1.2 THE CONTEXT 1.2.a Informal Urbanisation and its main challenges Global urbanization is at an unprecedented rate.
2011).
66% of the world’s population is expected to live in urban areas by 2050 (Nations, U., 2014).
The major share of these informal settlements
This has been highlighted by several authors and
(nearly 60%) are currently present in Asia, which is
organisations such as LSE and the United Nations
predicted to see the maximum increase and pressure
and even by popular media, in an increasing number
from urbanisation (figure 1.2). These informal
statements over the last few years. The consensus
settlements, apart from academia, has therefore
of this data and information, is that urbanisation
become the object of interest by several concerned
is mainly seen as both as a solution and problem
governments and organisations. The most prolific
in the countries of the global south, especially in
documents prepared as a result of this interest is
the countries of Latin America, Africa and Central
the UN-Habitat report on slums, published 2004. It
and South Asia. This urgency is highlighted in the
outlines 4 basic types of urban population expansion
map (figure 1.1), which illustrates, where in which
which has contributed significantly towards the
countries this proposed growth can be seen in the
growth of informal settlements (Un-Habitat, 2004)
next 35 years. The countries of the global south,
.
such as India and Brazil have been foreseen to have
• Rural-urban Migration
unprecedented growth. The rate of urbanisation is
• Natural Growth
also much higher for the developed regions than
• Combination of natural and migratory growth
that of the developing regions, as illustrated by
• Population displacement due to armed conflicts,
figure 1.3.
internal strife or violence
In this era, many parts of the global south have
These types of informal settlement is of particular
seen an increase in informal settlements, often
importance to any city in a developing economy, as
understood as a direct manifestation of this
it houses a large amount of urban poor, who do not
urbanization. Informal urbanisation in developing
have direct access to a formal housing market. UN
countries, first introduced as a mainstream topic
Habitat (2003). This type of informal settlement is
by Turner in the 1960s (Turner, J.C., 1968) has
seen predominantly in India, as a result of natural
since evolved and morphed by several other
and migratory growth. Several reasons have been
urban designers and planners. The discourse on
stated by UN habitat along with other scholars
urban informalisation has crosses boundaries,
(Tunas, D., 2008), mainly:
often delving into ideological overtones (Van Ballegooijen, J. and Rocco, R., 2013) along with
• A long period of laisser-faire attitude, from the
ontological and topological understanding (Roy, A.,
urban authorities towards land occupation and
16
Figure 1.1: Countries and territories with urban population exceeding 100.000 by 2050; (Circles are scaled in proportion to urban population size); Source: UNICEF Urban Population 2012) Figure 1.2: Proportion of slum in the world - World Urbanization Prospects, UN Habitat, 2014 Figure 1.3 Projected rate of urban population growth in different regions of the world; Source: http://ese.un.org/ unpd/wup/CD-ROM/Urban-RuralPopulation.htm