LIVING ON THE MARGINS : social access to shelter in urban south asia

This title was first published in 2000. The privatization of former social state housing through recent public-private partnerships is becoming increasingly prevalent in Third World as well as in Western countries. In most Third World countries, this shift has had profound effects upon the patterns of access of shelter. Drawing on studies of South Asian and other Third World contexts, as well as original in-depth empirical research from Amritsar, a city in North-West India, this book offers an analysis of the withdrawal of state housing provision. It develops and applies a unique model based on social status to analyze the new routes of access to housing and land by the urban poor. Its conclusions argue that these new privatization policies largely rely upon already existing informal and self-help settlements which continue to attract the poor and to be the largest housing providers in many cities, thus providing a ready-made safety net for such policies. The inter-linkages between the private state and the public market make up a highly diversified and complex picture of shelter arrangements being accessed by the poor which is reflected in the social differentiation and increasingly stratified housing market. The book argues that these partnership policies therefore have long-term implications upon social patterns of inclusion and exclusion which must be addressed. "Cover"--"Half Title" -- "Title" -- "Copyright" -- "Contents" -- "List of Figures" -- "List of Tables" -- "Acknowledgements" -- "Introduction" -- "1 Poverty and Shelter in the Third World" -- "Introduction" -- "Theoretical Perspectives" -- "Self-help" -- "The Neo-Marxist Critique" -- "2 Access to Shelter: Issues, Debates and Policies" -- "Introduction" -- "Ideological Discourses on Access" -- "Conventional and Non-Conventional Housing Policies" -- "Access and Legal Status of Settlements" -- "Unregulated Housing Sub-Markets" -- "3 Amritsar: the Region and the City" -- "Introduction" -- "Historical Background of Amritsar (1577 to 1849)" -- "Colonial Rule and the Partition (1849-1947)" -- "The Region of Punjab" -- "Migration and Development" -- "Ethnicity and Communal Politics" -- "4 The Research Method" -- "Introduction" -- "Definitions and Terminology" -- "Selecting a Sample" -- "Housing Structures" -- "Constructing a Typology" -- "The Survey" -- "Ethical Issues" -- "5 The Research Context" -- "Introduction" -- "National Housing Policies in India" -- "State Housing Policies in Punjab" -- "Low-income Housing in Amritsar" -- "Land System" -- "Spatial Pattern of Low-income Housing" -- "6 Socio-Economic Profile of the Sample" -- "Introduction" -- "Caste" -- "Religion" -- "Migration" -- "Employment" -- "Income" -- "7 The Settlement Process" -- "Introduction" -- "Settlement and Consolidation" -- "Acquiring a Home" -- "Housing and Land Tenure" -- "Illegality and Legalisation" -- "Security from Eviction" -- "8 Paths to Housing Access" -- "Introduction" -- "Paths to Housing Access" -- "Migration, Mobility and Settlement" -- "Social Differentiation in the Low-income Housing Market" -- "Income, Affordability and Differential Access" -- "Legality, Tenure and Access" -- "9 Conclusion" -- "Appendix 1" -- "Appendix 2 Survey Settlements