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Fariya Hashmat
(Lahore School of Economics)
Issam Malki
(University of Westminster)
Asad Ghalib
(Liverpool Hope University)
Ahmad Nawaz
(Lahore School of Economics)
Syeda Ayesha Subhani
Chair:
Fariya Hashmat
(Lahore School of Economics)
Discussant:
Asad Ghalib
(Liverpool Hope University)
Format:
Panel
Streams:
Informality
Infrastructure
Sessions:
Friday 8 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
The role of formal and informal political networks in the context of Development-Induced Displacement in urban areas and its impact on sustainable futures..
Panel P18 at conference DSA2022: Just sustainable futures in an urbanising and mobile world.
In Global South, infrastructure-led development in urban areas does not always lead to just sustainability because of its repercussions for the displaced. This panel explores the critical role of political networks in propelling unjust sustainable outcomes for the displaced residents.
Long Abstract:
Infrastructure-led development projects are believed to have a positive impact on the human development leading to sustainable urban futures. However, in urban cities of Global South, they are generally carried out in way that violate human rights by depriving displaced residents of their economic assets thus undermining their social quality. The most severe form of deprivation is the disruption of their networks of social cohesion, leading to greater isolation and marginalization. Social quality theory enables analysis of the interactions between a range of societal complexities in urban contexts, particularly focusing on its sociopolitical dimension.
However, their rehabilitation and resettlement process is cumbersome marred by weak political institutions, leading to a remote possibility of just sustainable futures. Particularly the process of land acquisition and compensation is heavily politicized where the power politics plays a crucial role. And generally the evidence suggests that among the displaced residents, those who hold strong political networks/patronage systems are the most likely beneficiaries at the cost of majority of other displaced residents, which signifies that the political power is being exercised in an undemocratic way. Consequently, this leads to inequalities among displaced residents, in particular, and undermines the cause of just sustainable urban futures, at large.
This panel invites both papers and case studies built upon quantitative and qualitative methods, which explores the critical role of political networks in determining the just sustainable future of many displaced residents because of the infrastructure-led development in the Global South.
This will be a paper-based panel. Contributors will be asked to upload the material (these contributions can take multiple forms, including video, video with slides, slides with audio, podcast/audio only and text only) three weeks before the conference itself. For each paper 12 minutes will be allocated in which the presenter has to pitch for 2-3minutes, followed by the discussants' comments for 3-4 minutes. After which the floor will be opened for question and answer session for 6-7 minutes. The presenter would be asked to be very specific in terms of highlighting the research question and the findings followed by the contribution of the paper.
When Addis Ababa residents, who build their housing informally, threatened to be evicted for state-led redevelopment, they sought formalisation through partisanship. Instead of resisting displacement, they work with the ruling party to gain favours in the allocation of replacement formal housing.
Paper long abstract:
Addis Ababa has witnessed a large-scale inner-city state-led redevelopment (2009-2017) that displaced thousands of households. The city government mainly rehoused households with formally recognised housing tenure. However, there were also some households who informally built their shacks before the redevelopment of the inner-city settlements in a similar way as what Asef Bayat calls the "quiet encroachment of the ordinary". The Addis Ababa quiet encroachers were not automatically entitled to receive replacement housing during redevelopment interventions unless the District Administration officials and local ruling party-affiliated public mobilisation leaders considered them as "destitute". The Addis Ababa quiet encroachers strategically chose to work with the incumbent party to defend and expand their gains, fearing state repression of collectively protesting their eviction. Considering the ruling party's overall inclination in favouring its members in distributing public sector jobs and opportunities, the Addis Ababa quiet encroachers joined the ruling party, involved in its political mobilisation and election campaigns, with the prospect of being considered a "destitute" family entitled to receive formal housing. These quiet encroachers sought formalisation through partisanship to gain "favour" in securing formal housing without an explicit commitment from the patron/ruling party. Their goal was not to resist eviction by embedding themselves within the ruling party structure, as in the case of occupancy urbanism, but to pragmatically seek integration into the formal housing system elsewhere in the city. Overall, the paper shows how quiet encroachers in Addis Ababa actively manoeuvred clientelist relations to defend and expand their informally secured gains instead of resisting displacement.
Flood risk is a complex problem, intensifying due to climate change and challenges governance structures, owing to how interorganizational relationships playout in policy implementation networks. This issue is analyzed within the context of Flood Protection Frameworks within Sindh, Pakistan.
Paper long abstract:
Owing to the complex and transboundary nature of flood risks, they require to be governed by a collaborative network of multiple actors, where the combined capacity for the mitigation of these risks is highly dependent on the patterns of social relations between actors. This paper studies the policy practice gap in terms of Interorganizational relationships (IRs) that affect the actions of actors in the governance of policy networks in Flood Risk Mitigation (FRM), in centralized and traditional hierarchical policy arenas, thus using Pakistan as a case study. In doing so, this paper assesses which patterns of IRs exist in policy networks and enable the effectiveness of FRM, to draw conclusions on the relationship between these two concepts.
This qualitative research adopts a case study strategy with data collected through semi-structured interviews with government officials and experts, and through content analysis. IRs are analyzed by the actors that formulate the FRM network, their resource dependencies and power structure, the processes followed to retain resource flow, decisions taken, the institutional provisions erected and perception patterns of actors. Effectiveness of FRM is measured through variables related to tangibles and intangibles (direct losses, flooded area, lives lost etc.).
