Property titles and the urban poor: from informality to displacement?

Abstract

An extensive literature opposes the provision of property titles for the residents of informal settlements. One concern is that titling leads to commodification and the market-driven displacement of the original inhabitants. Another is that it propagates the ideology of private ownership, undermines collective solidarity and demobilises social movements. This article, based on observations from Mexico City and Guadalajara, finds little evidence of displacement but highlights the importance of location. It supports the view that formalisation undermines resistance, but argues that titling does so by meeting rather than creating the desire of the urban poor for private property and homeownership.

Securing the home: Crime, state sovereignty and social housing in Medellín

“…In this urban transition, largely initiated by the post-millennial national policy ("Democratic Security") by conservative former President Álvaro Uribe, "security" is being discursively mobilized as fulfilling the State's obligation to protect (Zeiderman, 2016), particularly in those urban territories where criminal actors directly challenge the State monopoly on urban violence (cf. Davis, 2010). As Zeiderman argues, securing the urban "population at risk" homes also includes protecting them against the climatic threat of heavy rainfall and subsequent landslides.…”

Understanding formal and informal relationships in settlement upgrading for planning just and inclusive cities: the case of Phnom Penh, Cambodia

“…Despite residents not acknowledging this directly, their claim to justice and equality was inherently political, as inequality in cities of the global south is inherently shaped by a wide range of structural power and political forces, such as developing proper participation mechanisms to be able to shape decision-making (Lemanski, 2017). Thus, even when title was important for residents of Phka to feel recognized as other studies in the global south have shown (Varley, 2017), their ideas of justice cannot be fulfilled by only receiving title. These points were not reflected nor voiced by residents, nor the NGOs and development agencies they worked with.…”

“…Thus, 'the collective' is not supported by mainstream upgrading programs. Individual titling has been criticized for strengthening the tendency to oppose collective values to the individualism of private property, and dislocating people of informal settlements from their collective past (Varley, 2017). This has implications for social movements and resistance against urban injustices such as exclusion and dispossession.…”

“…This contradiction is particularly concerning in the speculative environment that characterizes land markets in cities like Phnom Penh, where residents of informal settlements constantly compete for location with multinational corporations and foreign investors (Rolnik, 2013). Furthermore, even when land registration might be important for urban poor residents (Varley, 2017), the claims to recognition of these residents to the right to the city, and social and spatial justice, go beyond receiving land title. Thus, as Porter (2014) neoliberalism was adopted as the economic model of the country, following ideals driven by institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (Springer, 2013).…”

“…In Chapter 9, I further evidence the problematic associated with the formal/informal and collective/individual dichotomies by questioning the recognition of Phka's residents' claim to land and citizenship under Systematic Land Registration (SLR),a market-led solution to informality supporting individual property rights. The case of Phka clearly shows a key point of the debate on tenure security for the urban poor, which is that even when receiving land registration is important for residents (Varley, 2017), this increases the vulnerabilities of low-income residents to market-based dispossession, that are already happening in conditions of informality, threatening their security of tenure and citizenship rights (Payne & Durand-Lasserve, 2013). My findings show that apart from SLR being important for feeling secure, it was also used as an economic incentive by residents.…”