Housing Policies and Practices: Authoritarian Means to Dispossess the Urban Poor or the Tolerance of Neglected Citizens?

Both the state and the market appear to neglect the demands of the poor for a better and more equitable quality of life. Sharing roles and responsibilities according to the new neoliberal models of local governance have proven to be insufficient to improve the present state of affairs in many countries. The poor have remained apart form the policy arena and may still face prospects of evictions where land redevelopment plans are implemented. Flexible ruling favour developers and hardly engage the poorest in becoming better off, and claiming the alleged right for the city. Authoritarian means to disposses the poor have been encountered in many large scale urban projects. This session invites discussants to expose the unequal power of the neglected poor in the political economy of land worldwide.