The findings reveal rich qualitative insights and strong linkage between IRs and effectiveness of FRM; and suggest a gateway to the gaps in FRM and holds promising propositions for future policy makers in similar governance structures to consider social network processes of policy making, and hence integrate knowledge and innovation on urban and human development levels.
In Pakistan, Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project in the city of Lahore is leading to unjust and unsustainable displacements. This proposal attempts to unmask the power struggles and levels of involvement influenced / faced by various stakeholders.
Paper long abstract:
The paper explores land acquisition challenges in Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project initiated by the Provincial Government of Punjab (Pakistan). Under that project, new city is being established adjacent to capital and historical city of Lahore currently having population of 12 million. As conceived, new city will stretch 46 km on both sides of nearby River Ravi. It is an ambitious project as Pakistan has experienced only once in 1960s by developing country's capital Islamabad from scratch. New institution Ravi Urban Development Authority [RUDA] has been established to spearhead its conceptualization, feasibility, designing and development. Project has been cascaded in three phases: Phase 1 project area consists of 181 sq. km, Phase 2 stretches over 76 sq. km, and Phase 3 expands over 123 sq. km; however this study is limited to land acquisition process and displacements in Phase-1 only due to time and resource constraints.
The proposal is based on the case study of Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project built upon qualitative research methodology. Primary data includes in-depth interviews with RUDA’s leadership, relevant stakeholders and displaced citizens (farmers, shopkeepers, residents). In secondary data; examined design briefs, strategic plans, and newspapers items highlighting displacement and socio-economic issues of project. In order to decipher the critical role of political networks, Duncan Green’s proposed mapping technique based upon power and involvement dimensions and categorizations under players, subjects, context setters and crowd has been adopted. Findings identify threats to displacements, food, water security and right to life – hence, unjust and unsustainable outcomes.
This paper explores the role of compensation and resettlement process which is marred by weak political institutions, leading to a remote possibility of just sustainable futures.
Paper long abstract:
In Pakistan, the impact of infrastructure development is often measured in economic terms, without taking into consideration the effect on the lives of ordinary citizens, who bear the brunt of development-related harms. Often, development projects result in forced displacement, a process that affects everyday lives of people and further reduces their well-being at large. This is common because there is hardly any formal framework in place that can mitigate the impact of forced displacement due to government failure in establishing formal networks with displaced communities. Resettlement plans (if any) involving land displacement for infrastructure projects are designed arbitrarily. Only, those affected/displaced people who have access to key political and administrative personnel, often via informal means, exercise bargaining power when it comes to suitable resettlement terms and receiving cash compensation. Hence, the prospects of sustainable futures and formal political networks are gravely marginalized. The informal networks, in terms of resources, becomes a determining factor in the bargaining power of displaced. But the irony is that very few displaced people have access to key political positions in terms of resettlement and compensation, at the cost of larger displaced population. This is because mostly displaced families are unaware pertinent to Land Acquisition Act 1894. Employing a mixed-method approach, empirical analysis suggest that awareness is a determining factor in the sustainable resettlement of displaced, whereas qualitative interviews with stakeholders suggest that informal networks outweigh formal ones in context of suitable resettlement and receiving cash compensation.
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Issam Malki (University of Westminster)
Asad Ghalib (Liverpool Hope University)
Ahmad Nawaz (Lahore School of Economics)
Syeda Ayesha Subhani
Short Abstract:
In Global South, infrastructure-led development in urban areas does not always lead to just sustainability because of its repercussions for the displaced. This panel explores the critical role of political networks in propelling unjust sustainable outcomes for the displaced residents.
Long Abstract:
Infrastructure-led development projects are believed to have a positive impact on the human development leading to sustainable urban futures. However, in urban cities of Global South, they are generally carried out in way that violate human rights by depriving displaced residents of their economic assets thus undermining their social quality. The most severe form of deprivation is the disruption of their networks of social cohesion, leading to greater isolation and marginalization. Social quality theory enables analysis of the interactions between a range of societal complexities in urban contexts, particularly focusing on its sociopolitical dimension.
However, their rehabilitation and resettlement process is cumbersome marred by weak political institutions, leading to a remote possibility of just sustainable futures. Particularly the process of land acquisition and compensation is heavily politicized where the power politics plays a crucial role. And generally the evidence suggests that among the displaced residents, those who hold strong political networks/patronage systems are the most likely beneficiaries at the cost of majority of other displaced residents, which signifies that the political power is being exercised in an undemocratic way. Consequently, this leads to inequalities among displaced residents, in particular, and undermines the cause of just sustainable urban futures, at large.
This panel invites both papers and case studies built upon quantitative and qualitative methods, which explores the critical role of political networks in determining the just sustainable future of many displaced residents because of the infrastructure-led development in the Global South.
This will be a paper-based panel. Contributors will be asked to upload the material (these contributions can take multiple forms, including video, video with slides, slides with audio, podcast/audio only and text only) three weeks before the conference itself. For each paper 12 minutes will be allocated in which the presenter has to pitch for 2-3minutes, followed by the discussants' comments for 3-4 minutes. After which the floor will be opened for question and answer session for 6-7 minutes. The presenter would be asked to be very specific in terms of highlighting the research question and the findings followed by the contribution of the paper.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 8 July, 2022, -Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael (University of Manchester)
Sana Amjad Lateef (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Imran Ali Sultan (The Urban Unit (Govt. of the Punjab) and LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK)
Fariya Hashmat (Lahore School of Economics) Ahmad Nawaz (Lahore School of Economics)