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- Convenor:
-
David Harris
(University of Bradford)
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- Location:
- L30 (Richmond building)
Accepted papers
Session 1Paper short abstract
The study shows that poverty reduction programmes created job that led to livelihood improvement and diversification, income growth, and poverty reduction.
Paper long abstract
This study examined how poverty reduction programmes had affected sustainable livelihoods in the South Tongu District in Ghana. It focused on livelihood benefits derived by beneficiaries from three poverty reduction programmes and how they could be sustained. The study design was descriptive and exploratory. Based on qualitative approach, the study used purposive sampling procedure to select 44 respondents for interviews (28 people) and focus group discussions (16 people) between June and September 2014. Narratives and themes were used to analyse data. The study shows that the programmes created jobs, led to livelihood improvement and diversification, income growth, and poverty reduction. Regular monitoring of activities and capacity building were essential to sustain the benefits gained while inadequate human resources and logistics impede the effectiveness of the programmes to support beneficiaries sufficiently. It is recommended that the programmes, with its inbuilt capacity building training, financial support and monitoring, should be intensified to consolidate the gains made.
Paper short abstract
The research foregrounds both urban peripheries and peripheral groups within academic accounts. It examines the impact of the local institutions and culture on the state-sponsored slum redevelopment scheme.
Paper long abstract
The day-to-day processes of (informal) governance in the urban context in India has been widely documented and debated (c.f. Chatterjee, 2004; Benjamin, 2008; Roy, 2009). However, the penetration of 'informality' within formal housing policies has not been fully explored. Taking an ethnographic approach, the research investigates how various 'social identity groups' deal with the implementation of the state-sponsored slum housing scheme. The study was conducted across two slums - one Dalit and one non-Dalit - that are located in the periphery of the city of Mumbai. Dalits, which are the ex-untouchables in India, are historically marginalised communities that were considered socially outcast from the four-fold Hindu caste classification. The research brings out that the slum housing policy that works on a standardised set of objectives and guidelines, faces different forms of confrontations during the implementation stage. The varied confrontations that emerge at the two chosen slums, result from differentiated experiences of the social identity groups that inhabit those slums. The study also highlights the limits of such diverse confrontations (agencies) and their potentials in further deepening the existing inequalities. The research, therefore, emphasises upon what Iris Marion Young (1990, 2011) propagates as the most important yet neglected element in the prevailing distributive paradigm, that is, 'the politics of identity'. Housing policies, if divorced from the diverse aspirations of various social identity groups, can potentially deepen the existing inequalities. Urban futures, therefore, demand an understanding of 'the politics of difference' and requires its incorporation within policy planning and its implementation.
Paper short abstract
This study investigates the effectiveness of resourcing in post-disaster housing reconstruction with reference to Cyclone Sidr and Aila in Bangladesh. The results of this study show that the housing recovery rate is 69.5% but the recovery rate of cyclone resilient houses is only 6%,
Paper long abstract
This study investigates the effectiveness of resourcing in post-disaster housing reconstruction with reference to Cyclone Sidr and Aila in Bangladesh. Through evaluating post-disaster housing reconstruction theories and approaches, the synthesis of literature, and empirical fieldwork, this research develops a dynamic theoretical framework that moves the trajectory of post-disaster housing reconstruction towards the reconstruction of more resilient houses. A number of scholars have argued that access to resources can significantly increase the capacity and capability of the disaster victims to rebuild their lives, including construction of new homes. This study draws on structured interviews of 285 villagers affected by cyclones to investigate the effectiveness of resourcing in rebuilding houses after Cyclone Sidr in 2007 and Aila in 2009. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 key stakeholders in UNDP, OXFAM, government officials, and national and international NGOs. The results of this study show that the housing recovery rate is 69.5% but the recovery rate of cyclone resilient houses that can withstand cyclone is only 6%, and more than 30% of respondents still do not recover houses even seven years after the Cyclone. In addition, 92.4% respondents are still vulnerable and livelihood recovery rate is 49.7%. The results of multiple regression, hierarchical regression and thematic analysis of qualitative data indicate that access to resources, level of education and income generating activities of the respondents played pivotal role in post-Sidr and Aila housing reconstruction in Satkhira and Bagerhat in Bangladesh.
Paper short abstract
Female home-based workers in urban Algeria use the many tactics to run their own small businesses. While they don't rely on legal protection, these workers create a relationship of mutual trust with merchants and customers as well as use social networking services as marketing strategies.
Paper long abstract
This presentation examines the many tactics that female home-based workers use to generate more stable incomes in Algiers, Algeria. As most of these workers are informal and small business owners, they manage to cope with barriers by using plural tactics and strategies. According to participant observations and interviews of almost 40 workers in 2015-2016, these female owners have variable and fluid formal/informal statuses depending on their individual situation and marketing strategies as they learn how to access the market through experience and expanding their network outside the home, or using social networking services (SNS). Because Algerian women's home-based work mainly consists of cooking and confectionery, handicrafts, and dressmaking, these workers use SNS, especially to adopt other workers' designs or colours to invent goods for sale and to publicize their work to seek new customers online while working at home. These workers lack legal protection and therefore must create a relationship of mutual trust with similar small merchants and individual customers to avoid risks such as non-payment or cancellation without notice. Consequently, this study finds that home-based workers' statuses, whether formal or informal, does not necessarily protect against commercial risks. Rather, these workers rely on informal and personal mutual networks to obtain regular business partners or customers. Although they occasionally have to take risks as business owners, it is important for them to keep these risks to a minimum and continue working to obtain constant and certain revenues.