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Accepted Paper:
Strategic Response to Clientelism: Seeking Formal Housing through Partisanship By Quiet Encroachers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael
(University of Birmingham)
Paper short abstract:
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.
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Accepted Paper:
Paper short abstract:
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.
The role of formal and informal political networks in the context of Development-Induced Displacement in urban areas and its impact on sustainable futures.
Session 1 Friday 8 July, 2022, -