Trading places : accessing land in African cities

Resource Information

The work Trading places : accessing land in African cities represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in San Francisco Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Trading places : accessing land in African cities

Title remainder

accessing land in African cities

Statement of responsibility

Mark Napier [and four others]

Creator

• Napier, Mark

Contributor

• hoopla digital

Subject

• Electronic books
• Urban policy -- Africa
• Cities and towns -- Africa -- Growth
• Urbanization -- Africa
• Urban poor -- Africa

Language

eng

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 recognized. 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 urbanizing 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 recognizes 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

Cataloging source

Midwest

Dewey number

307.14

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Target audience

adult