structured. They make the case for more equal access to urban land markets, not only for ethical reasons, but because it makes economic sense for growing cities and towns. If we are to have any chance of understanding and intervening in predominantly poor and very unequal African cities, we need to see land and markets differently. New migrants to the city and communities living in slums are as much a part of the real estate market as anyone else; they're just not registered or officially recognised. This book highlights the land practices of those living on the city's margins, and explores the nature and character of their participation in the urban land market. It details how the urban poor access, hold and trade land in the city, and how local practices shape the city, and reconfigures how we understand land markets in rapidly urbanising contexts. Rather than developing new policies which aim to supply land and housing formally but with little effect on the scale of the need, it advocates an alternative approach which recognises the local practices that already exist in land access and management. In this way, the agency of the poor is strengthened, and households and communities are better able to integrate into urban economies.

Contents:

Land and markets in African cities: time for a new lens?

Defining markets: a set of transactions between actors

In the meantime ... moving towards secure tenure by recognising local practice

Getting land governance right in sub-Saharan cities: more than land administration

Choices and decisions: locating the poor in urban land markets.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references.

CC BY

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781920677312

1920677313

OCLC:

863824586

Publisher Number:

https://doi.org/10.47622/978-1-920489-99-1