What do the 'DIY urbanism' movement and homelessness have in common? Whether it's a temporary studio, a pop-up shop, a sleeping bag in a doorway or a tarpaulin under a bridge, all are informal responses to the scarcity of space for everyone's needs and ambitions. But while DIY urbanism is hailed as a creative, revitalising force, the homeless are still marginalised in many cities.
A hundred-year-old street market in Bangalore was demolished in the dead of night last month. How much history and local colour is lost by enforcing the law now after so many years?
Slum neighbourhoods are teeming with industry and commerce, yet the policy sphere still tends to treat them as residential spaces alone. What are the consequences of this misconception, and is it time to invoke a right to space, not just of housing?
Who sets the global urban agenda? What are the world's urban priorities? What should they be? Three international experts and a roomful of readers battled out these questions and more.
How badly designed land regulations have backfired time and again, ballooning the price of land and forcing millions into the informal sector.
Forced evictions are usually illegal, yet they are increasingly routine for many governments, assisted by international institutions. Rather than helping governments justify evictions, institutions need to steer governments towards true 'voluntarism'.
Residents of Kikaramoja in Jinja, Uganda's second largest city, have completed an enumeration project in the hopes of staving off a relocation attempt. They claim they have owned the land since before Ugandan indepedence.
So, whilst DIY urbanists and the primary homeless are responding to scarcity in very different orders, they share a reliance on marginal urban space.
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
