Paper short abstract:

Urban peripheries contain spatially standardised areas of state led housing, yet residents' accounts of living in these spaces are often differentiated. What accounts for these differences? The urban peripheries of Ethiopia & South Africa are examined to understand the comparative lived experiences.

Paper long abstract:

Urban peripheries are heterogeneous spaces despite containing areas which are often, but not always, spatially standardised as a result of state led housing policies and property developer investments. Housing projects sometimes incorporate interventions in the public realm and wider infrastructure changes, yet residents' accounts of living in state led housing projects, their economic viability, their access to services, to employment opportunities and to the state are markedly differentiated, even at times, rather contradictory. What accounts for these differences and why are particular individuals, households, and neighbourhoods peripheralised within state led housing projects on the urban peripheries? This paper examines data from case studies from the urban peripheries of Addis, Gauteng and eThekwini (Ethiopia and South Africa) to understand how the new housing projects within the peripheries are experienced differently in order to address key research questions around the 'comparative lived experiences' of the urban periphery, and then how this diversity of experience relates to urban poverty and exclusion, despite being tied to often progressive state housing policies.